Marnhull Acoustic Session - Tom James & Pip Mountjoy

The new season of Marnhull Acoustic Sessions kicked of this evening in fine style with a double headline bill of Pip Mountjoy and Tom James. I have quite literally just returned home and downloaded my pictures and there seemed no reason not to write while it is still fresh on my mind.
Both artists indicated that new releases are in the pipeline - a third EP from Pip and Tom's first album and the follow up to his Green + White EP (2011).
Both artists played solo sets and then collaborated busking-style for a few tracks to finish off the evening in an interesting and very successful fashion so I shall start with that.

Oh Carolina.

The contrast in their respective song writing and acoustic styles was fascinating and just the kind of thing that an intimate gig  such as this shows to best effect.
   

    

Whilst Tom laid aside his acoustic for electric guitar on a number of songs Pip down-sized to ukelele, something that I do not recall from the time that I saw her at Deer Shed Festival 2012.

    

Marnhull Acoustic Sessions returns on 23 February with a celebration of its first anniversary. Phillip Henry and Hannah Martin will be headlining with Dorset-based Ninebarrow as support. The former are nominated for 'best duo' at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards 2014, that take place earlier the same week and so a double celebration is to be hoped for.

Marnhull Acoustic Sessions 2014

Parts of Somerset and Dorset are indeed flooded, with no end to the deluge in sight, but please don't think that the rich musical life of both counties has suddenly vanished. Far from it indeed and the new year of Marnhull Acoustic Sessions starts this coming Sunday with two fine singer-songwriters as a double-headline show and I have seen both live just once before.
Tom James is from Falmouth, Cornwall and played at North Dorset Folk Festival 2012. To choose a cover here, rather than one of his own songs, might seem a strange choice. To cover Bonnie Raitt is a mark of bravery...

Can't Make You Love Me.

      
Pip Mountjoy is from Richmond, North Yorkshire and I first saw her live at Deershed Festival, near Thirsk and also in North Yorkshire, in 2012. She was "down south" last June, performing on the BBC Introducing Stage at Glastonbury Festival.

The Killing Kind.

She has released two EPs, 'Louisiana' and 'My Skeleton' and this track is not on either of them. This Sunday should be very special.

Tickets are £6 + £0.60 fee booked here with instant e-delivery (no need to worry about the post) and £7 on the door at Marnhull Village Hall, if any are still available at this most intimate of venues.
On Saturday 25 October 2014 it will also be the home of the third North Dorset Folk Festival and you wouldn't want to miss that...
There are only a couple of festivals for which I will book a ticket on trust, with no prior knowledge of the line up: End Of The Road Festival is one and this another.

Live Music - Marnhull Acoustic Sessions

Marnhull Acoustic Sessions take place in Marnhull Village Hall, a small but intimate and well appointed venue in North Dorset that recently hosted the rather wonderful North Dorset Folk Festival 2013, about which I have already posted (1) (2) (3) and that shares the same organization.

This is simply my thoughts on why I'm so looking forward to the forthcoming artists as the event enters its second year early in 2014.

Tickets are £6.60 (including £0.60 booking fee). This is exclusively secure e-ticketing, so you do not have to worry about the post arriving in time! All the necessary information is on the website linked above.

The next date for your diary is a week tomorrow, Sunday 24 November, and features The Moulettes. If you were at North Dorset Folk Festival 2012, held at Sturminster Newton High School, you will know of them. There's a lot going on.

The Moulettes - North Dorset Folk Festival 2012.
  

If I haven't convinced you that you need a ticket then perhaps this will. Just now the Mike Harding Folk Show Number 47 (on Mixcloud here) also featured 'Songbird'.   In support this coming Sunday, apparently Liz Green. If this is real then what are you waiting for?
The following event is a Ceilidh on 22 December. I have to say that I shall be giving that one a miss. Not only do I have two left feet but it is close enough to Christmas that I shall likely be unavailable in any case.
After recovering from the Christmas and New Year excesses Marnhull Acoustic Sessions return with a vengeance in February.

On 2 February another veteran, although he might not see it quite that way, of North Dorset Folk Festival 2012 returns in the guise of Tom James originally from Falmouth. I seem to have taken few photos of that and this is the only remotely usable one, so hopefully I will be able to take some better ones in February!

Joining Tom on the bill that evening is an artist quite new to the Dorset acoustic scene. Travelling all the way from near Richmond, the one in North Yorkshire, is Pip Mountjoy. She certainly made it as far south as Somerset in 2013, as she played for BBC Introducing at Glastonbury Festival. I saw her live at Deer Shed Festival 2012, up near Thirsk in North Yorkshire. I didn't take any convincing that her star was rising after that and both are certainly ones to watch in 2014.

   
This is followed, just three weeks later, by Phillip Henry and Hannah Martin. In a year that has seen many remarkable albums, and of which more soon, at least from my perspective their latest 'Mynd' is certainly one of them. I have had the pleasure of seeing them twice live, both times at The Cheese and Grain here in Frome.
As of today Phillip Henry and Hannah Martin are nominated in the category 'Best Duo' at BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards 2014.
This picture was taken the first time I saw them play live - at Acoustic+ in the Cheese and Grain, Frome, 25 March 2011.

Hmm... I'm not sure why, but I have a feeling this is going to become something of a regular fixture.