Murri Celebrates the Golden Thread, at Cecil Sharp House, 28th June 4-11pm.

A fantastic evening of crafts, dance and music hosted by the Murri Collective, where Special Guests combine to celebrate the golden thread linking UK and USA folk song.

Murri was a folk club I ran during the early 2000s. For one night only it will be resurrected by order of Geoffrey Coupland (Zeel)

This time round we have an excellent selection of workshops, and performers. 

Workshops 4pm - 6pm

Choose from one of the following three workshops:

Harriet Vine: Jewellery Making Workshop 

Join Harriet Vine, Creative Director and Co-Founder of Tatty Devine, in a jewellery making workshop to celebrate The Golden Thread Project. Turn lyrics and imagery from your favourite songs into brooches and necklaces made from laser cut wood and leather, incorporating print and painting to make your favourite music into a wearable conversation piece

Desdemona McCannon: Pilgrim Badge Workshop

In this workshop you will use a place that is a significant destination for you as a starting point to design and make a cloth patch or badge. Using applique and simple printmaking and embroidery techniques, you will make a fabric badge that can be attached to a bag or item of clothing.

Stephen Fowler: Rubber Stamp Broadside Printing Workshop 

Broadside Ballads were published during the sixteenth and up to the nineteenth centuries. They were a single sheet of printed matter consisting of type and woodcut images. This popular print explored all manner of subject matter including love, religion, drinking-songs, legends, and current events of the day such as disasters, political events and signs, wonders and prodigies.
 During Fowler's workshop you will have the choice of a number of printed ballads to illustrate through the technique of hand carved rubber stamp print. By the end of the workshop all participants will go home with an edition of the group’s broadside ballads.


Live Music/Performances 7.30 - 11.00 (doors open 7.00)

Lisa Knapp and Gerry Driver (singer and fiddle player)
http://www.lisaknapp.co.uk/    http://www.gerrydiver.com/
Drew Webster
Nick White
Jam Bank (aka Orson Coupland and Jim Stoten)
Dan Eccles and Jake Jones (clog dancers, will be dancing to live music)
And the Murri Collective D.Js 

Tickets
Workshops £20 | £15 Under 26 
Performance £14 | £10 Under 26 
1 Workshop + Performance £27 | £18 Under 26

A transaction fee per sale applies to booking online (£2) or by phone (£2.50). No transaction fee applies to booking in person.


For more information and to buy tickets go to the Cecil Sharp House website: www.cecilsharphouse.org/csh-whats-on

or buy from the Box Office: 020 7485 220

The Golden Thread Opening at Cecil Sharp House.

On evening of the 14th March the Golden Thread Project was officially opened at Cecil Sharp House. 



The Golden Thread project is a celebration of folk songs that have a UK root and found a place in the USA musical tradition. The project takes its inspiration from Cecil Sharp and Maud Karpeles’ collecting experiences in the Appalachian Mountains, and is based on research undertaken in the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library.

These folk songs have shown that they can survive and transmute themselves over the years and remain relevant. A full-blooded murder ballad or a tragic love ballad, full of strangeness, joy, gloom and passion, is a storytelling opportunity that fires the imagination. Illustrators Geoff Coupland and Aidan Saunders have invited both emerging illustrators and established artists to respond to just such songs with a series of comic strips. The result is a unique exhibition, featuring more than 30 new works, produced in a wonderful variety of graphic styles.

Featuring:

Aidan Saunders, Beau Brannick, Bette Belle Blanchard, Billy Mather, Daryl Rainbow, Drew Webster, Fiontan Fitzgerald, Fran Colomb, Gary Northfield, Hannah Dyson, Hunt Emerson, Jim Stoten, Jonathan Edwards, Jonny Hannah, Kim Fountain, Lesley Barnes, Lord Hurk, Marie Morelle, Mark Stafford, Nick White, Orson Coupland, Peter Lloyd, Rob Nicol, Soju Tanaka, Stephen Fowler, Tommy Brentnall, Woodrow Phoenix, ZEEL.

Geoffrey, and Aidan asked me to help organise the opening. We invited Jonny Hannah, King Toad ( Peter Lloyd ) and the Singers from SHARPS the folk club to perform. D.Js Mike Gavin and Parker spinned discs inbetween the acts. 
Geoffrey gave an emotional speech to open the show, and at the last minute he asked me to compare the evening. 
It was a GREAT NIGHT! ( photographs by Etienne Gilfilan apart from the last 3 images)

You can see the exhibition at any time when Cecil Sharp House is open: usually 9am–11pm, seven days a week. 14 March 2018 - 29 July 2018

Brilliant interview about the project with Geoff, Aidan and Steven Heller - http://www.printmag.com/daily-heller/golden-thread-project/

Illustrator/Comic Artist Geoff Coupland (aka ZEEL) has a longstanding interest in folklore and has previously appeared at Cecil Sharp House with his magic lantern show based on the song Babes in the Wood.

Illustrator/Printmaker Aidan Saunders is often to be seen at arts and music festivals with his Print Wagon, freshly pressing lino prints. His fascination with Americana was the spark that formed the basis of the Golden Thread Project.