Adventures in Austria

>19/03/08

At the end of February we set out for our first trip to Austria, land of Schnitzel, schnapps and of course lederhosen! We were part of the Celtic Spring Festival tour organised by the amazing Dietmar Haslinger, of Weltenklang productions. On the road with us were the fabulous Lorraine Jordan band. Lorraine is a a singer/songwriter from Wales who is totally awesome, and she was joined by Gill Hunter on piano and accordion, and Tim O'Leary on fiddle, two seriously good musicians from Scotland and Ireland respectively. Each gig began with an hour long set from Lorraine and co. before Uiscedwr hit the stage for the next hour. The two bands joined for a double encore of song and tunes at the end of the show, much to the delight of the Austrian audiences.

Karen Tweed came out towards the end of the tour, for two gigs - one in St. Polten, the other in Vienna at an accordion festival. She was awesome as per usual and it was great having the Tweedster on board for those gigs. The audiences went WILD for the four of us! St. Polten was a really beautiful place to play, less touristy than Vienna but with all the shops and breathtaking architecture you'd expect. Cormac and I tried out the sauna at the Metropol hotel in St. Polten which was very relaxing, and my god we needed it - only had one day off on the whole tour!!

Having played all over the country, from Graz to Vienna and even a gig in Udine in Italy, we really felt like we got to see a lot of what Austria had to offer. Some of the gigs were in massive theatres - Bad Ischl saw us perform in the last Emporer's palace, and during a visit to the Alps just outside Innsbrook we played a garden centre! All the promoters were fantastic, must give a special mention to the wonderful Doris in Graz, who sent us away with home made schnapps and lots of trad Austrian music on cd. Also the fabby guys who ran the folk club in Igel where we had our final gig of the tour were truly brilliant, and very accommodating!

18 gigs later we returned to the UK heavy hearted after what was the best tour any of us have ever experienced. We travelled around Austria under the close eye of Dietmar and our tour angel Otto, who not only drove one of the vans, but was also resident sound engineer. Both guys did an amazing job in looking after us all and translating lots of menus and wine lists and I feel really honoured that we got to work with two such fabby people. Love you guys!

James is now well and truly integrated into Uiscedwr, and he was simply amazing on tour, everyone agreed he is a serious asset to the band. Hooray!! We'll be working on a new Uiscedwr album with James and Karen over the next few months. Will keep you posted!

Anna x

The break is over!

>06/12/07

After 2 months of doing various other projects and adventures, we're back on the road at last for one more tour before the new year. Check out all the details on the gigs page. With gigs everywhere from Nailsea to Bournemouth it's bound to be a seriously fabby tour, with added celebrations for Anna on December 15th as it's the first anniversary of her bone marrow transplant. Nice one girly!

Big Band Spectacular

>06/12/07

We are proud to announce the final line-up for the Uiscedwr Big Band:

Anna Esslemont (fiddle/vocals), Cormac Byrne (bodhran/percussion), Karen Tweed (accordion/vocals), Neil Yates (trumpet/flugelhorn), Dylan Bible (guitar/mandolin), Nick Waldock (bass).

Sadly Kevin won't be joining us for the Big Band, but we are very excited to introduce Irish guitar-whiz Dylan Bible who will be flying over to complete the six-piece.

The premiere will be on Saturday January 19th in the Strathclyde Suite at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall. Rehearsals have been intense and the sounds, textures and energy of the band are nothing short of breathtaking. This is one gig you do not want to miss.

New Festival Agents

>06/12/07

We're very proud to announce that the wonderful people at Iconic Music will be representing Uiscedwr and the Uiscedwr Big Band for all our festival bookings next year. If you are interested in booking Uiscedwr or the Big Band for your festival please get in touch with Iconic by phoning 01926 632946 or you can email info@iconicmusic.com

Summer's nearly over but we're still smiling...

>26/08/07

Summer's nearly over, but we're still smiling It's been a fantastic summer for Uiscedwr with successful gigs up and down the country. Thanks to everyone who came out to support us, I think we can all agree it's been an awesome summer despite the bad weather!

Last week's performance at the Pontardawe festival was particularly noteable - enormous and very enthusiastic crowd! We even had a few dancers join us on stage for the last few numbers, what a wicked gig. Sidmouth Festival was also rather fabulous. It has been 4 years since Uiscedwr performed at the festival, so good to get back there. Beautiful sunshine for the whole event (lucky us eh?!) which meant Cormac and Kevin braved the cold sea for a swim TWICE! Nutters…. Another great night was had at the Whitstable Oyster Festival where Uiscedwr stormed the stage at the Playhouse in July. Support was provided by the excellent Queensbury Rules, and the theatre was packed. We even had an artist create a beautiful drawing of us while we were playing, that's a new one!

We're in the process of organising the Uiscedwr Big Band for Celtic Connections, and hope to book in a few more big festivals for this project in 2008 (Interested bookers should contact Anna on annaesslemont@ntlworld.com). Very exciting! We're looking forward to working with the awesome Karen Tweed and Neil Yates who will be joining us in the Big Band. Will post details as soon as they're finalised.

Anna, Cormac and Kevin are running weekend courses at Farncombe Estate this November (2nd-4th). The courses will give participants a rare chance to learn either bodhran, fiddle or guitar with Uiscedwr and then chill out at the sessions in the bar in the evenings. All accommodation and food is provided on site. Check out the Farncombe Estate website for more details. BOOK SOON - PLACES ARE LIMITED AND DEMAND IS ALWAYS HIGH!!!!

Anna continues to progress well since her bone marrow transplant in December, and is now fully back to her usual mad energetic self, performing better than ever on stage with the lads. Phew!

Gigs, gigs, gigs

>13/06/07

Well the summer has officially begun and we began touring again with a hot gig in West Chiltington at the Footlights. Amazing crowd that night - thanks to everyone who travelled from far and wide especially to be at our first gig back, it meant a lot to us. The hall was full and the energy was electric, what a night! Beautiful support from our host Jerry Page who we did an impromptu song with in the second set. The whole gig was filmed too and there are some great clips so we'll be putting some up shortly. Great to see some Seth Lakeman fans bopping away at the gig - hope you guys enjoyed seeing Cormac with us!

Up to Colchester Arts Centre on the Sunday which was equally fab. Again the crowd was loud, enthusiastic and appreciative - just what we like! Such a great venue, and who could forget Chris the resident sound engineer, my god he knows how to rock our sound.

Cambridge Folk Club on the 8th and it was heaving! Everything about the club is so good, particularly the brilliant organisers and the eclectic mix of people that come. Again some pics were taken so we'll get them up asap - that's if the funky twins who were in charge of the camera made it home…… get in touch guys!!

Messageboard glitch

>13/06/07

Many of you have emailed recently to tell us that our online messageboard isn't accepting new messages - OH NO! Obviously this is a serious problem for us as we love you guys to talk here so our web people are working on it and fingers crossed the problem will be fixed in a few days. In the meantime leave us a comment on the Myspace page.

New Website
Oh yes, we finally got there…. And isn't our brand spanking new website simply gorgeous?! We hope you like the site and enjoy having a good look through all the new features on offer. You can now buy both Uiscedwr albums directly from this site - check out our shop page for samples of the music and ordering details. We've also added a messageboard so you can add your comments/thoughts/musings about Uiscedwr whenever you want! Go on, click here and leave us a message - you know you want to. Big thanks to our web designers, Devign-fx.

Cormac plays with the world's fastest tap dancer
Our very own Cormac Byrne started the new year with a bang by working with the legendary James Devine, who holds the Guinness World Record for being the "fastest tap dancer alive". Cormac joined James for an Italian tour of the dance extravaganza Tapeire, featuring James' unique style of 'Celtic tap', a fusion of Irish dance with Rhythm Tap.
Check out the Tapeire site here.

Bodhran and guitar courses
Cormac and Kevin will be running weekend courses at Farncombe Estate Education Centre from 2-4 March this year.

:: Bodhran and Percussion with Cormac Byrne
The course aims to provide a detailed look at the bodhran and its use in all styles of music. Topics covered will include basic and advanced technique, sound, how to accompany different types of tunes, working with other musicians, improvisation, gig tips and practice routines. The sessions will include an introduction to other percussion instruments, a valuable skill for any bodhran player today, and percussion ensemble playing. Will also suit percussionists with little or no bodhran experience.
Open to all, the course will cover all levels.

:: Learn to Play Folk Guitar with Kevin Dempsey
This course for acoustic guitar will look at accompaniments for traditional and contemporary songs and/or tunes, with a view to making them more interesting for both players and listeners. How to create an "arrangement" and introduce chordal variations. Both finger and plectrum styles will be looked into, with tips and hints for improving technique. The main point will be to enjoy the course, have some fun and take away ideas and inspiration to use in your own situation; professional, amateur, solo or in a band. Improvement and enjoyment are the key factors.

Cormac and Anna started running folk music courses at the Estate some time ago, and have had excellent feedback from participants ever since. The venue is set in the magnificent Cotswolds, so when you're not playing you can admire the stunning views and go on lots of walks. That's if you find time.....! There is an informal session both nights of the course, and the food is seriously tasty and plentiful.

Go to www.farncombeestate.co.uk/folk
Or call the centre on T: 01386 854100

As Anna is currently recovering from her recent transplant she's unable to join the Uiscedwr lads at Farncombe in March. However, the good news is that she will be running her famous fiddle course in November. Details coming soon….

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