MAY'S EVENTS 

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   Friday 7 May 2021       

 Virtual Singers and Musicians Night

  starts 8pm  (Zoom entry from 7:30) 

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A chance to sing and play via Zoom, still replacing our usual first-Friday-of-the-month singarounds at the Barlow. 

You are most welcome to join us as a performer or as a member of the audience. Please email Chris Nash on and he will email you a link on Friday.

If you receive the link automatically, don't forget to email him back if you would like to perform. The aim is to get "round the room" twice. These sessions have been very popular though, so if it turns out to be just once please bear with us and enjoy the quality and variety of music. 

Much as we would like to be together, Zoom does have some merits : -

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• no matter how far away from Lancashire you are, you can still join us

• you can just join using audio rather than video if you like

• you can join in to play and harmonise to your heart's content while muted

• you can use a microphone, speakers, headphones, equaliser if you have these

• you can use your own drink and catering facilities 

• you can have the words in front of you and no-one will know

• you can put your chorus up on "chat" so that people can join in easily at home

• you can take time out to feed the cats/wash up etc 

• you can wear your slippers

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Seriously, it's great fun and good to see everyone happily making music. The quality of performance has been excellent, so if you haven't tried it yet, give it a go.

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If you are performing, Chris has details he can send you about how to make the most of your sound.

Tickets are £8 per person : email folkatthebarlow@gmail.com and we will explain how to pay and send you the Zoom link on the day

Nancy Kerr and James Fagan are one of the best-known and most experienced folk duos on the British circuit today. Outstanding musicianship, a lifelong grounding in traditional singing and instrumental playing, acclaimed original compositions but most noticeably a visceral chemistry between these two make Kerr and Fagan a perennial favourite at festivals, venues and clubs across the country. They met in December 1995, and formed the duo and life partnership that has become the backbone of their professional career in music ever since. They won the inaugural Horizon Award at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards in 2000, and were also the first ever recipients of the “Best Duo” Award, which they won in 2003, and again in 2011. They are one of only two acts ever to receive this honour twice (along with Spiers and Boden).

Nancy Kerr is the daughter of London singer-songwriter Sandra Kerr and Northumbrian piper Ron Elliott. Nancy is a simply outstanding writer of songs, one of England’s best-known folk fiddle players and in 2015 won “Folk Singer of the Year” at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards. She is in constant demand as a songwriter, performer and teacher. As well as the duo with James, her recent work has included the multi-award-winning “The Full English” band, “The Elizabethan Session”, Melrose Quartet and the trio Simpson Cutting Kerr (with Martin Simpson and Andy Cutting). She is co-director of the Soundpost fiddle and singing workshop weekends in Sheffield. Her duo in the 1990s with Eliza Carthy saw her shoot to international prominence on the folk scene in her teens and she hasn’t looked back.

James Fagan was born in Australia and raised in a folk-singing family The Fagans. He is a multi-instrumentalist and singer, specialising in bouzouki, guitar and mandolin. As well as working side by side with Nancy for nearly two decades, James is part of Melrose Quartet and The James Brothers. James is constantly in demand as a session player and appears on albums by Cara Dillon, Martin Simpson, Brian Finnegan, Eliza Carthy and Spiers & Boden. He was part of Bellowhead for their Hedonism tour in 2010 and has been a regular member of the Cara Dillon Band, having played bouzouki on her latest two CDs. He is a core vocal tutor on the Newcastle University Folk Music Degree Course.

As a duo, Nancy and James have toured internationally, most notably in the British Isles, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Japan. They have thousands of fans and despite now having two children continue to work and tour constantly from their home base in Sheffield. Starting a family has reduced the amount of time they can spend on the road together, so their duo shows are now special and sought-after events.

REGULAR EVENTS

Zoom singarounds, first Friday of the month 8pm.

   First Friday - Singaround   

In "normal" times, Folk at the Barlow run a monthly folk music singaround on the first Friday of the month. This starts at 8pm, takes place in the Reading Room (otherwise known as the bar) at the Barlow, and there is a collection taken which will hopefully cover the hire of the room. However, these are not normal times, and we have gone online using Zoom. These now start at 7:30pm. Please see the Home and Future Events pages for updates.

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Zoom concerts, third Friday of the month 8pm.

   Third  Friday - Concert   

Also in normal times, there is a concert on the third Friday of each month, featuring two "spots" by a guest act, usually of national acclaim, and one spot from a support act, always talented and usually local. All this is preceded by a jolly bashing out of tunes by the house band, kicking off at 7:40pm. The concert starts at 8pm. Tickets are usually priced at £10 each. However, we are not allowed to sit together, blow instruments or sing communally at the moment so regrettably all this isn't happening. But watch the Home and Future Events pages as we are managing to put on some concerts via Zoom. See the Past Events page for the Zoom concerts we have hosted so far this year.    

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