Artists 2022
Nick Parker & Friends
Glastonbury based Nick Parker started gigging in his early teens playing mandolin and singing in folk band ‘Why?’, and spent the next 10 years bouncing around on stages at hundreds of venues and festivals around the UK and Europe.
In 2010 Nick embarked on a solo career and has since released four full-length albums. Nick’s songs are often tongue-in-cheek and cheerful, and on the rare occasion when fun IS poked it is always with a wry smile and an element of satire. At Folk on the Quay Nick will be joined by ace fiddle player Benny Wain, and multi-instrumentalist John Hare.
The Last Inklings
The Last Inklings are Leonardo MacKenzie and David Hoyland, accomplished multi-instrumentalists with a solid folk background. The band’s innovative sound crosses genres, centred around cello, mandolin and vocal harmony, layered with guitar, piano, strings, synths and percussion. With vibrant backstories and creative musicianship, their songs have a modern flavour that is rich with imagery and narrative, exploring at their core what it is to be human.
Good Habits
Described as “engagingly clear across a rich variety of styles” (Songlines), Good Habits are a UK alt-folk duo, telling stories and turning heads across the globe. Composed of singer-cellist Bonnie Schwarz and accordionist Pete Shaw, the duo create folk-ish musical tales, with captivating lyrics married with their unique brand of brisk instrumental virtuosity.
Antoine & Owena
Antoine & Owena create their own original blend of folk music that provides a feast for the ears. Owena Archer on the violin and Antoine Architeuthis with the folk-rock guitar, they combine to create an eclectic mix of original and traditional material inspired by history, tragedy, love and hope.
Jonny Phillips
Fusing indie music with folk and rock and then throwing in a hint of roots, Jonny Phillips plays and creates the music he loves. Usually armed with his trusty acoustic guitar, he combines often intricate melodies with his soft-with-a-touch-of-grit vocals.
Gadarene
Carrivick Sisters
The Carrivick Sisters are one of the UK’s top young bluegrass and folk acts. Twins Laura and Charlotte perform their original songs and instrumentals along with a few carefully chosen covers on guitar, mandolin, fiddle, dobro, and clawhammer banjo. Their busy touring schedule is rapidly building them a reputation for engaging and entertaining live performances with tight sibling vocal harmonies and multi instrumental virtuosity. Having grown up in South Devon, an area rich in folk lore and legends, much of their original material is inspired by their local surroundings and history.
Murphy’s Lore Trio
Murphy’s Lore is a well-known and well established Bournemouth based band, performing traditional and contemporary folk music, from the British Isles.
Alex and Noeleen have been Murphster’s for years, probably 20, and have been doing duo stuff for about 12. Noeleen plays guitar, whistle, and bodhran but is best known for her beautiful, clear and melodic vocal delivery, whilst Alex provides a ‘minimal, unfussy’ style on guitar, tenor guitar, some backing vocals, occasionally the mandolin and a stomp to lend some ‘oomph’ when needed.
Krista Green & The Bees
Krista Green & The Bees are a four-piece indie/pop/rock band that pack a punch.
Effortlessly entwining high-energy foot-stomping tunes with laid-back soulful tracks, Krista Green certainly knows how to write a good ear-worm, so their original material speaks for itself. The band also have a large repertoire of popular covers so are well equipped to play for just about any crowd.
Wareham Whalers
Wareham Whalers have been together now for over 17 years. We enjoy singing a wide range of shanties, songs of the sea as well as a number of songs composed by members of our crew. We adopt the style that sailors would have used nearly 200 hundred years ago when working.
Benji Kirkpatrick and The Excess
Benji formed The Excess in 2017, drafting in fellow Bellowhead member Pete Flood on drums and Jackie Oates and Megan Henwood collaborator Pete Thomas on bass.
Benji leading on bouzoukis – electric and acoustic – and guitar they stoke up rhythm’s, riffs and uproarious, soaring melodies; at times stark and raw, at times sensitive, always powerful.
Hannah Cumming & Jon Dyer
Calum Gilligan
Calum is a songwriter and guitarist from Dumfries and Galloway in Scotland, now based in the beating heart of British music, Liverpool. Influenced by the likes of Christie Moore, Paul Brady, Paul Simon, Joan Baez and Woody Guthrie, he plays a subtle blend of Scottish, Irish and American folk music with captivating imagery and the lyrical maturity of a much more experienced songwriter. His guitar playing provides enough intricate melodic accompaniment to his singing that he can easily command a stage and captivate and audience on his own.
Bow & Box
Bow & Box is a folk duo from the South Coast providing unique ceilidh experiences, rousing concerts and a sensitive background accompaniment.
Chris (fiddle/viola) and Matt (diatonic accordions) first met when they were booked – separately – to busk on Eastleigh high street. After instantly finding each other’s groove, the spark was ignited on the journey to create Bow & Box.
The Model Folk
The Model Folk are a six-piece band, hailing from the deepest darkest reaches of North Somerset. Their sound is an eclectic cocktail of influences that could loosely fit in the folk canon. Live shows are full of self-deprecating humour, romance, pathos, audience engagement and interaction.
Hatful of Rain
Hatful of Rain are based in East Sussex, they have been playing together since 2010. Their music is a blend of British Folk & Americana styles, centred round songs with timeless themes of love and loss, domestic hardships, migration, identity, celebration & grief. They have released 3 albums and 1 EP to date and have toured widely in the UK on the folk circuit; rooms above pubs, folk clubs, villages halls, festivals, house concerts and theatres.
Fly Yeti Fly
Fly Yeti Fly are the Wiltshire-based acoustic duo Lorna Somerville and Darren Fisher. Blending sensitive vocal harmonies with intricate guitar arrangements, mandolin and harmonica, the duo weave songs and stories from their travels together, with a sound that is reminiscent of the late-’60s folk scene. Now living on their canal boat on the Kennet & Avon canal, their music is heavily influenced by the natural world and life on the water. “Stylish, quirky self-penned indie-folk of the charmingly delicate-but-distinctive variety.” fRoots
Ben Morgan Brown
Ben Morgan-Brown is an English pastoral folk & blues guitarist, whose instrumental compositions draw inspiration from nature, nostalgia, and the antics of his three-year-old Border Collie (and other creatures).
His playing has been described as “just beautiful” by Grammy-award-winning producer and songwriter Joe Henry, and his 2021 album Moment has been praised for containing “extraordinary guitar virtuosity” by BBC Music Introducing, “seriously confident playing chops” by Fresh On The Net, and “great playing and tone” by Collings Guitars.
Feral Beryl
Feral Beryl are variously, occasionally, in part or in whole, more than (but never less than) the beating of the excitingly unique and musically feral hearts of Sue Clare, Gemma White and Lucy May. Hard to pigeonhole, but appealing to audiences of all ages and sorts, the Beryls promise to emerge from their individual (and/or collective) musical undergrowths with performances wild with originality, joyfulness, poignancy and energy.