Preview: Front Room Festival
Folk On Foot is a radio podcast by Matthew Bannister. He started interviewing folk musicians in out door spaces in 2018, and he has now started on his fourth series. The podcast won the silver award in in Best Arts and Culture category in the 2019 British podcast awards. In each episode he interviews a folk musician in a space which means a lot to him or her. Kris Drever is interviewed on his native Orkney during his daughter’s first visit there, Karine Polwart at Fala Moor the setting for many of her songs. In an interview with David Weir, he says the natural background can bring bonuses: the sound of the curlew when he was talking to Karine and the skylark singing as she sang about the lark in the morning. But there can be problems. When recording the Young ‘Uns in Hartlepool, it proved impossible to record their song by the medieval Sandwell Gate because of the howling wind, and they had to retire behind some wheelie bins for shelter.
"It's a pleasure to be a part of the Front Room Festival. Online gigs take some getting used to as a performer, but it's lovely to think of audiences at home sharing in our music and having the opportunity to keep that connection alive. Help Musicians UK are a brilliant organisation helping musicians in hardship due to cancelled work so it's great to be able to support them"
- Rachel Newton
There will be different challenges on Easter Monday when Matthew is putting together a special Front Room Festival - Easter Monday 13th April from 2pm - with an impressive line-up of musicians who have appeared in his podcast. The artists will sing for up to thirty minutes in their own homes. Peggy Seeger will be there (see the lovely two-minute clip on the webpage), and Kris Drever, Julie Fowlis, Rachel Newton and Karine Polwart from Scotland. Jon Boden and Bella Hardy are among the English contingent. For the full line-up and further details on the Festival see the link below, where you can also make a donation if you wish. Proceeds from the concert are being shared with Help Musicians UK which is currently providing support to musicians who have lost their income during the current crisis.
