7:30, Friday 16th January (WSA)
Hall Brothers Band,
Serious Sam Barrett, David Broad
Hall Bothers Band
The Hall Brothers - Nick and Duncan Hall - started playing together in folk clubs in their teens. They had learned to sing in harmony by singing along to Everly Brothers and learned guitar by playing along to Dire Straits albums and watching other people play. They started writing songs very organically straight away.
They were spotted literally bouncing off the furniture at a gig in Addingham by Otley Folk Festival’s Steve Fairholme who booked the energetic duo to play the following year’s festival and the rest is history.
In short order they were supporting Show Of Hands, playing at folk clubs and festivals around the country and then they met ex Magna Carta fiddle player John Carey and the hugely popular trio was established.
The trio toured all over the UK and played in Ireland and the Netherlands while releasing acclaimed albums.
Over the years, the trio expanded to become a band when required, and superb young drummer/percussionist Chris Bunyan has been a mainstay of the acoustic and electric line up for years. With Ian Prowse’s bass player Dave Mastrocola, the band played for many years as part of the Sunday afternoon at Otley Folk Festival - playing Springsteen-length sets without a break.
Duncan also fronts the Rob Dylan Band, John was an ex member of Magna Carta - as was Nick, who also forms half of Plumhall (with whom he has toured with Fairport Convention, sung with Al Stewart and performed at the Cropredy Festival).
After a gap of some years, the full electric line up of The Hall Brothers Band is back, with a new bass player (Dave living on the south coast!).
'Serious' Sam Barrett
Serious Sam Barrett is a hard touring, folk and country singer/songwriter from Otley, West Yorkshire. Playing honest, heartfelt self penned and traditional songs on 12 string guitar and banjo.
Raised in the Dales village of Addingham, Sam began performing in and around Leeds in 2004, with word spreading further afield with the release of his 2009 debut album Close To Home. Performing at SXSW in Austin, Texas in 2010, he has toured the US widely, usually in the company of friends and fellow skaters The Pine Hill Haints. Along the way, Sam has shared stages with the likes of Martin Carthy, Dave Burland, Katherine Tickell, Lucero, The Young Un's, Frank Fairfield, Deer Tick and Karine Polwart, and received airplay and praise plaudits from the BBC’s Bob Harris, Marc Riley and Mark Radcliffe as well as Mike Harding.
Reviews:
“The sustained brilliance of this playing is really something to behold.”
Bob Harris, BBC Radio 2
"There's some real swagger to this"
Mark Radcliffe BBC Radio 2 Folk Show
“Songs that rattle with the ghosts of Appalachian folk, and southern blues, yet sound emphatically English.”
Uncut Magazine
“Old before his years country-folk fellow who mixes intricate John Fahey finger-picking with confessional tales of dirty old Leeds”
The Guardian
“Excellent stripped back folk”
David Broad
David’s playing is seeped in the tradition of American folk and blues guitar, from the rags of Blind Blake and Reverend Gary Davis, to the delta blues of Robert Johnson and Charley Patton. He is also an accomplished harmonica player in the country blues tradition of Sonny Boy Williamson I and Sonny Terry.
His involvement with the Lindy Hop scene nudged him in the direction of early jazz and swing, but the standards Louis Armstrong may have sung still posses a rural quality. He cut his teeth playing in country and folk bands and will still play the odd bluegrass number if the feeling takes him.
His reworking of traditional songs breathes new life into well worn standards and his original compositions the give a nod to the rootsy side of Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen and Townes Van Zandt.
7:30, Friday 16th January
The Wetherby Sports Association, Lodge Lane, Wetherby, LS22 5FN