Folk in the Garden: outdoor, acoustic gigs in Camden
I'm helping to organise a series of intimate, entirely acoustic performances in the garden of St Paul's Church, Camden Square
As regular readers and friends will know, I moved to Camden, north London last year. My partner is a vicar (as well as a wonderful poster designer: see above) and has taken on responsibility for two churches in the area. One is the renowned and ancient St Pancras Old Church, which already has a very healthy concert schedule. The other is St Paul’s, Camden Square, a very different sort of place. The church was bombed in the war and eventually torn down to be replaced by a ‘temporary’ pre-fab combined church and hall, which, despite its physical shortcomings, hosts a wonderfully friendly and dedicated congregation that puts on a delicious community lunch on the first Sunday of every month.
It also has two lovely gardens. One is the Woodland Garden, which is used by local community groups to benefit mental health - see this video, with the former vicar, Fr James.
We’ve been wondering what else we can do with these green oases, and talking with my friend Graham Smallwood of Folk & Roots we hit upon the idea for a series of totally acoustic concerts. They will take place over a series of Saturdays this summer, there will be drinks available (donations in return most welcome) and we also have the church hall as a back up if it rains!
The first event is this Saturday. Do come and support these if you are anywhere near. It’s a fantastic opportunity to welcome people into a little hidden space, and to be able to share some fantastic music. It they go well, I’d love to make them an annual event.
17th of May: An evening of original observational songs with Stew Simpson and Emma Scarr. Both are new to me, but Scarr in particular is a real find.
7th of June: Raw folk song and concertina with Goblin Band member Sonny Brazil. The Goblin Band are the big thing in folk at the moment, which I hope will draw people in for this. To be honest, I find the Band’s pansexual ploughpeople schtick a bit wearing, but on their own Sonny Brazil presses all of my buttons - straightforward, well played and timeless concertina and folksong. What more could you ask for? (Sadly I have another engagement; I need to be at the Magpie’s Nest fest where I agreed to volunteer yonks ago and am also meeting Malawi’s Gasper Nali, who I remotely interviewed for a recently submitted article.)
21st of June: Fine fiddle from in-demand musician Owen Spafford. I’ve been friendly with Owen for a few years, and he is best known for his duo with Louis Campbell. Though still young (early twenties?), he is really making a name for himself, and my gosh is it deserved. He rarely plays solo, but I saw him doing so in support of Bruce Molsky a few months back and was blown away by his tone and sensitivity. Totally captivating music. Having lobbied hard for Owen to perform, I’m now away on a family holiday when he’s playing, which I’m most miffed about. Go on my behalf. You won’t regret it.
The above is one of a very few solo numbers I can find on YouTube (the others are from when he was really wee), but I also stumbled across this little viewed video with his own quartet, which deserves more eyes on it.
12th of July: The exciting face of the young folk scene with Queer Folk's Sophie Crawford and Celtic duo Tog Fàire. As you can see in the video, Sophie is no stranger to performing in gardens. I’ve been aware of Queer Folk, her project with George Sansome, for a while and admire their commitment to digging out all the fruitiness and cross-dressing that can be found in folksong, even if I’ve not had much of a chance to hear their music. Listening to her now I hear a singular talent with a strong voice and a unique style, and am really looking forward to seeing her live.
Tog Fàire are also new to me (I used to be up-to-date on the folk scene, but I’m afraid those days have passed), but again, I’ve been missing out, I think they will suit the garden really well.
23rd of August: Gypsy jazz, tango, celtic and Eastern-European folk with Lost Revellers. Go big or go home for the final concert of the series: we have a full blown band! Again, new to me, but I reckon this’ll be a riot and I can’t wait!
Advance tickets (saving a few quid) are available at https://folkandroots.co.uk, or there will likely to be tickets on the door.
Chris