A chance for you to sing a song or play a tune or just listen.
Entry £1
THE TOPIC'S HOME
The Topic is at Groove Pad, 48 Saltaire Road, Shipley BD18 3HN. It’s a bar/coffee lounge on two floors. The Topic has exclusive use of the downstairs coffee lounge area on Thursday nights. The larger bar and room-space upstairs may be used for Guest Nights with a particulary high turnout. The bar serves a fine selection of drinks and does table service to the cafe area if required. Groove Pad is situated next to the Aagrah Restaurant on Saltaire Road. Easy street parking is available nearby and it’s only a few minutes walk from Shipley train station and the bus terminus.
Louise and Chris Rogan are a daughter and father who frequently tour separately but also, as here, perform together. Things That Matter, their debut album as a duo, was released in February 2023.
Quickly gaining recognition as an up and coming talent on the U.K folk scene, Louise Rogan has been described as having "a pure and soaring voice" (David Jones, Folk North West) that is "unrivalled on the current folk scene" (John Owen, Hungry Horse Folk Club).
2023 kicked off with an invitation to the Introducing Stage at the Great British Folk Festival, where Louise was delighted to win the audience vote following her performance. In the Spring, Louise joined McCusker, McGoldrick and Doyle as part of their UK tour in both Sale and York for performances of Doyle's "Exiles Return."
2024 has been off to a flying start. Her first festival performance of the year saw her as a last minute replacement for Cara Dillon on the mainstage of the UK West Coast Folk Festival. She was then one of 60 acts selected to perform on the Danny Kyle Open Stage at Celtic Connections in Glasgow.
Chris Rogan is a singer, song-writer, guitarist and storyteller from Manchester. When the great Irish Balladeer Naimh Parsons heard Chris she said "What a wonderful song and great singing".
His repertoire of his own compositions or traditional songs, is shaped by his musical upbringing. He performs his songs with warm vocals and polished guitar work that fills the room. "My songs or the traditional ones I sing form images in my mind - I can see the stories they tell as I sing them."
Serious Sam Barrett is a hard-touring folk and country singer/songwriter from Otley, West Yorkshire, playing honest, heartfelt self-penned and traditional songs on 12 string guitar and banjo.
Raised in the Dales village of Addingham, Sam began performing in and around Leeds in 2004 with word spreading further afield with the release of his 2009 debut album Close To Home.
Performing at SXSW in Austin, Texas in 2010, he has toured the US widely, usually in the company of friends and fellow skaters, The Pine Hill Saints. Along the way, Sam has shared stages with the likes of Martin Carthy, Dave Burland, Katherine Tickell, Lucero, The Young Uns, Frank Fairfield, and Karine Polwart, and received airplay and praise plaudits from the BBC’s Bob Harris, Marc Riley and Mark Radcliffe as well as Mike Harding.
The sustained brilliance of this playing is really something to behold - Bob Harris, BBC Radio 2
Songs that rattle with the ghosts of Appalachian folk, and southern blues, yet sounds emphatically English - Uncut Magazine
Old before his years country-folk fellow who mixes intricate John Fahey finger-picking with confessional tales of dirty old Leeds - The Guardian.
Excellent stripped back folk - Maverick Magazine
His well-crafted original songs are accompanied by his own sparkling clawhammer banjo or dextrous 12 string guitar picking - FRoots magazine
Support: Lewis 'Burner' Pugh
Lewis 'Burner' Pugh is an artist from Leeds influenced by everything from bluegrass and country through to skiffle and punk. Brought up on bluegrass and folk music, he plays traditional music and his own songs which are often political. He also plays with The Burner Band.
Bullets For Bread, his third solo album, is due for release in spring 2024 on Shed Load Records.
Singer-songwriters Cobalt Tales are a female duo riginally from Wigan and Stockport and now based in Sheffield. Pat and Nuala met in the Scottish Highlands and formed Cobalt Tales in 2016, releasing their debut album, Ever Changing Blue, in 2019..
Pat sings powerful vocals, plays acoustic guitar and also harmonica on occasion, and Nuala plays bass guitar, sings harmony and adds clarinet, whistles and acoustic guitar. Their combined influences and writing talents cover a wide variety of song styles. They deliver music from the heart that stirs the soul.
They tour throughout the UK and playing festivals, live music venues, cosy folk sessions, charity fund raisers and local community events.
Harmonies are gorgeous, supersoft... Well done! - Edwina Hayes, Singer-songwriter
Somewhere between Dylan and Mary Chapin Carpenter you’ll find Cobalt Tales! Good stuff! - R. Sandland, Tamworth.
Hazjak
Hazjak are Yorkshire duo Steve Chapman Smith and Lynne O'Malley, both well known and respected musicians on the Northern acoustic scene.Together they play an eclectic style of Roots, Americana and Folk music.
Steve – vocals, guitar, banjo, bouzouki, bass and mandolin. Lynne – vocals, piano, tenor guitar, banjo, percussion, whistle and harmonica, and of course Hazjak's trademark harmonies.
Hazjak released their debut album Listerville in December 2020 to great critical acclaim, including a 4 star review in R and R magazine.
In November 2023 they released their second album "The City Sleeps."
Uplifting evening of most enjoyable music by Hazjak... Brilliant
entertainment and great fun as always... You really take the listener with you - Topic Folk Club, Dec 2021
A highly talented duo... Excellent songs, superb musicianship and harmonies in abundance -Tykes Stirrings, Spring 2021
High calibre musicianship. Roots based music of the finest kind. They write raw and penetrating songs of truth and heart-rending stories to stir your souls - Ian Mayor, Drystone Radio
Enda McCabe is an experienced performer, based in the Conamara in Co. Galway, who sings a mixture of traditional Irish language songs and traditional songs in English, together with some original songs in English. The songs are linked by stories, most, but not all, of which are based on personal experience and he delivers an entertaining performance of the highest standard.
Enda has performed in Ireland, Britain, France, Belgium, Austria and the USA. He is a solo performer who also works with other singers and musicians from time to time, amongst whom are Tim Edey, Róisín Elsafty, Johnny Connolly, and a wonderful Japanese flute player Tomoyo Sugai. He completed an M.A. in Irish Traditional Music Performance at the University of Limerick, and he runs workshops on Traditional Singing, Songwriting and Accompanying Traditional Irish Music.
Enda has just released an album with a fine fiddle player from Dublin, Colly Moore and the response of audiences has been most enthusiastic. Enda’s previous albums Dreams of Carrickfergus (1990) and Ceol sa Chistin (Music in the Kitchen) (2010) were widely acclaimed.
Support: Andrew Lockwood
Andrew is a travelling journeyman and songwriter from the UK, performing acoustic originals alongside other artists’ work; sharing and celebrating the healing joy of music. Intimate and inviting songs are crafted with honest, sensitive lyrics upon a guitar / vocal canvas.
Andrew was the guest artist that helped make my role hassle-free, engaging with the attendees, other artists and generously participating. Performing capably and with inspiration, his song craft and sincere performances are an intimate vista of his compassion for humanity and love -Judi Smitheram, Festival Director Canterbury Folk Festival, New Zealand
A refreshing artist, bursting with original songs, thoughtful and tuneful, delivered with heartfelt integrity and style - Rick Monaghan, Winchester Folk Club, UK
A tuneful songsmith, writing insightful lyrics; melancholy, wistful and earnest – sung with an empathetic guitar style accompaniment – vocal echoes of Nick Drake. A worthy addition to The Burke & Wills Folk Festival – held the audiences rapt attention in every show - Andrew Pattison, Burke & Wills/ Newstead Festivals, Victoria, Australia
Author and musician Tom Kitching launches his new book and album, Where There's Brass, with a special storytelling and music concert tour.
Documenting six months living in the London waterways community, making the long journey across England from Manchester on a traditional narrowboat built in 1937, Where There's Brass tells the story of the contemporary London waterways; a floating slum at worst, a bohemian, alternative, vibrant community at best.
It is a love letter to the waterways, and a rallying cry for what they can be in the future.
Stories old and new interwoven with a specially composed suite of music, underpinned by Tom's long term accompanist, the brilliant Nordic mandola player Marit Fält.
This tour builds on the success of his previous work, most recently Seasons of Change, the stories and music from 18 months busking around England.
Tom’s debut solo album Interloper was listed at #6 in the Sunday Express albums of the year 2015. There are dozens of folk violinists, but few with the attack, passion, and ingenuity of Tom Kitching. The most beautiful instrumental playing of the year.