A rising folk star on stage
English folk singer and former BBC Folk Award nominee Fay Hield, pictured with her band The Hurricane Party.
BBC Folk Award nominee Fay Hield visits Selby Town Hall on Saturday with her stellar band, The Hurricane Party.
The gig is in support of her second album ‘Orfeo’. The acclaimed singer and academic, renowned for her emotion filled renditions of traditional English songs, is joined by some of the biggest names on the folk circuit, including partner Jon Boden who is best known as the front man of Bellowhead, the most successful folk band the UK has produced in years.
Jon is joined in The Hurricane Party by fellow Bellowhead man Sam Sweeney as well as English Acoustic Collective multi-instrumentalist Rob Harbron and celebrated accordion player Andy Cutting.
While Fay Hield’s debut solo album, Looking Glass, earned her early success and a BBC Folk Award nomination, it is her expansive second album, Orfeo, released in May, that looks set to propel her into the big league. The focus of Fay’s first album was her rich and unadorned voice, but Orfeo now sees her confidently fronting a superstar supporting cast. The album features 11 traditional songs, and Fay’s gift for unearthing rare and interesting material is well represented throughout with the likes of The Old ‘Arris Mill, a feisty Lancashire mill-girl tour-de-force, and Tarry Trousers, a favourite of Charles Dickens.
With her second album and the collection of talented musicians around her Fay has been able to take her exquisite instrumental arrangements to an entirely new level.
Alongside her burgeoning performing career, Fay is also an academic, lecturing in Ethnomusicology at the University of Sheffield with a PhD thesis on English folk singing and the construction of community completed in 2010. She is currently consultant for the ‘Music Communities’ research project at the University of Manchester and guest lectures at many other higher education establishments including Leeds College of Music. Fay and Jon also find time to run two folk clubs – Royal Traditions, in their local village of Dungworth, and Bright Phoebus, in Sheffield.
“Fay Hield is an absolutely stunning singer and a real rising star with an extraordinary group of backing musicians that is second to none,” said town council arts officer Chris Jones.
He added: “Jon Boden is possibly the most sought after performer in British folk. His Bellowhead colleague Sam Sweeney, along with Rob Harbron and Andy Cuttting, are virtuoso musicians in their own right. This is set up to be a really cracking gig!”
Fay Hield and the Hurricane Party are at Selby Town Hall on Saturday. The doors open at 7.30pm for an 8pm start. Tickets are £12 in advance and £14 on the door. To find out more call 01757 708449 or go to the www.selbytownhall.co.uk website.
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Weather for Selby
Tuesday 21 May 2013
Today
Light rain
Temperature: 8 C to 15 C
Wind Speed: 16 mph
Wind direction: North
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Sunny spells
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