by Anna
>Apr 2009 New album premiered on BBC Radio 2. Woooohoooooo!! I am such a happy bunny! Mike Harding played the first track from our new album ‘Fish Cat Door’ on Wednesday 1st April and also happened to mention that he thinks it is the best thing we’ve ever done! Wow! Cormac and I celebrated by dancing around the kitchen like total loons. So now for a month of promotion and preparation for the official release on May 18th. There’s a couple of sneaky preview tracks up on the Myspace page now, check them out here.
We’re also going digital this month at long last, so you will be able to download Uiscedwr tracks at your leisure, from all the usual outlets (itunes, amazon etc). I’ll get some clicky-click buttons for this site so you can go straight to the appropriate page as soon as the tracks are up. Circle and Everywhere will be available from April 20th, with the new album going live on May 18th. Exciting times hey?!
On a personal note, I must mention that this is looking very likely to be the months that I finally come off most of my major transplant medications, and although I’ve been feeling totally well for six months now, this is a real landmark on the road to full recovery. My treatments are going to get fewer, and I should be looking at only a few hospital visits a year by 2010, a far cry from the every-other-day routine I got so used to. So please raise a glass to my wonderful bone marrow donor, wherever he may be, because this little lady is alive and kicking thanks to him, and boy am I ready to take over the world in 2009!! Happy days.
>Mar 2009 Deutschland Deutschland we love you! I think I left my heart in Germany because after this month’s 18-night extravaganza in the country it’s been really hard to return to real life!
So yes, it’s official – Uiscedwr are BIG in Germany, woohoo! We joined the Irish Spring Tour for a hectic tour of Germany alongside three other acts. It was a giant travelling festival, and I was surprised every night at how incredible the organisation was to get that many musicians in the right place at the right time, all plugged in and ready to play!
Uiscedwr were headlining the tour, and we were joined by Daoiri Farrell – without a doubt this lad will be the next Christy Moore, The Long Notes (from London, featuring banjo-demon Brian Kelly aka the ginger ghost, the fabulous Colette O’Leary on accordion and the brilliant Jamie Smith aka the white ghost on fiddle), and last but not least, the inspiring Dingle White Females featuring Pauline Scanlon, Eilis Kennedy and the most jaw-droppingly funky guitar you can imagine from Mike Galvin.
PHEW! What a tour…. There was schnitzel galore, madness on the tour bus, hotels ranging from the sublime to the ridiculous and a whole bucket load of Irish craic. We made so many new friends I really feel heartbroken to have had to leave them all behind. Thankfully Germany liked us as much as we like them so we’ve already got another tour booked in for 2010, yipeeeeeeeeeeee.
Check out the behind the scenes action Cormac and I filmed on one of the nights by going to our Myspace page here. We’ll add some photos and more videos as soon as we’ve recovered enough to do it!!!!
This tour also marked the end of our wonderful gigs with Karen Tweed. A massive thank you to Karen for all the fun and unbelievably inspiring music, we will miss you.
>Feb 2009
On the road again… oh yes we were the poor souls who had to go out and work despite the severe weather we experienced across the country this month. Typically our tour started at the exact same moment the snow came down. Our first performance was in Colchester – we were absolutely astonished at the number of people who came out to support us, especially given the fact that all the local radio stations were advising not to leave your house!! A great gig was had by all nonetheless.
We gave fans the exclusive chance to buy the album pre-release, and after selling our entire pre-release stock on the tour we were very glad we pushed to get it manufactured in time.
More snow came, and we kept on gigging, not missing a single night. We only had to push the van out of the snow once, and ironically that was 50metres from our front door…. You can’t beat the Yorkshire snow, I tell thee.
Fabulous night at Norwich Arts Centre – the crowd were electric, the sound incredible (thanks to the awesome crew) and we all left on a major high. We stayed that night with friends of Karen’s who were so lovely and welcoming it was very hard to drag ourselves away the next day – thank you to the wonderful Patterson Family.
Another highlight was returning to The Rock, Rob Shaw’s folk club in it’s new location in Maltby. Rob and his team have supported Uiscedwr almost from the very beginning, and it’s always a treat to perform there. They all made us feel so welcome, and it was good to catch up on the gossip from the folk awards!
The tour finished with a performance at Southport Day of Folk, on my birthday, 14th Feb with an energetic afternoon performance to a very enthusiastic crowd. I spent the evening sipping champagne in the van as we drove onwards to party! What a life!!
>Jan 2009
We spent January in the studio recording our third album with Uiscedwr. It was an intensive burst of activity, with the whole project being completed in a mere three weeks! Ok, so we did spend around a year planning it, but the actual activity took less than a month from when we stepped into the studio to the day the cds arrived, looking oh-so-yellow! PHEW!
Stepping up as engineer and co-producer alongside Cormac and myself this time was Andy Bell, who also worked with us on the Big Band Live cd in 2008. As usual it was an absolute pleasure to work with Andy – he’s a very experienced engineer, with an ear for folk music and the three of us made a great team when it came to the mixing.
A few problems arose with our choice of location for the recording…. Needless to say it will be the first and last time we ever record outside of a professional studio – we were turfed out for making too much noise after 11 days! Pah! Anyhoo despite the set-backs we carried on with the production, and got it all off to manufacture on time, hooray.
Karen Tweed joined us as our special guest throughout the cd, with James Hickman completing the line-up on guitar. I really feel like we’ve achieved something special in this album, and if first reviews are anything to go by, this is going to be a hot one!
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
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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!!
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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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