Evening all. Welcome to March’s edition of #fRootsLive. That’s a hashtag. Click on it and you’ll find all the tweets that people have been sending in. You can also use it to get our attention. That way, even if we miss something, you don’t have to.

Here’s how this works.

  1. You write a Tweet, post an Instagram or even a Facebook thingumy that you want us to share. Use the hashtag above and tag Jon Wilks, as he’s writing the blog post. You can find him here (on Facebook), here (on Twitter) or here (on Instagram).
  2. Your message should be a normal Tweet, Insta or Facebook thingumy. Jon just takes it and embeds it on this blog. He doesn’t have time to decipher your press releases or your gig lists. We get a lot of people writing in, so make it chatty, noticeable and fun. Video yourself! Whatever it takes!
  3. The session runs this evening between 8pm and 10pm. Be there or… don’t.
  4. Your news can be anything providing it’s trad folk or world music news, and providing it’s happening in March. You can be an artist, a researcher, a promoter, a record company. Just make sure you’re doing something in those genres, or heavily inspired by those genres.
  5. Please, please, please share this blog on your own socials. We do this to help spread the word about the traditional music scene we all love, but it goes nowhere unless you play your part and get sharing!

And remember, if you like what we’re doing, please consider donating to fRoots or taking out a subscription. Every little helps!

OK! Let’s get this show on the road.

10pm – That’s it! We’re all closed for the night. Thanks to the 500 or so people who came visiting this page over the last two hours. It makes a real difference to us, and to all the artists, promoters and folk lovers who have shared their news. Make sure you get out there and support them as best you can. It’s wonderful that the folk scene is still so vibrant, and that everyone’s so keen to help each other out. Big love to all of you.

Same time, same place on April 6th? Put it in your diary.

Bye for now

xx

9:59 (and a half) – Whoops! My apologies! I wanted to share this with you. It came in this morning and it went and slipped my mind. I’m not sure why… it’s brilliant! My fault entirely. Double soz.

The new album from Ye Vagabonds will be out on River Lea Records on March 22nd. You can pre-order it by clicking here.

9:59 – Let’s throw this Lisa Knapp tweet in here for good measure, shall we? And then we’ll call it a night.

9:49 – If you thought Mikey Kenney had finished his Spring tour, well… think again! I saw this chap a couple of times last week. He’s that good.

9:48 – Moonrakers for March!

9:45 – Merry Hell are playing merry havoc all across the land…

9:42 – We’re into the final twenty minutes of this month’s live blog. Get your news in quickly! In the meantime, here’s something just in from Michael Walsh…

9:40 – Yes, Nancy. Yes it is!

9:35 – The cheek of it!

9:30 – Happy to help!

9:24 – Typical, eh? You wait around for one piece of Mike Silver news, and then two come along at once. This just in from Folkstock…

9:15 – Promoter news is always welcome. Here’s what the good people at Folk On Monday have for us this month…

“FolkOnMonday in central London has several events coming up in March: Greg Russell and Ciaran Algar this Tuesday (a handful of tickets left), Scottish quartet Tannara on the 14th, Zoë Wren and Geri Van Essen on 16th (all at The Slaughtered Lamb), Hannah Read on the 18th at Green Note,  Mitchell and Vincent on 25th at The Harrison, Mike Silver on the 26th, Hannah James and Toby Kuhn on the 27th at Aces and Eights, Tufnell Park, Rachael McShane & The Cartographers on the 28th at The Slaughtered Lamb and The Iona Fyfe Trio on Sunday 31st, full details and tickets via folkonmonday.co.uk“

9:09 – Word reaches us from Rob Harbron of Leveret fame that a tour featuring Leveret is currently underway. Have I said Leveret enough yet? No? Leveret.

“Leveret’s new CD Diversions was released on Friday, and we’re on tour at the moment, in Edinburgh tonight. After a few days off, our tour resumes on Thursday 7th at Calstock in Cornwall, then carries on to Blackheath, the Bowerhouse in Maidstone, Bury St Edmunds, Bristol, Leeds, Sheffield, Reading and Bath. Full details at www.leveretband.com.” 

9:06 – Here’s how you get around that old “My Album’s Not Out for At Least a Month But I’m Going To Get Onto This Month’s #fRootsLive Blog If It Kills Me” problem, as demonstrated superbly by Nick Hart…

8:57 – Your friend and mine, Monsieur Sartin, has dropped by with the following info concerning his various projects…

“@FaustusFolk cross under the Channel tomorrow for the Continental 🦵🏼 of our #CottonLords tour. First stop @oosterpoort Tuesday. At about the same time as the 🚆 departs, @FridayPMs debut my new arrangement of Pleasant and Delightful for children’s choirs.”

8:53pm – Also on March 9th, bits of the Owl Light Trio will be offering up a Springtime Bal in the mystical surrounds of Glastonbury…

8:50pm – Some news concerning a Sheffield folk session on March 9th…

8:40pm – There’s lovely stuff here from The Askew Sisters (if you’re wondering, they’re the folk duo that don’t slice their thumbs up and share the gruesome pictures). And if you follow the bit at the bottom about seeing their other tweets, you’ll find their tour dates, too.

8:35pm – What’s an #fRootsLive blog post without an essay from those Rheingans Sisters? Get comfy, now, but be warned. If you’re squeamish, this may not be for you…

Hello there folkies! Well, the ginger news is that Anna started our tour-month off very helpfully by slicing her thumb on a brand new IKEA knife.

But have no fear, she damaged the least worst digit and therefore we’ll still be fiddling and singing in 7 gorgeous venues in the coming weeks: York’s NCEM (11th), Sheffield’s Greystones (13th), Leicester’s Guildhall (15th), London’s Kings Place (17th), Cambridge Junction (19th), Fareham’s Ashcroft Arts Centre (23rd) and Bristols Wardrobe Theatre (26th).

These will be our last UK gigs until the October! We’ve got continental plans this summer (wine, holidays, desperately sorting out our German passports…) by which we mean we’ll be writing+recording our next album, providing all fingers and thumbs make it that far.

We’d love to see you!! By which we mean the NCEM is massive! Please come! All ticket links are on our website: www.rheinganssisters.co.uk

8:30pm – What’s the GIF version of a selfie? Whatever it is, Ben Walker has one…

8:25pm – Here’s Josephine Corcoran to tell us about a Shackleton Trio A quick glance at their websitegig she’ll be doing some poetry at Penarth Acoustic Club. tells us that the Shackletons are all over the shop this March (in a good way).

8:15pm – Cooper and Toller are heading to Wotton-Under-Edge, Bath and Bristol. Give them a Twitter follow and keep up!

8:10pm – A longtime member of the Twitter folk scene, Gavin Atkin has been in touch to tell you all about a great programme he runs in Kent. Here’s what he has to say:

“Monthly tune sessions are common enough, but this one is largely made up of folks who come to the twice monthly tunes playing workshops I run. The workshops are free so that everyone can come, and as well as the workshops we have monthly sessions, and twice a year we have a dance where the workshoppers are the band. We’ve been doing this for years now and it’s been great community fun. We’re practising just now for the next dance on the 30th March. It’s not too late if anyone would like to join us. We meet tonight at 8 at the Gun & Spitroast at Horsmonden, Kent, and again there on the first and third Tuesday of the month at 8pm.”

You can find Gavin giving free melodeon lessons on Youtube by clicking here.

8:03pm – And who’s this with tiny feet soon to be a-patterin’? Why, it’s only Rachael McShane…

“I’m super excited to be heading out on tour with The Cartographers this month. We’ll be playing songs from the new album as well as trying out some brand new material! This will be our last proper tour for a little while before I go on maternity leave! Eek 🙂 hope to see some of you at a gig somewhere x”

8:00pm – We’ll start the month as we intend to continue. Martin Simpson is the cover star of the new fRoots print edition, which should be arriving with subscribers in the next week or so. He has dropped us a line with this merry news: “I am about 85% through recording my new album. Everyone involved has played so beautifully. I’m waiting for some additional overdubs and still working on a couple of songs and ideas. Then there’s vocals and backing vocals. I’m gigging in March, too, including a trip to Belgium and Holland. What a privilege that is… also a solo gig at King’s Place on March 29th…”