Kelso Folk & Live Music Club
FRIDAYS! Open Mic at the Black Swan 7.30-11pm – Pub session at the Cobbles Inn 9.30pm-late

Don’t forget that every week, there is our Open Mic at the Black Swan, upstairs from 7.30pm. It’s run by Peter Fry and friends.

Here’s Peter, with Rick Harris on nylon string guitar lead, doing one of his songs – Take a Moment:

Admission is free, there’s a bar upstairs, plenty of seating with tables (and without for musicians closer to the ’stage’). See you there!

If you’re enjoying the seasonal weather, here are some new words for an old favourite. Sorry!

Kelso Folk & Live Music Club welcomes everyone – there’s no ‘membership’, you become a member just by turning up at our meetings. In 2010, with some exceptions for pub holiday closures and ‘high days’ in Kelso’s civic calendar, you have a choice of two different venues every Friday night to suit early or late.

Our Open Mic (usually hosted by Peter Fry) starts at 7.30pm in the upstairs room of the Black Swan Hotel – if you can’t find the stairs just ask at the bar (or go in under the sign, the right hand door and up). The room is just for the club meeting – though anyone can come in and join the audience, or volunteer for the open mic. There is a bar and a range of seating, from big sofas at the far end near the bar, tables in the middle, and seats at the performance end.

The Open Mic has a small PA system to help with vocals and acoustic instruments. It’s quiet but conversation is not banned (just move up to the bar end of the room) and performers may invite others to play or sing along with what they are doing. The evening ends around 11pm. There is no admission charge but donations (towards club funds and guest artists) are welcomed.

The Black Swan is also the venue for most guest concerts planned in 2010. To receive information on these, email david@maxwellplace.demon.co.uk to be added to the club’s announcement list. The Black Swan offers excellent bar meals downstairs from 6pm onwards, and can also offer B&B accommodation which is right in the heart of Kelso and very reasonably priced. It’s a good idea to stay if you are visiting and also want to come to the Cobbles Inn open session afterwards.

The Cobbles Inn is an award-winning restaurant and Friday nights can be busy! Our session does not start before 9.30pm and on most typical Fridays, 10.30pm is when you are likely to catch the music and songs really getting going. If you want a seat, remember that tables are often vacated by diners, but there is also a table reserved for the musicians. Please don’t be offended if we try to rearrange your seating and swap chairs round, the ones with arms are very comfortable for sitting in but impossible for a guitar player or fiddler.

Although there is more traditional and tune-driven content at the Cobbles Session, it is not just folk or celtic and a very wide range of material can be performed. Completely unaccompanied or solo stuff can fit in as well, despite the tradition of all competent singers and players joining in almost everything. We generally have a small amplifier and one microphone, which can help if it’s a busy night.

The music is at the far end away from the bar, it’s a great atmosphere and changes as we pass midnight – loud chorus songs are more likely early on, quiet personal performances 0r experiments with new stuff later on. Chucking out time is normally 1.00am with last drinks at 12.45pm.

As with the Black Swan, dining before the session is possible (ask for a table downstairs and you can keep it for the session). The Cobbles Inn does not offer accommodation. In addition to the Friday night sessions, we have concert nights which may coincide with bank holiday, civic festival and other weekends. These are often on Saturdays. There are also traditional Scots sessions occasionally on Sunday afternoons or evenings.

- David Kilpatrick, Chairman

Including the 2009/10 winter festival ‘The Light, the Land and the Locals’ this PDF leaflet covers all the coming folk club and town festival events for 2010.

Download and view – you can also obtain a printed copy from the organisers or the tourist offices.

TraditionalMusicFestival09 FINAL

You will need Adobe Acrobat or a compatible PDF viewing application to read and print the brochure.

We also have added a permanent link in the left hand sidebar to the Border Union Showground 2010 calendar of events:

http://www.buas.org/calendar/

Peter Fry was able to grab some quick video footage of the November 28th club members’ concert at the Templehall Hotel, Morebattle. Here is the first of two songs he recorded:

-DK

The first guest night at the Black Swan went very smoothly with Steve Tilston delivering a finely crafted set of songs and tunes. His encore – as expected, ‘Slip Jigs and Reels’ – was captured as an HD video now approved for release by Steve.

We were treated to his tribute to Davy Graham – a subtle reversal of the harmonic sequence of Anji, the jazz standard which Davy turned into a guitar solo famously reworked by two duos – Simon & Garfunkel, and Jansch & Renbourn. Steve’s tribute owed a lot to Bert Jansch’s ornamentation of the tune. He also played an excellent blues gathered from Wizz Jones; Wizz is our guest at the Black Swan in almost a year’s time, on October 1st 2010. One notable skill Steve has is an ability to play this type of material standing up! All the other musicians just mentioned get themselves very carefully seated for solo fingerstyle. Mr Tilston’s entire set was delivered in full view of the depths of the Black Swan bar.

The general sound quality in the upstairs room, with the aid of a small and relatively simple PA, is surprisingly good. It sounds natural and audibility right up to the far end of the room is good. In contrast, bar noise doesn’t end up disturbing either the audience or the performer. This one-way passage of sound makes what seems an odd shape for concert nights work well.

-DK

Steve Tilston should need no introduction – he is one of the UK’s best known songwriters in the new folk and acoustic genre, with a strong connection to tradition behind his individuality. He is the guest artist at Kelso Folk & Live Music Club on Friday November 13th 2009.

This is our first guest artist night at the Black Swan, which will provide a close listening environment – it’s proved to be a very comfortable space. Doors open at 7.30pm, with local support as appropriate. Steve will do two 45-minute sets so this is not going to start late, his first set will be 8.00pm or very shortly after. Open mic spots will be possible in the interval as well as opening half hour.

Clearly an ideal night for singer-songwriters, Steve will also appeal to guitarists. It’s part of a week-long Scottish club tour and you can find more details, sound samples and tour dates on his website:

http://www.stevetilston.com/live/

Admission will be £5 on the door. Please enter the Black Swan upstairs from the Horsemarket side not from the rear stairs.

Out of the Bedroom is an open mic night that runs weekly on Thursdays in the basement bar of The Tron in Hunter Square in Edinburgh. The music starts at 8pm, but go along for 7pm if you want to play. The one rule is that you must do material you’ve written yourself. This can be songs, instrumentals, poetry… but no cover versions! Admission is free.

You can find out a bit more on the OOTB “About” page, and check out their Facebook group and MySpace page as well.

There is also a new Song Circle in Berwick. If you are planning to turn up with a guitar, don’t, this is for unaccompanied singing only:

The AGM of Kelso Folk & Live Music Club will be held on Wednesday, October 7th 2009, at 7.30pm in the upstairs room of The Black Swan, Kelso.

The agenda proposed is:

1. Apologies
2. Minutes of AGM 2008
3. Treasurer’s report
4. Chairman’s report
5. Election of committee and office bearers
6. Discussion on members’ behaviour and discipline now that we have control over activities during our club nights at The Black Swan
7. Concerts – past and future possibilities
8. Club CD and Sweatshirts/Polo shirts
9. Proposal by a non-member that the club underwrites and organises a concert by Dougie McLean at the Tait Hall
10. AOCB

Prepared by Secretary: Ian Croall.
Chairman – David Kilpatrick. Treasurer – Allan Conochie.

Additional items for the agenda, or notice or intended items under AOCB, should be notified to Secretary ian.croall@btinternet.com

Kelso Folk & Live Music Club is a non-profit making Association. No membership fee is payable, and membership is open to all interested individuals on request. The Club’s primary activities are an Open Mic held upstairs at The Black Swan on all Fridays of the year permitted by the hotel management, from 7.30pm to 11.00pm; and an informal song and tune session held at The Cobbles Inn on all Fridays of the year when the premises are open, from 9.30pm until closing time. No admission charges are made, donations are requested. All musicians, singers and audience are welcomed.

There will be a busy weekend of music centred round Kelso Folk and Live Music Club’s sessions and guests, alongside the buzz of St James’s Fair in the town square this weekend. Here is our full programme:

Read the rest of this entry »

Allan Connochie has a video up – home recording – for his song ‘Queen o’ a’ the Merse’:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAlIk7xBJCo

Pet Shop Pete has a very professionally made vid, courtesy of Dave Mullen who also added the keyboards, for his own self-penned song ‘Full Circle’:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxSvE4XBnFs

Iain Petrie with Gypsy Soul Experience released a debut single ‘It’s a Beautiful World’ and made this video, including a shot taken during a Le Jardin club night:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHXLSgrQxdI

Our thoughts go out to Iain, who has suffered a tragic loss, and his children – he’s one of our favourite frequent visitors, and we hope the music will still be with him.

The Black Swan open mic is now up and running Fridays from 7.30pm to around 11pm – upstairs (enter by the door off Woodmarket near the public loo and phonebox), no charge, all welcome. The Cobbles session continues late night from 9.30pm onwards, the start time depending on how busy the pub is.

- DK