Your guide to folk events in Coventry and Warwickshire.
We’ve linked to a new calendar format which should make more local folk events accessible and easy to update. Just click on the maroon lettering below – or scroll down for individual listing of forthcoming events.
Cov & Warks Folk Events Listing
If you are planning any folk event in the CV postcode area – big concert, back-room singaround, online performance, dance display, or whatever, click here to email us, providing the following details:
- Date, start-time and end-time
- Name of venue
- Type of event
- Artists/performers appearing
- Location including postcode
- Description – including how to book tickets, web links, etc
Please note that information on this page is based on advertising and public announcements by the venues and/or events organisers.
While every effort is made to ensure that details provided here are correct, CVFolk cannot guarantee its accuracy which is why we include contact information for each event so that you can check and confirm if necessary,
CVFolk is working in partnership with Folk21 Midlands region and many of the events listed here are shared in their own events listing.
Blair Dunlop begins the campaign for his 5th studio album announcing 25 UK tour dates in
April and May 2024. Let’s Get Out of the Rain will be Blair’s first Studio album since 2018
(Notes from and Island). Where ‘Notes’ was an introspective analysis of Brexit Britain, the
new collection is a celebration of spring, newness and freedom. Songs of metamorphosis
and wide screen road trips prevail.
Blair has been hailed as one of the UK’s most accomplished songwriters since he burst into
the folk scene with his debut Blight & Blossom (2012). BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards followed
along with critical acclaim. In 2016 Blair released on his own label (Gilded Wings) and
received wider acclaim and BBC Radio 2 playlisting for singled ‘The Egoist’ and ‘356’.
Appearances at Glastonbury and the major Folk Festivals followed, along with breakthrough
tours of Australia; and Blair is now firmly established as a household name amongst
respected British songwriters.
On the new collection of songs and the album Blair says:
“It’s been 5 years since my last record, comfortably my longest gap between releases, so it
feels really good to be able to put this out in the world. Jim Moray is producing, and that’s
very exciting as he’s someone I’ve admired for many years. He was one of the reasons I first
got into traditional music in my teens. Since then, my personal style has evolved, but there
are aspects of traditional storytelling that seep into my original works. I would say that
Midday Mass is a reflection of that. It’s a song about a café back in my hometown of
Chesterfield, but I guess that it’s a vehicle for a social commentary as much as anything else.
Overall, I would say the sound of the record is more positive than my previous work. That’s
due, in part, to the world opening up post-pandemic, and is ultimately born from a will to
connect with people and get out into the world again. The industry hasn’t fully recovered
yet, but it is a blessing to be able to tour in any capacity again. Freedom is a theme that runs
throughout (unintentionally), and I reckon that’s reflected musically as well as lyrically. I’ve
reached a point in my career where I just want to make the music I want to make, and give
less consideration to where it may sit in terms of stylings and genre. That’s an empowering
place to be and it opens up a world of sonic possibilities.”
Sean Taylor’s unique songwriting fuses blues, Americana, folk, roots, spoken word and social commentary. Over the last twenty years he has toured the world and released twelve albums. The Sean Taylor sound is a late-night cocktail of Tom Waits, with the voice of Van Morrison and a guitar style of John Martyn … His live shows feature world class songwriting with stories from the road.
Promoting his new album The Beat Goes On, Sean Taylor is one of the most exciting and hard working names on the international roots and blues circuit.
The Breath is Manchester-based guitarist Stuart McCallum and singer/flautist Ríoghnach Connolly. They met on the city’s gig circuit in the late noughties. An unlikely pairing though it was, he an acclaimed guitar whiz, ex long-time member of The Cinematic Orchestra and a softly spoken Manchester urbanite, she a folk singer with a larger-than-life personality and a powerful voice to match. Their connection was immediate; they formed The Breath in 2016, a singer-songwriter duo to present their contemporary take on alt-folk.
For them, it’s all about the song. Connolly is a storyteller and their exquisitely crafted, honest, personal, heartfelt songs are as likely to touch on childhood summers and first love as cultural dislocation, post- colonial injustices and grief. But it’s Ríoghnach’s impassioned delivery and extraordinary stop-you-in- your-tracks voice, coupled with Stuart’s understated brilliance that is so engaging.
The Breath have released three albums on Peter Gabriel’s Real World label. Their breakthrough album, ‘Carry Your Kin’ (2016) delved deeply into the spaces between rock, ambient and Irish folk, where layered vocals, mesmerising guitar riffs and expansive folk arrangements created a big sound. ‘Let the Cards Fall’ followed in 2018, and, like the first, was recorded with a full band granting a multi-textured kaleidoscope of sound with a cinematic sensibility. References to Celtic history and cultural loss are woven into a bewitching collection of songs that span beguiling ballads and punch-the-air anthems. In support of the release, Stuart and Ríoghnach performed a series of shows – just the two of them. Stripped bare, they found a new depth and beauty in their songs allowing their extraordinary connection to shine through. The duo returned to the studio in 2019 to record ‘Only Stories (Let the Cards Fall Revisited)’ reimagining previous work (alongside two new songs) taking it back to its acoustic roots. This new direction would see Ríoghnach Connolly receive an RTÉ Folk Award nomination for Best Folk Singer and win Folk Singer Of The Year at the 2019 BBC R2 Folk Awards for which the duo were also nominated as Best Duo/Group.
During the pandemic of 2020/2021, The Breath returned to the studio to record a set of songs in remembrance of American lost folk icon, Karen Dalton. In the spring of 2021, they released a two-track single, ‘Something On Your Mind’ and original song, ‘Remembering Mountains’. They release their third studio album on Real World Records in 2023.
The Breath in Autumn 2023 build to their new album, ‘Land Of My Other’. Ten original tracks of raw, gorgeous, acoustic-minded music.
If you haven’t already
2nd date agreed after tickets for May 13 sold out within 2 hours!
If you haven’t already
The Silver Wye is a band named after a moth, a river and a device for changing track.
The group is a collaborative project featuring a core of Midlands based musicians Ben Haines (drums & percussion), John Parker (double bass & electric bass) and Wes Finch (guitar and vocals) who are joined with various friends when circumstances allow.
It is a space for this group of musical friends to step a little outside of the realms of folk and Americana music into more electric, experimental and electronic places.
You can find their first EP on streaming sites and John & Wes’ LIVE@Temperance album at The Silver Wye‘s Bandcamp page. Search ‘Wes Finch The Silver Wye‘ on Youtube for visuals too.
Fiona Bevan and Adam Beattie –
Double Headline Tour
Acclaimed Scottish singer-songwriter Adam Beattie ‘Uplifting Reveries Of Love’ (Mojo
Magazine) and multi-platinum singer-songwriter Fiona Bevan ‘Startling odysseys’ (The
Guardian) embark on a double headline tour of the UK this spring/summer in celebration
of their new music releases.
Adam will be promoting the first single from his upcoming album Home Fires Burning; a
homespun epic which explores family, legacy and belonging. Adam writes melodies
inspired by the traditional fiddle tunes of his childhood, played on finger-picked acoustic
guitar.
Fiona will release the first single from her upcoming EP First Woman On The Moon, a
set of brand new songs exploring hope, love and female desire against a political
backdrop. Fiona writes otherworldly melodies on piano and unique guitar tunings.
Since meeting onstage in London, Beattie and Bevan have been singing in close harmony
and accompanying each other on guitar, piano and double bass.
Here is their recent music on YouTube – Adam Beattie and Fiona Bevan
BIOGRAPHIES:
Fiona Bevan is a multi-platinum Canadian-British singer-songwriter from Suffolk, with a
delicate, passionate voice and a cinematic dream-folk sound, described by Björn Ulvaeus
from ABBA as ‘daring and exciting’, and creating ‘startling odysseys that suggest Joanna
Newsom and Kate Bush spine-tinglingly joined’ (The Guardian).
Fiona has been teasing out singles from her self-produced EP, Girl With Telescope,
including her dazzling exploration of post-heartbreak ecstasy ‘Faultlines’, and her acapella
clarion call of female freedom and pleasure, ‘Peaches’. She is about to start releasing
more self-produced singles from her forthcoming EP ‘First Woman On The Moon’.
Fiona has toured Canada, Australia and Europe, and is also a hit songwriter for Billie
Marten, Aurora, Lewis Capaldi, Tom Walker, Kylie, Ed Sheeran, and has been working
with ABBA’s Björn Ulvaeus to raise awareness and help songwriters in the music industry.
She is published by Concord Music.
Adam Beattie is a Scottish singer-songwriter and guitarist who has just released his fifth
solo album to critical acclaim. Beattie is a “master of powerful narratives” (★★★★★ RnR
Magazine), writing original contemporary Scottish folk songs while also drawing rich
influences from other roots genres. Adam uses beautiful, intricate, finger-picked guitar and
a distinctive voice steeped in smoke and honey to create ‘uplifting reveries of love’ (MOJO
Magazine).
The press described Beattie’s latest album, Somewhere Round The Bend, as ‘Stirring Folk
Balladry’ (Line Of Best Fit) with Loud And Quiet Magazine writing ‘the album is mesmeric’.
Adam is about to start releasing singles from his forthcoming album ‘Home Fires Burning’.
Adam is also a member of trad folk 12-piece supergroup Band Of Burns as well as hipster
alt-folk band PicaPica on Rough Trade Records. As a multi-instrumentalist he has
collaborated with Birdy, Lulu, Michael Chapman, Mikey Kenney and many others.
Australian sister duo Charm of Finches delivers intricate folk-pop that is simultaneously graceful and darkly bewitching. Their seamless blood harmonies traverse melancholy and wonder in equal measure.
The sisters, Mabel and Ivy Windred-Wornes, released their third full length album Wonderful Oblivion in 2021 through New York-based label AntiFragile Music to critical acclaim. They have since toured extensively through the UK, Europe and Canada in 2022/23.
Winners of the Australian Folk Music Awards Best Folk Album (2022) and Music Victoria Best Contemporary Folk Act (2021), their music has been nominated twice for the prestigious Australian Music Prize.
In February 2023 the sisters spent a month in rural Nova Scotia recording with acclaimed Canadian producer Daniel Ledwell (Jenn Grant, Oh Pep!), inspired by the frozen beauty of the landscape and their transient life on the road with their music. The result is their fourth studio album to be released in 2024.
WLDFLWRS are a collective of songwriting friends with a love of West Coast Americana music, strong melodies, vocal harmonies and a good song. Featuring local musicians Katherine Abbott, Jack Blackman, Jono Wright and Wes Finch, you can expect some choice covers and some collaboratively crafted original songs.
Having met whilst working alongside each other at Stratford-based charity The Street Arts Project they were thrown together as a band to perform the songs written in group sessions there and promote the album they helped produce with the organisation. The experience was such fun they decided to start getting together regularly to play, write, drink tea and eat Jono’s cakes.
Temperance’s December 2023 Blues Night saw their first performance as a 4 piece which was well received by all and this early 2024 will feature the full 5 members and some new material in an extended set. We hope you can make it.
Described by Folk Radio UK as ‘weaving an especially compelling magic’, and ‘showing British acoustic music in its best possible light’, Northumbrian duo The Brothers Gillespie make music that is animated by lyrical songwriting, fine fingerstyle guitar playing, multi-instrumental musicianship and ‘the glorious tones of their blood harmony’ (Sam Lee).
Brothers James and Sam Gillespie found their sound growing up in the fells and valleys of Northumberland, their songs often describing relationships with wild places and the experience of finding oneself in a world alive with soul. The music comes to them most strongly when walking in the borderlands with their packs and instruments which remains a regular practice for them. This spirit is channeled into their live performances which have a rare and intimate energy, both ethereal and earthy, romantic and radical. The brothers have travelled far and wide with their music and have played at Cambridge and Sidmouth Folk Festivals and opened for Lankum and Sam Lee. In 2021 they featured in the English Heritage ‘Songs of England’ recording series that appeared on BBC Radio 4. The release of their new album ‘The Merciful Road’ (‘pure magic’, Living Tradition) in Spring 2022 saw them embark on their most extensive national tour to date.
‘The Merciful Road’ was recorded in a cottage by the banks of the river Tweed and like their previous album ‘The Fell’, it blends rootsy, acoustic elements to create a rich warm sound with a touch of vintage magic. In some ways it is an album about finding the thread of love and belonging in a world that seems to be nonetheless unravelling.
The brothers emerge from the time of lockdowns with a yet greater reverence for the joy and privilege of being with an audience in real time and space.
‘Our music is inspired by the still wild soul of the land in which we live, a land alive with presences, not owned by anyone. It is about seeing with the eye of the heart and recovering our imaginations. It is about finding home, belonging and each other in a world which is singing to us as we sing to it’.