Montrose Folk Club

Continuing with the Montrose Folk Club policy of bringing Celtic Connections headline artists to Angus, we are delighted to present a Concert by the Jill Jackson Trio.

Paisley born Singer/Songwriter, Jill Jackson, recently released her fifth solo album, entitled “Are We There Yet?”, a record that bears the hallmarks of her 25 year musical journey from Paisley to Top of the Pops to playing in every State of America.

Winner of the Danny Kyle award at Celtic Connections in 2018 and recently tipped as “UK Country’s Next Big Thing 2018”, Jill has remained true to her musical ambitions. Her latest album is a journey through childhood, life struggles and happiness, which Jill says “fell out of my heart and guitar with a little bit of country, rock and roll and old timey”.

After spending several years touring as the lead singer of the acclaimed Bluegrass Band, The Chaplins, Jill Jackson is now once more establishing a solo career. She will be appearing at Montrose Folk Club with her trio of herself on guitar, together with backing guitar and keyboard.

Rising Glasgow-based Americana outfit, James Edwyn and the Borrowed Band will be performing a stripped-down acoustic set for their appearance at Montrose Folk Club.

The Band will be appearing at the Club as a trio consisting of James Edwyn on guitar and vocals, Emma Joyce on vocals and Scott Keenan on keyboards.

The Band have recently performed in a trio acoustic format for both the Southern Fried Roots Music Festival in Perth and for their latest live broadcast on the Quay Sessions of BBC Radio Scotland.

The sound of the Band has been described as recalling the groove of Little Feat featuring the rhythmic guitar and powerful voice of James Edwyn, together with the southern soul vocals of Emma Joyce.

The second album of the Band, entitled “High Fences”, was described by Americana UK Magazine as “the First Great Album of 2018” and by Maverick Magazine as “a Perfect Performance”.

For the whole of March 2019, Findlay Napier, currently the best Singer Songwriter on the Scottish Music Scene, will be touring throughout the UK as a Double Bill with leading English Singer Songwriter, Megan Henwood.

Findlay and Megan are touring to promote the release of their new joint CD entitled “Story Song Scientists”, which features songs co-written by them, loosely based on topics relating to science such as the scourge of plastic, false nuclear warning alarms and the Wild Wild Country doc on Netflix, Jason Warner.

Megan Henwood is a Singer Songwriter from Oxfordshire who was the winner of the BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Award in 2009. Subsequently, she has developed her talent as a very inventive Songwriter of both reflective and political material.

Megan Henwood has been described by The Guardian as “Folk” in the same way as Laura Marling. The Guardian praised her most recent CD entitled River as “a worldly mature work featuring a fine set of songs, given drama by a voice that slips easily between registers”.

Shetland Fiddler, Chris Stout, and Harpist, Catriona McKay, originally from Dundee, were crowned as Best Duo at the 2018 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards.

This well-deserved award affirmed the artistic triumph of the third album of the duo, Bare Knuckle, which received ecstatic reviews.

In February 2019, Chris Stout and Catriona McKay headline a Celtic Connections Concert in the King’s Theatre in Glasgow, performing with the likes of Irish traditional icon, Seamus Begley and Malinky vocalist, Fiona Hunter, in a programme featuring the UK Premiere of a custom-composed Concerto for Stout and McKay by genre-spanning Finnish music legend, Timo Alakotila.

Both Chris and Catriona are members of the internationally acclaimed Shetland Band, Fiddlers Bid.

As a duo, Chris and Catriona produce a dynamic and adventurous sound that retains the identity of their common traditions, yet explores through the music their connection with other music styles. They produce emotional music of stark beauty.

The duo have been described by The Herald newspaper as producing a sensational sound “operating at a rarefied level of expertise”.

Josie Duncan & Pablo Lafuente were the 2017 winners of the BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Award.

Josie is originally from the Isle of Lewis whilst Pablo is at home both in Glasgow and Spain.   The music which Josie and Pablo make as a duo reflects their varied backgrounds covering many genres and traditions.

On guitar and vocals in English, Scots and Gaelic, their music is a Round the World tour where ballads meet songs from the mines and cotton mills together with contemporary material and original writing.

Josie’s voice, crystal clear with a slight island twang is equally at home with all of their varied material, accompanied by Pablo’s dynamic sensitive guitar playing.

Described by Roots Music Canada as “the Pink Floyd of Folk and Blues music”, the Red Dirt Skinners are the multi-award winning, multi-instrumentalist husband and wife team of Rob and Sarah Skinner.

The Red Dirt Skinners are the first Act to win Awards at both the British Blues and the British Country Awards.

With male and female harmonies blending together as one voice and Sarah’s trade mark soprano saxophone solos, audiences are swept along by the refreshing and different sound of the Red Dirt Skinners.   If you like songs influenced by Pink Floyd, Simon & Garfunkel, Supertramp and Crosby, Stills and Nash, coupled with epic storytelling, humour and heartfelt emotions, you will love a Red Dirt Skinner’s concert.

This will be a first appearance in Scotland by two of America’s finest songwriters.

Originally from Rochester, New York State, Jess Klein has developed a substantial back catalogue over seven albums.    Jess was a finalist at the 2015 Kerrville New Folk Competition.   Folk Radio UK has described her 2014 release “Learning Faith” as “unquestionably the finest album of her impressive career”.

Following a move from Austin, Texas to North Carolina, Jess Klein releases in 2019 a new collection of ten original songs, “Back to My Green”. These new songs are written from the stand point of a world-traveller and granddaughter of Russian Jewish Immigrants to celebrate the human capacity for redemption during dark times.

On tour together with Jess Klein, New Jersey songwriter, Mike June, will perform a set of his very distinctive and political song writing.    Mike will also perform covers of Hank Williams and Bruce Springsteen, who has been a big influence on Mike’s song writing.

Montrose Folk Club are delighted to welcome back Malinky, who are, undoubtedly, the leading Scottish Folk Song Band of the last decade.

It is appropriate that Malinky should make a return visit to Montrose, since the very first Concert of the original line-up of the Band, which then featured Karine Polwart, took place at Montrose Folk Club about twenty years ago in its former venue of the Corner House Hotel, High Street, Montrose.

Over the subsequent twenty years, after five acclaimed albums and an extensive Touring roster across the globe, Malinky are established as one of the most distinctive bands on the Scottish Music Scene.

The hallmark song–based repertoire of Malinky is performed by three superb lead vocalists, complemented with fresh and tastefully inventive instrumentation.

The current four-piece line-up of the Band showcases the outstanding voices of Fiona Hunter, Steve Byrne and Mark Dunlop, also featuring award-winning composer, Mike Vass, with instrumentation including bouzouki, guitar, fiddle, whistle, bodhran and cello.

James Keelaghan has been described as “Canada’s finest Songwriter” by Dave Marsh, the award-winning American music critic and historian of Bob Dylan and The Band. Those few but powerful words of praise say it all about an artist who continues to set the bar at a lofty height.

For almost a quarter of a century now, James Keelaghan, the poet laureate of the Folk and Roots music world has gone about his work with a combination of passion, intensity and curiosity.

Keelaghan’s brilliantly defined craftsmanship and artistic vision make him one of the most distinctive and readily identifiable voices of not only the Canadian music scene but of the international singer-songwriter community.

In his concert at Montrose Folk Club, James Keelaghan will be playing new material in addition to some of his timeless classic songs such as Fires of Calais, Cold Missouri Waters, Jenny Bryce and Hillcrest Mine.

Accompanying himself on guitar, James Keelaghan will be appearing in a duo with Hugh McMillan on bass guitar and backing vocals.

Twelfth Day create an acoustic, mixed-genre Sound, which is both edgy and inventive.

The duo are Catriona Price, who is also a member of the all-female Orcadian Band, Fara, on vocals and fiddle, together with Esther Swift, a Singer and Harpist from the Scottish Borders.

Skilled on many instruments, Catriona and Esther describe themselves as a “two-person quartet”.

The debut album, released by Twelfth Day, entitled “Cracks in the Room” received a Four Star review in The Guardian and was produced by famous English Singer Songwriter Chris Wood, assisted by Oz Fritz, Tom Waits’ Sound Engineer.

The album features innovative tune sets together with contemporary and innovative self-written songs.

Peter Bruntnell has been described by the Guardian as a cult hero and also by them as “the Alternative Country genius from Surrey”.

Over many albums, Peter Bruntnell from Kingston upon Thames has produced rich and refined Songwriting, but is almost unknown to the mainstream media.

Despite his lack of public profile, Peter Bruntnell has received ringing endorsements from the likes of Peter Buck of REM and many rave reviews for his Nine CDs.

The songs produced by Peter Bruntnell really are exceptional. They constitute a canon of classically constructed, melodically rich, lyrically ingenious and emotionally affecting songs that bears comparison with many of the great Songwriters.

The most recent album release of Peter Bruntnell, entitled “Nos da Comrade” featured a lead Single release called “Mr Sunshine”, a rollicking deconstruction of a certain U.S President and the Golf Course which destroyed an Aberdeenshire Site of Scientific Interest.

Irish trio, Cua, performed a very well received Scottish Tour in 2018, being rewarded with a headline Concert appearance at the 2019 Celtic Connections Festival in Glasgow.

The Band self-style their music as “Atlantean”, a potent and distinctive amalgam of Celtic, Americana, Jazz, Balkan and Folk influences, inspired by the history, landscape and peoples of the Atlantic areas.

The Band feature luminous, yet earthy three-part vocals (which have drawn comparisons with Crosby, Stills and Nash) in powerful original songs, arrayed with fiddle, bouzouki, guitars and percussion. The 2017 debut album of the Band, Songs of the Hollow, further boosted their fast-growing fan base.