Findlay Napier among autumn season of folk concerts in Derbyshire town

Findlay Napier will perform at Belper Meadows on November 10, 2024 (photo: Elly Lucas)Findlay Napier will perform at Belper Meadows on November 10, 2024 (photo: Elly Lucas)
Findlay Napier will perform at Belper Meadows on November 10, 2024 (photo: Elly Lucas)
Folk musicians are blasting away the autumn blues at concerts in a Derbyshire town.

The new season of Folk at the Meadows is up and running at The Club House, MOVO Meadows in Belper, offering feelgood tunes to warm up chlly evenings.

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In a double headliner, Auka and David Grubb will be performing at the venue on October 27.

Auka take their name from the Old Norse word meaning to grow or augument, which sums up the band’s organic approach to music making. Kirsty Lomax’s lyrical Irish flute and whistle melodies are accompanied by intricate and precise rhythmic guitar from Matt Gilchrist and expressive jazz-folk doublebass from Joss-Mann Hazell.

Autumn 2023 saw the release of Auka’s second album, Wild Waters, a recording fuelled by their passion for the rewilding and Right to Roam movements, in particular the need for access to blue spaces for wild swimming.

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David Grubb will be presenting his new record Circadia to the audience in Belper. His composition explores the human subconscious, leading listeners through a typical sleep cycle and encountering weird and wonderful phenomena along the way.

Primarily a violinist, David has shared the stage and studio with such notable acts including Novo Amor, Jim Ghedi, Hailaker and Toby Hay.

November 10 brings to Belper one of the finest performers on the UK music scene. Findlay Napier is touring his new album, Outsider, produced by Boo Hewerdine and featuring performances from Liam Chapman (C-Duncan, Billy No Mates), Kevin McGuire (Eddi Reader) and Neil McColl (The Bible, Peggy Seeger) and Angus Lyon (Blazin’ Fiddles).

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Findlay is as comfortable on the main stage of Cambridge Folk Festival with folk rock supergroup The Magpie Arc as he is in an intimate acoustic show in the back room of a pub. This fact was further highlighted when Findlay was the first solo act ever to be nominated for Live Act of the Year at the Scot’s Trad Music awards in 2018. Tirelessly creative, he has been touring and releasing music since the early noughties. First with groundbreaking trad folk band Back of the Moon, then with nu-folk pioneers Findlay Napier and the Bar Room Mountaineers and latterly a solo act working under the guidance of legendary songwriter Boo Hewerdine. HIs breakthrough solo album VIP: Very Interesting Persons (produced by Boo Hewerdine), was number 2 in The Telegraph’s top folk albums of 2014.

Fellow Scottish exports, TRIP, are also calling at Belper for a gig on November 17. Their trademark sound is dynamic, driven and distinctive and celebrates the band’s roots in the Celtic traditions of Scotland, Ireland, Northumbria and the Isle of Man. Tight-knit arrangements blend traditional melodies and self-penned tunes and songs to produce an exciting take on folk music. Their debut album A Drop for Neptune, which was released in 2022, was nominated for Best Album of the Year at the Scots Trad Music Awards. Their continued success in 2023 has garnered a nomination for Folk Band of the Year.

The impressive line-up features six young players at the forefront of Glasgow’s traditional music scene, including BBC Young Traditional Musician of the year 2021 and members of FARA, GNOSS, The Canny Band and HEISK. Key players in TRIP are Isla Callister (fiddle), Tiernan Courell (flute/whistle), Michael Biggins (accordion), Alasdair MacKenzie (guitar/voice), Rory Matheson (piano) and Craig Baxter (bodhrán).

Tickets for the Folk at the Meadows concerts are available from www.wegottickets.com/BDR. Door open at 7.30pm and the shows start at 8pm.

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