by Paul Castle

Contents:

UK News
London Gigs
Best of the Rest of the UK
UK Festivals - Celtic Connections 2001

Happy New Year to all 'pond' readers. As usual, the year kicks off in
the UK with the amazing Celtic Connections Festival in Glasgow,
which continues to draw the very best in International folk music - this
year's North American visitors include Kate & Anna McGarrigle,
Iris Dement, Alison Brown, Rickie Lee Jones, Janis Ian, Laura
Cantrell, Cherish the Ladies, Steve Riley & The Mamou
Playboys, Sara Grey and Tom Paxton. (see UK Festivals below
for full artist list and URLs).

One of the UK's finest singer songwriters, Jez Lowe, will be hopping
back and forth across the pond in the coming weeks, His January US
tour, with his group 'The Bad Pennies', concludes with a performance
on The Woodsongs Old-Time Radio Hour in Lexington, Kentucky
on 15th January (the taping can be viewed live on the net via their
website) before returning to the Hale End Folk Club on 18th (see
London Gigs) and The Davy Lamp Folk Club (where his current live
double CD was recorded) on 20th January. Then Jez is back for a
solo US tour in February. As Durham's 'Composer in Residence',
he is often commissioned to write songs which chronicle important
events in the locale, his latest being to celebrate the 150th
Anniversary of Newcastle's train station, which was opened by
Queen Victoria in 1850.

Last month's UK tour by Lucy Kaplansky seems to have proved
hugely successful, with Lucy appearing and playing live on a couple
of national BBC daytime radio shows. Apparently her performance
on 'Woman's Hour' was heard by ex-Roxy Music singer, Bryan
Ferry who was so impressed that he invited her into the studio the
next day to sing back-up vocals on his latest recording.

Lucy Kaplansky at the Jazz Cafe in London.

And finally, there was an encouraging article in the UK national
newspaper The Daily Telegraph last month. According to journalist
Colin Randall, "folk music in Britain has rarely been healthier. The
better albums shift tens of thousands of copies, festivals of all sizes
sell out. Could we even be on the verge of the biggest folk boom
since the folkrockers of the late Sixties built on the inroads made
by the folk revivalists and protest singers?"

Let's hope so - have a great month.

Paul pdcmusic@freeuk.com

PS. If you would like to receive 'Across the Pond' as a monthly
'plain text e-mail' please let me know.

Wherever you're bound this month, have a great time.

Paul pdcmusic@freeuk.com

Go to:
UK News
London Gigs
Best of the Rest of the UK
UK Festivals - Celtic Connections 2001