Greetings All,
I hope this finds you and yours well. Sorry for news absence of late, I’ve been a busy bee this last while and have just finished our last Hack Poets Guild gig for this year at the fabulous Manchester Folk Festival. More on that later. First this:-
I want to let you know about these two Christmas gigs I have coming up.
December 12th Cadogan Hall, London
I am looking mighty forward to opening for Jon Boden & Eliza Carthy as they bring their Wassail cheer to Cadogan Hall. The night will also feature Ewan Wardrop and Brass Band London and I will be joining Jon & Eliza on stage for a couple of numbers too. I will play a 30 minute solo set to start the night.
TICKETS HERE: https://cadoganhall.com/whats-on/eliza-carthy-and-jon-bodens-wassail/
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Dec 16th Howard Assembly Rooms, Leeds
I have the huge pleasure of being invited to take part in ‘THE FROST AND THE BOUGHS’
“an evening amongst the trees as the Howard Assembly Room is filled with glorious festive music performed by some of the UK’s foremost musicians, and BBC Folk Award Winner, singer Lisa Knapp.
Concert Master David le Page creates new folk-inspired arrangements of classic pieces from Vaughan Williams’ ‘Linden Lea’ to festive favourites such as ‘O Tannenbaum’. The Howard Assembly Room’s mid-winter concert is always a festive favourite. Whether your preference is classical, folk, jazz or a combination of all three, the songs, melodies and stories of this intimate soiree will bring festive joy and a warm glow. Expect a beautifully decorated space.”
I’m particularly relishing performing some new Christmassy and tree based material for this (A Day in The Life of A Tree by Beach Boys, The Trees Are All Bare by Copper Family and the stunning traditional song The Snow It Melts The Soonest for starters).
Tickets here: https://www.operanorth.co.uk/whats-on/the-frost-and-the-boughs/
These will be my final gigs for this year and already I’m looking forward to seeing what 2024 will bring.
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Well what can I say, it's been a stunning year for our Bodleian ballads project (featuring myself with Marry Waterson and Nathaniel Mann) and my huge thanks goes to soooo many people who helped get the record together and organise the tour and of course the musicians who played with us: fabulous cellist, Barney Morse-Brown and percussionist extraordinaire, Laurence Hunt, as well as Tim Hand, our dedicated sound engineer. Also, a big thanks to Gerry Diver who brought all our material together, played on and produced the album, Desdemona McCannon who did such beautiful illustrations, Steve Roud who made a brilliant short film for us (I will try to get hold of this at some point) and of course those at the Bodleian who guided us through their magnificent collections. Massive thanks to Sound UK who engineered the entire project and of course our record label, One Little Independent. The record is still available from One Little Independent store and lots of other places including Bandcamp. I believe the last few coloured vinyl versions (a marvellous inky muddy blue!!) floating around somewhere too!
Here’s what the press said about the album BlackHletter Garland.
Songlines
“Letting them (Hack-Poets Guild) loose in the broadsides collection was inspired. The three were bound to turn them into something ‘rich and strange’.
“Hugely distinct, atmospheric, innovative and compelling.”
Uncut Magazine Review of Blackletter Garland… “Rich, transportive beauty. Truly extraordinary.”
“…9/10…showcases how three idiosyncratic voices can create something truly extraordinary.”
Folk Radio FRUK. “Hack-Poets Guild features 3 of the finest musical minds that the British folk scene has to offer and on Blackletter Garland, an album that is more than the sum of its parts, they demonstrate the possibly futures of folk music, all of them varied and vibrant.”
“This lot was doing leftfield before it became popular, and anything they are involved in is always a breath of fresh air. So imagine what they are capable of together”.
Until the next time then,
Keep warm and safe and lovely,
Lisa xxx