Thanks so much to all those who booked tickets and supported our Marsden Americana & Bluegrass Day on 22nd June! Wasn’t it a wonderful day of live music? All the artists were absolutely exceptional, and the workshops in step dance and singing were both well supported, and much appreciated. If you were there in person, we’d love to get your feedback – please click here or scan the QR code on the left to complete our survey, and let us know your thoughts. It’s always helpful to include testimonials on our website and social media, and most importantly, to include in our final funding report to Arts Council England. It should only take a few minutes of your time, and you’ll be in with a chance to win your choice of an art print/clutch of CDs. We’ve already received lots of hugely positive comments in person and via social media, but it would be a great help to receive comments in one place, which we can easily collate.
For those of you who couldn’t join us on the day, do check out the performances that we livestreamed from the event, courtesy of the excellent crew at Northern Cowboy Films If you watch and enjoy, please consider making a donation to help cover the costs of this high quality filming and livestreaming effort, at paypal.me/TrueNorthMusicUK. But the most important thing is that as many people as possible watch, like, comment and share! That helps to increase our online audience numbers, and will assist in future funding applications. You can watch at our YouTube channel (each artist’s set is also linked below) or watch and share from True North Music’s Facebook page.
Jake Blount Trio (USA)
Jake Blount is a rising star on the American roots music scene, an award winning banjoist, talented fiddle player and singer and an authority on the early folk music of Black Americans. His outstanding trio also features double bass ace Nelson Williams and gifted multi-instrumentalist Gus Tritsch. Jake was featured on NPR’s renowned Tiny Desk concert series in 2023, was nominated for Artist of the Year 2023 at Folk Alliance’s International Folk Music Awards, and won the Steve Martin Banjo Prize back in 2020. He has received huge acclaim for both his album releases to date, especially 2022’s The New Faith, released as part of Smithsonian Folkways Recordings’ prestigious African-American Legacy Series.
Jaywalkers (UK)
Golden Shoals (USA)
USA duo Golden Shoals blend old time Appalachian traditions with fine original songwriting and excellent musicianship on acoustic guitar, fiddle and banjo. They are fabulously entertaining, combining influences from bluegrass, folk, Americana, Cajun, old time country music and more! Since forming their duo in Boston back in 2013, Amy Alvey and Mark Kilianski have taken their blend of footstomping traditional tunes and memorable original songs around the world. They have toured extensively across the USA, Canada, Australia, Germany and the UK, and have released several albums to date.
Cara Luft (Canada)
Hailing from Canada, Cara Luft is well known for her work with The Small Glories and The Wailin’ Jennys as well as her solo career. A talented guitarist and banjoist and a powerful singer, the JUNO award winner is also a gifted songwriter. A co-founder of popular folk trio The Wailin’ Jennys, after leaving that band Cara toured widely as a solo performer, releasing several solo albums and wowing audiences across North America and Europe. In 2012 she started performing as one half of The Small Glories, a duo which released two albums and toured around the world, winning Folk Alliance International’s 2020 Folk Artist of the Year Award. With the duo on hiatus in 2024, Cara is hitting the road solo for new adventures and collaborations. She taught a marvellous singing workshop as well as performing.
We would like to acknowledge the Project Grants funding support from Arts Council England which has helped to fund our entire 2023-24 local live music series, including concerts, community outreach workshops and this one day festival.