Welcome to Cambridge Folk Club
Intimate roots and acoustic music
Cambridge Folk Club presents Open Stage, Showcase and Guest Nights. Buy your tickets on-line from this website or phone 01638 603986
We are a live music club offering all styles of acoustic and folk music. We support local and national artists in a friendly and welcoming atmosphere. Before the coronavirus lockdown, we used to meet every Friday night at 8.00pm in the upstairs function room at The Golden Hind, Milton Road, Cambridge, CB4 1SP. This easily accessible pub offers a wide selection of draught lagers, beers and ciders, and a great range of pub food, and there's parking too. When the lockdown finishes, come along to enjoy creative, talented and original performances.
During the lockdown, we are now hosting Virtual Concerts.See the details below.
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Friday 4th December: Virtual Open Stage with special guests Tu-kay and Ryan
8pm (Meeting opens at 7:45pm)
Appearing this evening:
8:00pm Tony Tregidgo
8:10pm Mike Norman
8:20pm Eric Sedge.
8:30pm Jo Ash
8:40pm Jay Singing Spirit Cunningham
8:50pm Sam Shemmell
9:00pm Bernie Drury
9:10pm Roberta Pearle Lamb
9:20pm David Buckman
9:30pm Tu-kay and Ryan
Tony Tregidgo
Tony Tregidgo is a guitarist/songwriter. He used to do a regular open mic in Kentish Town before lockdown. His influences include Americana, folk, indie, blues.
Mike Norman
Mike came to one of our Open Stages just before lockdown, and we’ve invited him to join us virtually. Mike says " In my head - I'm Richard Thompson, Nick Drake, Joni Mitchell, Paul Weller, Stevie Wonder, Kate Rusby, David Bowie, Lennon AND McCartney, Bob Dylan, Simon AND Garfunkel, Kate Bush, Miles Davis, Stravinsky and Beethoven.
What you'll see and hear is a bloke who plays guitar and sings... "
Eric Sedge
Eric is a distinctive voice in the world of Folk and Roots music. With stories and song from his native East Anglia, he embraces both traditional and contemporary styles. Raised in a family of classical musicians, to a household with neither TV or car, it was perhaps inevitable that the boy would be shaped by the twin forces of melody and word. Books and music, forests and fields were his playground and are now his inspiration.
Eric can’t play for us over Zoom so has sent a short film.
Jo Ash
Jo hopes to take you on a bit of a journey with her music. Her songs are woven with stories and melodies that will pull you into her world. A pianist and writer, and award-nominated musician, Jo is currently working on two releases for next year. She is proud to have been reviewed by the Musician’s Union for her debut album ‘Constellations’, released in 2018. They said, “Singer-songwriter Jo Ash’s debut demands that we take notice. Jo’s balladry is unapologetically dramatic with swooping vocals perfectly suited to her gothic tales”.
Jay Singing Spirit Cunningham
We found out about Jay, a folk singer from Boston, Massachusetts, from Art Grossman, who runs music evenings in Massachusetts. Jay has a few original folk songs and does covers of Donovan Leitch and Eric Bogle, Guy Clark and Kris Kristofferson. He says, “Music is medicine.”
https://www.facebook.com/jay.s.cunningham/
Sam Shemmell
Sam is a 36-year-old singer songwriter from Walsall in the West Midlands. A well-seasoned performer, he has spent many years mastering his craft and travelling the country. Sam delivers his own unique style of playing paired with a soulful operatic voice that immediately commands the attention of audiences. As well as writing his own original material, he incorporates into his sets his stripped-back acoustic cover versions of songs by well-known artists such as Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, Kate Wolf, Joan Baez, passenger and Stu Larsen, to name but a few.
Bernie Drury
Music became a big part of Bernie’s life back in 1976 when he spent nearly a year busking through France and Italy playing at outdoor cafés, the Paris metro, night clubs and colleges. He began on Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Eagles, Carole King, James Taylor and many more, but has always been a lyrics guy. His song-writing spans most genres from the blues to country, rock and some jazz-influenced tunes, but, regardless of the style, the story is the most important piece. He is a member of the Skyland’s Songwriters Guild based in NW New Jersey, and co-hosts a monthly Songwriter’s Circle with his friend George Marinich.
Bernie’s “Busking Thru Life” tour, a musical celebration of his busking roots, where he would find the street music scene in the cities he visited, blog about the best places to busk and interview local street performers for an upcoming book, which should have happened in 2020, is now planned for 2021.
https://www.facebook.com/berniedrurysongwriter
Roberta Pearle Lamb
Roberta is a singer songwriter based in Rhode Island who performs her own original songs and favourite covers around New England. Roberta draws on her classical vocal training, her love of blues and pop, and her appreciation for a timeless tune. She has performed and featured at most of the music venues around the Boston and Providence area, and is now starting to perform virtually in far-flung places too. Her virtual shows are getting favourable reviews.
David Buckman
David, who is from Plymouth in Massachusetts, and also a friend of Art Grossman, plays mainly folk music along with roots, ragtime, and blues. But he also likes to uncover songs, rather than just cover them. He has been playing acoustic guitar for over 64 years. His Dad said that when he was young he wanted to play the guitar in the worst way…..and when he grew up, he succeeded! He sings silly songs, sad songs, and just love songs of the people.
Tu-kay and Ryan
Tu-kay and Ryan are a musical duo based in Northamptonshire, performing predominantly original material. They are fast becoming known for their lush harmonies and heartfelt lyrics touching both matters of the heart and encouraging a positive and optimistic outlook on society and life in its entirety. Since 2018, Tu-kay and Ryan have performed at numerous pubs, clubs and festivals in the UK and internationally.
Please support the performers taking part in this Virtual Concert by buying merchandise or giving donations using their links above. Thank you.
If you would like to make a donation to a performer who doesn't have a suitable link on their website, you can now make a donation to the Cambridge Folk Club Tip Jar at https://paypal.me/cambridgefolkclub
When you make a donation, please add a note to let us know which performer or performers the donation is for. Any donations received without a note will be shared between all the performers this evening.
Anyone who would like to be in the audience is welcome. Joining instructions will be emailed to performers and those on the Cambridge Folk Club mailing list. If you would like to be in the Zoom audience and are not on our mailing list, please email enquiries@cambridgefolkclub.co.uk
The Virtual Concert will also be streamed live on the Cambridge Folk Club Facebook page from 8pm as an alternative to Zoom.
If you would like to perform at a future Virtual Open Stage, please contact us via our Facebook page or at enquiries@cambridgefolkclub.co.uk
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An extra event in December
Joining instructions for the Virtual Victorian Parlour Evening will be emailed to those on the Cambridge Folk Club mailing list. If you would like to be in the Zoom audience and are not on our mailing list, please email enquiries@cambridgefolkclub.co.uk
The Virtual Victorian Parlour Evening will also be streamed live on the Cambridge Folk Club Facebook page from 7:30pm as an alternative to Zoom.
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Tip Jar
If you would like to make a donation to a performer who doesn't have a suitable link on their website, you can now make a donation to the Cambridge Folk Club Tip Jar at https://paypal.me/cambridgefolkclub
When you make a donation, please add a note to let us know which performer or performers the donation is for. Any donations received without a note will be shared between all the performers that evening.
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Become a Member of the Cambridge Folk Club
You are welcome to show your support for the Cambridge Folk Club by becoming a member for just £15 per year. If you choose to become a member, your year's membership will run from when we return to the Golden Hind.
You can buy a year's membership here.
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Read about how the Cambridge Folk Club Virtual Concerts have been organised during lockdown
Marion, Robin and Calvin from the Cambridge Folk Club Team have written in the latest issue of the Unicorn Magazine about organising our series of virtual concerts.
Unicorn Magazine Issue 151 (July, August & September 2020) is out now!!
Issue 151 of Unicorn Magazine is now available. Because of the coronavirus, this special bumper edition is ‘online-only’ (there’s no way to distribute the paper copies). To read the magazine online, or you can download it and print it out for yourself, please go to the website www.unicornmagazine.org and access the magazine from the Home page. Look for the magazine cover with the red banner saying 'Keep Safe and Carry On Supporting'.
The magazine is packed full of articles and information about music, dance and festivals – we hope you enjoy reading it and sharing the link with friends. And why not sign up to the Unicorn blog here – it’s a great way to keep up to date with what’s happening in the folk world, and you can unsubscribe at any time.
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Cambridge Folk Club evenings at the Golden Hind closed due to Coronavirus lockdown.
The Cambridge Folk Club evenings at the Golden Hind are closed until further notice because of the coronavirus COVID-19 restrictions.
Some of you may have read that there will be a return to indoor concerts. The Government document https://www.gov.uk/guidance/working-safely-during-coronavirus-covid-19/performing-arts mentions a Five Stage plan, and we are now at Stage Three. Stage Five says some indoor concerts may be possible in October, after pilot concerts have taken place. The Government document applies to professional musicians. It stipulates social distancing, marked out areas, a one way system, monitoring of 'pinch points', use of sanitiser and deep cleaning of the premises and equipment after each concert.
Unfortunately, with social distancing, we cannot accommodate enough people in our function room to make concerts with professional musicians financially viable at the moment.
In addition, the Government guidance for non-professional musicians playing indoors asks that they and their audience should keep to the guidelines on "meeting people outside your household". These say that people should "socially distance from those they do not live with, and interactions should be limited to no more than two households". Sadly, this also makes it impossible to arrange Open Stage/Showcase nights with our local non-professional musicians.
We are all looking forward to resuming face to face live music, but with this guidance in mind, this doesn't look possible for a while yet. So, for the moment, we will be continuing with our Zoom sessions. We will, of course, keep monitoring the Government guidance and keep you updated about when the live concerts will reopen via our website and our mail out.
We are hoping to re-book the artists who were scheduled to appear at the Club at a later date.
Some of the artists who were going to perform at the Golden Hind are now appearing on our Virtual Concerts.
In these difficult times, we at Cambridge Folk Club are asking you to support the musicians who won’t be able to play for us while the Club is closed, by buying their CDs and other merchandise. This would go some way towards replacing their lost income, and would also show that we’re thinking of them.
Stay safe and healthy, and enjoy listening to the music we all love so much.
With best wishes from all of us at Cambridge Folk Club.