Tenterden Folk Festival 2009

Friday 2^nd to Sunday 4^th October

Tenterden Folk Festival 2009 runs from Friday 2^nd to Sunday 4^th October at venues throughout Tenterden town centre. One of the aims of the festival is to preserve and advance public education and appreciation of traditional and contemporary folk music, song, dance and other related traditions, crafts and folk arts as a part of the living heritage. In particular we aim to present the best of traditional English folk music, so why, you may ask, does this year’s guest list include Jeff Warner from the USA and Nibs Van der Spuy from South Africa, especially when Jeff’s website is headed “American Traditions” and Nibs’ guitar playing was described by Le Monde as “with classical touches and Zulu melodies”.

Jeff Warner’s family have been involved with folk music for several generations and his parents, Anne and Frank Warner, were pioneer collectors of songs from rural America. Many of these songs originated in Europe and particular England and were taken to America by the early settlers and adapted to suit the new world. Jeff has published part of this vast collection under the title “Traditional American Folk Songs” and produced a 2-CD set of some of the songs as well as several CDs of his own singing. The CD “Her Bright Smile” is the actual voices of singers who were born from 1860 to 1900, recorded on early disk recorders by parents. These songs are of particular interest to English folkies because of the similarities, links and even, in some cases, their differences to the English versions of the same or similar songs; besides which Jeff is an excellent singer, concertina play and banjo player and all round entertainer. As well as appearing in concert, Jeff will run a workshop at Tenterden Folk Festival.

More information and press quality photos of Jeff Warner are available at http://www.jeffwarner.com/

In more recent years, English folk music has been influenced by the rise in what the media like to call “world music” or “roots music” so it is not just a one way street, there is crosspollination between folk and acoustic music around the world.

Nibs Van der Spuy originates from Durban and still lives South Africa. I believe that he originally planned to be a stringed instrument maker but instead became a performer. He is a singer-songwriter and plays acoustic guitar. His first solo albums “Lines on my face” (1999) and “Flower in the rain” (2002) were both nominated in the best instrumental category at the South African Music Awards. Nibs has toured extensively across the globe with a highlight being the prestigious East Coast Blues & Roots festival in Byron Bay, Australia, while in South Africa he has shared the stage with Ben Harper, Taj Mahal, Bonnie Raitt, Bela Fleck and Piers Faccini. Nibs has also been a regular performer at the Durban folk club and, unknown to me at the time of booking him, is a personal friend of my English born but long time Durban resident ‘cousin’ who is a past president of the club. It is a small world!

More information and press quality photos of Nibs Van der Spuy are available at http://www.nibs.co.za/site/home

Book now:

To buy your tickets, book your craft fair or music fair pitch, place an advert in the enlarged souvenir programme or if you would like to be otherwise involved in the Festival contact us now.

Guest list and festival information:

More details of Tenterden Folk Festival 2009, guests, accommodation and camping are now being posted on our website at www.tenterdenfolkfestival.org.uk.

To receive our regular email updates send an email to info@tenterdenfolkfestival.org.uk with "add to festival news list" in the subject box.

Alan Castle – Festival Director

3^rd June 2009

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Last updated 3^rd June 2009

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