ARTIST INFORMATION
 | Andy Irvine
Andy Irvine has been hailed as "a tradition in himself." Musician, singer and songwriter, Andy has maintained both personal integrity and highly individual performing skills throughout his 40-year career. From Sweeney's Men in the mid sixties to the enormous success of Planxty in the 70s, to THE Irish super group, Patrick Street, in the 80s, Andy has been a world music pioneer and icon for traditional music and musicians.
Irvine occupies a unique place in the musical world, plying his trade as archetypal troubadour, with a solo show and traveling lifestyle that reflects his lifelong influence, Woody Guthrie. Few others can equal his repertoire, Irish traditional songs, dexterous Balkan dance tunes, and a compelling canon of his own material that defies description.
Artist's Website |  | Barron Brady
Barron Brady comprising Ros Brady and Si Barron are contemporary songwriters and interpreters of traditional English folk song. They live in Devon and perform nationwide.
Drawn to strongly narrative songs with subjects ranging from Devon legend to contemporary rural reportage they invite the listener to accompany them through strange landscapes whose denizens include coffee drinking Mermaids, corn mowing Devils, flying highwaymen and disappearing Hedgerows.
They have a dynamic acoustic style combining joy and verve in performance with an assured stage presence garnered from five years of performing nationwide.
Simon’s ballistic fingerstyle guitar complemented by Rosalind’s harmonium and whistles underlines their harmony singing.
Artist's Website |  | Dogan Mehmet
Brighton born and bred, Dogan Mehmet is a second generation Turkish Cypriot, with both sides of his family from the island. A fluent Turkish speaker, Dogan’s heritage forms a big part of his musical identity, alongside his love for Southern English traditional music. He is singer first but also a multi-instrumentalist, playing Violin, Guitar, Melodeon, Tenor Guitar, Cajon and other Percussion as well as a having good knowledge of traditional Turkish instruments.
Dogan has appeared in sketches on national television (Omid Djalili show) and on stage with artists including Eliza Carthy, Steafan Hannigan, and The Park Bench Social Club. He was runner up in the 2008 BBC Young Folk Awards.
Dogan Mehmet creates an Anglo-Turkish, Gypsy-Punk style mix of traditions and strong acoustic grooves. A diverse mixture of Southern English and Turkish folk songs, self-penned material and driven tunes from English Morris as well as Cypriot traditions give Dogan his own captivating sound. At just nineteen this is Dogan’s first album, and he can be assured of a long term future in the music business. He makes a storm wherever he goes with his effervescent personality and huge enthusiasm for life and for his music. His talent and confidence belie his young age.
With a summer of main-stage appearances at leading folk festivals ahead of him, he is sure to continue to cause a stir with his music and also to make many more friends along the way with a stage presence not easily forgotten.
Artist's Website |  | Mike O'Connor & Barbara Griggs
Mike and Barbara, experts in Cornish and early music, play entrancing duets on various instruments - principally violin and harp. Their instrumental skills are backed up by outstanding scholarship.
Artist's Website |  | Phil Hardy
Renowned whistle player Phil Hardy is the maker of the very well known Chieftain and Kerry whistles.
As well as performing at the festival, Phil will be running whistle playing workshops over the weekend. This will be a great experience not to be missed for any budding woodwind enthusiasts out there!
Artist's Website |  | Poisson Rouge
Music and Dance from Brittany and France. Poisson Rouge really deliver the goods and put the music right where you want it, under your feet. |  | Steve Turner
Steve Turner has retaken his place as a stalwart of the UK folk music scene after an absence of 12 years. His singing and concertina playing are widely acclaimed, and his 2008 album The Whirligig of Time was longlisted for the BBC Folk Awards.
Artist's Website |  | Stompin' Dave Allen
Stompin' Dave Allen performs American roots music on guitar, five-string banjo, fiddle, piano, harmonica, vocals & tap dancing. Dave specializes in American roots music: old-time, bluegrass, blues, country blues, folk, vintage country & hillbilly. Traditional songs & tunes, originals & covers.
Artist's Website |  | The Exmouth Shantymen
"The Exmouth Shanty Men" are surely one of the most exciting, colourful and entertaining acts to appear on the traditional folk scene in years.
And a more raggedy-arsed gaggle of rascals you are never likely to meet! They appear on stage looking as though they have just stepped ashore after a 9 month voyage around Cape Horn, their garments threadbare and their hats battered, but this crew sings some of the finest sea songs with passion and gusto.
In fact they deliver these gems as they would have been sung on the decks of the tall ships or in the dockyard taverns in the golden age of sail: hard-bitten work shanties, saucy shore songs and heart-rending laments of love and loss. And each one helps to remind us of the true cost of our rich maritime heritage and gives us an authentic glimpse of the harshness and humour of a sailor’s life.
Their rip-roaring performances are heady concoctions of powerful vocals, raucous wit and surprising tenderness with a good dollop of British tomfoolery. The lads haul ropes, turn the capstan, and pump the bilges as they sing and their genuine camaraderie and wicked below-decks banter enthral audiences of all ages. These boys have sailed many a voyage together, and it shows in every note and gesture, but their jiggery, and indeed their pokery, are highly infectious..."
Aaron C. Resque
Artist's Website |
No guarantee can be given that any events will take place, or any artists will perform at a particular time, or at all. We will, however, make every effort to carry out the programme as advertised.
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