folk | Musicosity

folk

Scott Matthews

From the confinements of four bedroom walls in the West Midlands, Scott Matthews produced the music that made him the first artist to be signed to record label San Remo Records in 2004. As a Wolverhampton-born singer/songwriter Scott has captivated audiences across the Midlands and beyond. On the 2nd of October 2006 he released his debut album Passing Stranger. At seven years old Matthews aquired his first guitar, a junior-sized 'Kapok' acoustic (which he still has), although things didn’t quite go to plan.

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Donovan

Donovan is a Scottish singer-songwriter who emerged as part of the mid-1960s folk music scene. He was born Donovan Leitch on 10th May 1946 in Maryhill, Glasgow, Scotland; the family moved to Hatfield, England in 1956. Donovan came to fame in the United Kingdom in early 1965 with a series of live performances on the television pop series, Ready Steady Go! Donovan first hit the pop charts in 1965 with his single "Catch The Wind". He produced hit after hit throughout the sixties and his Sunshine Superman album was considered an innovative breakthrough to a new pyschedelic pop sound.

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The Gadflys

The Gadflys began in the 1980s as a three-piece punk band founded by brothers Mick and Phil Moriarty. Normally, ‘punk’ means distorted guitars and loud drums playing as fast as possible. For The Gadflys, it meant a double bass, guitar and clarinet playing an eclectic mix of pop, rock, country and ballads. The trio made its mark first as distinctive buskers, then as a popular pub band. Over the years The Gadflys have grown from the basic trio to a big band with horns, keyboards and backing vocalists.

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Daniel Champagne

Recently described as 'the most talked-about rising star of Australia's next generation' Daniel Champagne delivers one of the most impressive one-man-shows out there!

Reaching to musical depth’s far beyond his years and a way with the guitar that can only be seen to be believed. Champagne often sounds closer to a three-piece band than the 21 year old singer songwriter guitarist now established as a renowned performer on both the Australian and international stage.

A reputation on his instrument of choice firmly established, recent descriptions of the live show state 'Proof that the acoustic guitars only limit is our imagination' (Lloyd Spiegel) and 'The best young guitarist in Australia' (IFC President). Daniel's playing runs from the instruments soul to way outside of its box. His Signature explosion of 2-hand tapping, body percussion and fiery runs in a swag of different tunings can be expected. As can the jazzy finger picking and tasteful improvisation of someone that first picked up the instrument at seven years old and as it would seem, hasn’t put it down since.

The same versatility can be said for his writing and material. Pulling off setts from intense blues-driven crowd pleasers, experimental compositions, bags of originals to century old Folk and Blues Songs delivered with an exiting youthful flair. As for the voice...'He sings with a wonderfully pronounced and proud Aussie twang, howling here, hushed there, always confident, fearless and knowing' (Jamie Forbes)

In all, a live show to mark as an absolute must see!

Having released two celebrated studio EPs - 'My Own Design' (2009) and 'Wide Eyed and Open' (2010). Daniel has now taken his explosive live show to all corners of his homeland and received an overwhelming response on an international level. He has performed at some of the fore-most world renowned Folk and Blues festivals including Woodford, Byron Bay Bluesfest, Nationals (Australia) Vancouver Folk, Salmon Arm Roots & Blues (Canada) to name a few. After Sharing stages with some of the leaders in acoustic music today and been marked as a true light in its future Daniel Champagne now holds a firm reputation for dropping jaws, breaking guitars and making festivals buzz wherever he goes!

PRESS QUOTES
"Daniel is proof that the acoustic guitars only limit is our imagination. It's a thrill to see a young artist with so much creativity, desire and talent using the instrument in a unique way" (Lloyd Spiegel)

"The best young guitarist in Australia" (IFC President)

"His on-stage presence radiates a musical maturity well beyond his years and a phenomenal method of playing the guitar leaves audiences thrilled' (TE Herald, Newcastle)

"It's his guitar work that really steals the show. Champagne has not only mastered his instrument, he's conquered it! Reaching into Folk, Blues, Classical, Jazz, Rock and other styling’s, with nods to virtuosos too numerous to mention. Champagne has created a pastiche all of his own... I cannot recommend this cd highly enough. Buy it, spread the word, something wonderful is happening down here" (BDN)

"A precarious young talent in the guitar world!" (Rhythms Magazine)

PERFORMANCE REVIEW
'Today I saw the future of Folk! - Festival goers flocking in their thousands towards main stage to witness the young musical phenomenon from Australia dish out an absolute show-stopper at the evening’s end.

It's not often that what we are told in this industry is reality, but I can tell you...the hype surrounding this kid is!

Daniel Champagne's guitar skills are indeed unparalleled, I've seen all the great players but have never heard such a sound come out of one instrument. Prowling the stage with it swinging around his shoulders and through the air, his hands are a blur as he taps notes with both hands, beats out rhythms on the body and toys with our emotion in a musical rollercoaster running from all out attach to complete silence with a mere slide of hand. Each song is a polished gem delivered in the vein of a old Folk troubadour, yet with an exiting youthful flair. But it's the manner in which he holds his audience...his commanding stage presence, cheeky road stories of a 21yr old on the international circuit and his old school dancing-in-the-crowd, guitar behind the head showmanship that had the audience in hysterics and had me convinced that we've really struck gold here.

In the modern age of Hip Hop and processed rock music where our folk players are getting pushed to the festival side stages in place of the more 'popular' acts. It’s a true joy to see a young performer steeped in our rich folk tradition who is able to hold a festival crowd both young and old with just a guitar, a voice and an old thing called talent!' (Exert from ‘The Firefly Column’ San Francisco by Anthony James)

FESTIVAL APPEARENCES
- Byron Bay Bluesfest
- Woodford Folk Festival
- Queenscliff Music Festival
- Australian Blues Music Festival
- National Folk Festival
- Vancouver Folk Festival (Canada)
- Salmon Arm Roots & Blues Festival (Canada)

Fairbridge Festival, Corinbank Music and Arts Festival, Snowy Mountain's of Music Festival, Wallaby Creek Festival, Cygnet Folk Festival, Illawarra Folk Festival, Mt Beauty Music Muster, Palm Creek Folk Festival, Red Deer Festival, Kangaroo Valley Folk Festival, Cobargo Folk Festival, Candelo Village Festival, Tilba Easter Festival, Bega Valley Transition Festival, Tuross Music Festival and many more...
Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.

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The Middle East

The Middle East were a musical collective from Townsville, Australia, which formed in 2005. Fusing various influences from post-rock to folk to ambient, various members have at different times played in other North Queensland based groups such as Joseph Liddy and the Skeleton Horse, The Forest, and We Are Buildings.

After completing several East Coast tours, they released a split EP in 2006 with local Cairns band Sleeping in Trains. Their debut album The Recordings of the Middle East was released on 24th April 2008, shortly before the band announced their first split. They reconvened eight months later, and in the autumn of 2009 released their album in the United States as an abridged EP, also called The Recordings of the Middle East.

Their song "Blood" is featured in the films Accidents Happen, It's Kind of a Funny Story. and Crazy, Stupid, Love, as well as in an episode of the Australian television comedy-drama series Offspring and an advertisement for European bank BNP Paribas.

At the start of their appearance at 2011's Splendour in the Grass music festival, the band announced that their set that night would be their last show ever, thanking fans in attendance for making their finale special for the band. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.

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Mountain Man

There are two artists called Mountain Man: 1. Mountain Man is a group of three young women, based in Bennington, Vermont - Amelia Meath, Molly Sarle, and Alex Sauser-Monnig- who sing with or without Alex's guitar. There's a fragile balance between the three very different styles and personalities in these three young women. They are all songwriters, and having all three approaches with the same treatment on the same album is really satisfying.

The War on Drugs

The War on Drugs is an American indie rock band from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Band member Adam Granduciel (born Adam Granofsky in Dover, Massachusetts) moved from Oakland, California to Philadelphia in 2003, where he met Kurt Vile and began playing music with him. They began playing as The War on Drugs in 2005, and self-released a demo EP. While Vile and Granduciel formed the backbone of the band, they had a number of accompanists early in the group's career, before finally settling on a lineup that added Charlie Hall as drummer/organist, Kyle Lloyd as drummer and Dave Hartley on bass. Granduciel had previously toured and recorded with The Capitol Years, and Vile has several solo albums. The group gave away its Barrel of Batteries EP for free early in 2008. Their debut LP for Secretly Canadian, Wagonwheel Blues, was released in 2008.

Reviewers of the band's music make note of its Americana overtones. The group's sound has been described as influenced by Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, and My Bloody Valentine.

The lineup underwent several changes, and by the end of 2008, Kurt Vile, Charlie Hall, and Kyle Lloyd had all exited the group. Granduciel and Hartley were joined by drummer Mike Zanghi as the group slimmed to three members.

After Zanghi's exit in 2010, Steven Urgo took over drum duties and Robbie Bennett joined on keys. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.

Jeff Lang

Singer-songwriter Jeff Lang has built up a reputation for startlingly original performances, working without a set list, allowing the unique energy of each night to shape the songs. While Lang will talk of his admiration for the elemental blues of Skip James, the raw gospel of Blind Willie Johnson, the devastating guitar work of Jimi Hendrix, the masterful slide guitar of Ry Cooder, and the sublime songwriting of Bob Dylan and Richard Thompson, comparisons to these artists fails to paint an adequate picture.

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Paul Kelly

There are at least nine artists with the name Paul Kelly:
1) an Australian singer-songwriter
2) an American film and TV composer
3) an American soul singer & songwriter
4) an Irish folk singer and songwriter
5) a member of British bands Birdie and East Village
6) a member of English rock band Northern Uproar
7) an English multi-instrumentalist for The Islanders
8) an American bass player
9) a member of The Martial Arts, BMX Bandits and How to Swim

1) Paul Kelly is an Australian singer-songwriter, based in Melbourne, and widely considered as an icon of Australian music. He has released music under his own name and as Paul Kelly and the Messengers, Paul Kelly and the Coloured Girls, and Paul Kelly and the Stormwater Boys. His output has ranged from bluegrass to studio-oriented dub reggae, but his core output comfortably straddles folk, rock, and even some country. His lyrics, simply and laconically voiced, have managed to speak to Australian experiences and history perhaps more broadly and directly than any other artist.

2) Paul Kelly is an American composer based in New York City. He is the talent that brings music to the world of film, TV, and advertising. He has been sought after by renowned directors, like Oliver Stone, for his blockbuster films, Savages, Any Given Sunday, Comandante and Oscar-Nominated short film Everything In This Country Must. Glowing reviews that Kelly has received, can be seen in the following from Thom Jurek, Soundings in Film, who say, “His moving sound constructions are full of emotions and moods — not all of them pleasant — and his takes on funk, rock, and blues are not journeyman, but those of a musician who takes these art forms seriously and seeks to represent them accurately in his utterances. Kelly may be a sketcher, but his sketches stand on their own outside the realm of the image,” and Frank O. Gutch Jr, Evolution In Film, who give glowing context to the work of Kelly in the following, “Paul Kelly knows what music is. He knows that it can be a setup, a climax, or an anticlimax. He knows the value of music applied to other media. More than that, he knows music. Not at all unlike a classical composer or even the rock band which plays beyond the fringe, he creates music for a reason.”
Visit http://paulkelly.com for more information.

3) Paul Kelly (born Paul Laurence Dunbar Kelly in Overtown, Miami, Florida, USA on 19 June 1940) is an American Soul singer, musician and producer. He is best known for the song "Stealing in the Name of the Lord", which was a hit in 1970. And in 1974 another hit with "Hooked, Hogtied & Collared" from the album with the same title. He also wrote "Personally", which has been widely-covered, and was a hit for soul singer Jackie Moore, as well as country singers Karla Bonoff and Ronnie McDowell. Other songs have been covered by gospel artists, including The Mighty Clouds Of Joy and The Staple Singers.

4) Paul Kelly (born 1957 in Dublin) is an Irish folk singer and songwriter. He has played Irish traditional music, bluegrass and country, and is equally at home in a variety of different styles of music.

5) Paul Kelly is a British member of Birdie and East Village

6) Paul Kelly is a member of English rock band Northern Uproar

7) Paul Kelly is an English multi-instrumentalist for The Islanders

8) Paul Kelly is an American bass player

9) a member of The Martial Arts, BMX Bandits and How to Swim Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.

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Defiance, Ohio

Defiance, Ohio is a punk band from Columbus, Ohio. They are known for their extensive touring and intense, enthusiastic live shows. They are named (tongue in cheek) after the real town Defiance, Ohio. The band has a unique line-up for a punk act, featuring violin, cello, banjo, acoustic and electric guitars, piano, and electric bass (formerly an upright bass). Since Defiance, Ohio formed in 2002 they have released four full length LPs, Share What Ya Got, The Great Depression, The Fear, the Fear, the Fear, Midwestern Minutes and several singles, B sides and split EPs.

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