LAST year saw Bella Hardy named folk singer of the year in the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards.
It was an achievement she followed up in March with her seventh solo album,
With The Dawn — which the
Financial Times awarded five stars and the
Sunday Times hailed as “nothing short of a masterpiece”.
Now she and her band are bringing their live show to Nettlebed Village Club on Monday (October 26).
As Bella tells it,
With The Dawn is an account of one year of her life.
Where previously she had adapted and explored traditional ballads and fables to tell her contemporary folk tales, the stories that inspired these songs are her own experiences: good and bad, happy or sad.
With The Dawn is more intimate and reflective music than before. The arrangements are more instinctive, more reactive, as befits the mind-set that informed the lyrics.
Vivid brass gives way to lonesome piano; choral voices peal; banjos emerge out of beats and blips.
Elements of the initial demos, sometimes recorded into a phone as the thoughts occurred, have been kept. Whatever instrument was nearest to hand was grabbed and deployed whenever and wherever (even on one occasion in the bath), giving
With The Dawn its striking immediacy.
Touring with her new With The Dawn Band, Bella is joined by regular stage companion Anna Massie (Blazin’ Fiddles), the album’s producer Ben Seal (Urban Farm Hand), Tim Lane (The Hidden Orchestra) and Tom Gibbs, in a powerful and evocative collaboration of voice and fiddle, banjo and guitar, piano and keys, electronics and drums.
Tickets for Monday’s show are £13.50 in advance or £14.50 on the door. Doors open at 8pm. To book, call 01628 636620 or visit www.nettlebedfolkclub.co.uk
The annual Boxing Day Games. Organised by local charity fund raisers, the Cherry Pickers of Cookham Dean, the event will consist of five silly games and a tug-of-war
Windsor Masonic Centre, Church Lane, Windsor The Windsor Castle Masonic Lodge welcomed The Electric Eels Swimming Club to the Masonic Centre to officially present them with a joint £2,000 from Windsor Castle Lodge and Etonian Lodge of St John Lodge.
The annual Swimarathon returns for its 41st year. Braywick Leisure Centre, Maidenhead Schools and organisations taking part in the event Furze Platt School
Pictures of Maidenhead MP, Theresa May. To search for a specific photo, please use the reference number printed in the newspaper caption.
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Galleries from Slough and its surrounding villages. To search for a specific photo, please use the reference number printed in the newspaper caption.
Galleries from Marlow and its surrounding villages. To search for a specific photo, please use the reference number printed in the newspaper caption.
Galleries from Windsor and its surrounding villages. To search for a specific photo, please use the reference number printed in the newspaper caption.
Galleries from Maidenhead and its surrounding villages. To search for a specific photo, please use the reference number printed in the newspaper caption.
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