The Shetland Folk Festival has finalised the visiting artiste line up for the 32nd annual event by announcing three more acts; two forming part of the mainstream concerts, bringing the total number of acts for the Festival Foy extravaganza to 15. The third is for a one off event on Thursday 3rd going by the title Jimmy Macgregor's gathering of songs, stories and famous folk!
For the mainstream Festival, two multi award-winning duos, Tim Edey & Brendan Power as well as Jeana Leslie & Siobhan Miller have been added.
Fresh from winning two titles at the prestigious BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards in February 2012, the organising committee have lured Edey and Power back to entertain Shetland audiences once more. Whilst Tim has been to Shetland several times in the past few years, it was 1993 that Brendan last performed at the Festival.
Voted Musician of the Year 2012 at the Radio 2 Folk Awards, Tim Edey is without doubt one of the finest multi-instrumental players of his generation in the worldwide Celtic music scene. A virtuoso on both acoustic guitar and button accordion, his incredible musical ear and technical command allows him to play the most demanding instrumentals and improvise freely in any style. Performing with UK based Kiwi harmonica player and composer Brendan Power, this fantastic act picked up Best Duo at the 2012 Radio 2 Folk Awards. Power is acknowledged by many as one of the most versatile and creative harp players around.
Shining new stars on the UK folk scene, Jeana Leslie and Siobhan Miller are two extremely talented and multi award winning Scottish singers and musicians. Siobhan scooped the Citty Finlayson Scots Singer of the Year 2011 award at the BBC ALBA Scots Trad Music Awards. Prior to that the duo won the BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Award in 2008 – the same year as winning Best Up and Coming Artist in the MG Alba Awards. Both blessed with stunning natural voices that blend beautifully, critics and audiences alike have responded warmly to the duo's fresh approach to vocal arrangements and their open, communicative personalities onstage.
The third addition to the line-up is folk singer and broadcaster Jimmie Macgregor who has been described as one of Scotland's top personalities and the most entertaining traveller. His one-off illustrated talk and performance at the Shetland Hotel on the Festival's opening night will outline his influence in the folk music revival and his stories of famous folk will be delivered with undimmed levels of energy and enthusiasm. Turning 82 in March, Jimmie is also famous for his TV shows like The West Highland Way and Macgregor's Gathering that ran on BBC Radio Scotland for more than 10 years.
Mhari Pottinger from the Festival committee said “we are absolutely thrilled with the final additions to the 2012 visiting artistes, adding yet more diversity and first class musicianship to a line up that's already been highly commended – and that's even before we've announced the local acts. We are always looking for ways to expand our ticket availability to better meet demand but also in the type of events that the Festival encompasses. This year we're planning 25 ticketed events at 13 different venues and hopefully there's a little bit of something for everyone.”
The deadline for receipt of Advance Festival membership applications is Friday 2nd March with forms available for download from the Festival's website. Ticket bookings open for advance members around the 16th March, within all remaining tickets and additional membership for sale from Friday 6th April. For more information, including all the visiting acts" biographies with sound samples please visit: www.shetlandfolkfestival.com
The completed visiting acts line-up is now as follows:
Admiral Fallow (Scotland – one night only)
Treacherous Orchestra (Scotland – one night only)
J.P. Cormier and the Elliott Brothers (Cape Breton)
KAN (Scotland/England/Ireland)
Alison Brown Acoustic Quartet featuring John Doyle and Casey Driessen (USA/Ireland)
Lori Watson & Rule of Three (Scotland)
Sprag Session (Cape Breton)
Mànran (Scotland)
The Hot Seats (USA)
Rory Ellis with Perry Stenbäck and Steffan Sørensen (Australia/Sweden/Denmark)
Kasaï Masaï (UK/Congo)
Ross Couper & Tom Oakes (Shetland/England)
Baltic Crossing (Finland/Denmark/UK)
KV Express (Belgium)
Ross Ainslie & Jarlath Henderson (Scotland)
Tim Edey & Brendan Power (England/New Zealand)
Jeana Leslie & Siobhan Miller (Scotland)
Jimmie Macgregor (Scotland)
Allan's Magic (Scotland)