Cranbourne Folk Uniting Night
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About the performers

Here's a little about some of the performers.  Please expect this to grow as we get to know you!

Cadence
Cadence is a newly formed band that has members from FolkUS and some new additions.  We look forward to hearing them play at our next concert.

FolkUS
A key attraction over the last couple of years is the folk-pop music group “FolkUS”, consisting of musicians and singers from the Southern region of Melbourne, from Frankston to Drouin, singing Australian, English and American songs. They have sung together for 35 years as the group “Come alive”.  While the material is still selected from a wide variety of styles, the sound is very much based around the vocal harmonies, presented in a folk style, and including many a’capella items. They also play a variety of instruments for accompaniment.  We can expect to see them perform again on the 15th of March, 2014.
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Barbara Jeffrey

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Barbara combines classical training with folk influences to create her own unique sound.  Her album 'From My Daddy's Shoulders' includes traditional folk songs and original songs which reflect the beauty of the natural environment and celebrate the heroism of ordinary people.

Barbara has performed at many venues throughout Australia and her music has been played on various community radio stations.  Her Celtic Harp combined with vocals, blend together superbly.  (Click on Barbara's CD Cover photo on the left, to go to her website!)

Barbara performed on the 18th of August 2013 and was just fabulous.


Phil Young

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Phil is a passionate musician, songwriter and supporter of original music, its creators and performers. Based in Melbourne, Australia, he has been involved with music in many forms for over forty years, including working in commercial and community radio, touring professionally as a bass guitarist, song writing, mixing live and recorded sound, running song writing contests and founding an amateur musicians group.  Rewards for his efforts include a category win in the Australian Songwriters Association song writing contest in 1994 and a first and third in a similar contests at the Peninsula Folk Club in Frankston, Victoria.

Phil’s brilliant songs, quirky humour and masterful performance will charm and delight everyone.  He is a local gem whose familiar face and gentle presence belie the exceptional talent and accrued wisdom of a musician and who has spent a lifetime exploring and expressing his craft.  (Click on Phil's photo to go to his website!)

Phil performed on the 17th of November 2012.  Thanks Phil!

Old Dogs

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Melbourne musicians: Tim Hannan, John Salter and Peter McErlain team up to provide a musical feast which is varied as the background of each of these musicians.  Tim Hannan is a leading member of the Berwick and District Folk Club and launched a debut album of original songs in 2012.  John plays keyboard and Peter plays more instruments than I can count.

There's a touch of Peter Allen, a litle bit of Aussie Country and lots of original flavours as well.  Old Dogs performed for us in 2013 and will be the main act on Saturday, the 15th of February 2014.  Thanks Old Dogs!


Journey Bound

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Journey Bound is a versatile musical vehicle that likes to cover lots of different genres in a single bound. Musical favourites are picked from everywhere, including gospel, folk, pop and even a little bit of rock.

Travelling in Journey Bound are: Wendy Snook, Colin Smith, Jose Garcia and Sharon Start.   Between them they play everything from bass recorder to autoharp.  Their music is a "moving feast" and whilst occasionally delving into serious topics, aims to be uplifting and positive.  (Click on the photo to go to the band's website!)

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The Jam Tarts

"Three vibrant and entertaining women singing all the favourites from the 50's, 60's and 70's, plus a few originals - all with their own unique "Jam Tart" flavour!  Featuring guitar and ukelele, a little bit of humour and whole lot of harmony."



The Jam Tarts delighted the audience at the FUN concert in 2013 and we look forward to their next appearance on Saturday, the 19th of July 2014.

Dominic Finlay
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An acoustic powerhouse for the new wave of singer songwriters”
COUNTRY TIMES

 "More than just another songwriter"
TIM WARDYN 

“If ever a man can put musician in his passport, it's Dominic Finley”
BERWICK AND BORDERS GAZETTE

After writing close to 400 songs and releasing three solo albums, British singer-songwriter, excessive tea drinker, and Australian migrant, Dominic Finley is currently working on his next release –in-between playing countless solo gigs, where audiences can expect self-penned songs of great diversity, laced with tall stories and one-liners!


Ken Nicol
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Ken Nicol is an excep­tional musi­cian. As a gui­tarist, he is one of the most skilled and excit­ing play­ers any­where today; as a singer he is capa­ble of evok­ing wide range of emo­tions in his audi­ence; and as a song­writer he demon­strates these abil­i­ties in his clever and well-crafted material.

His music cov­ers the spec­trum from blues to rock, effort­lessly tak­ing in folk, jazz, rag­time, bal­lads and more along the way.

In the early sev­en­ties he formed the band ‘Nicol & Marsh’s Easy Street’ with Pete Marsh, and it wasn’t long before they landed their first major record contract.

They went on to pro­duce four albums to wide­spread acclaim on the CBS and Poly­dor labels, the last one being recorded in Los Angeles.

This prompted Ken to make his home in the US where he played gigs as a solo acoustic per­former, and as lead singer and co-songwriter for the band ‘Versailles’.

Ken returned to the UK from LA in 1989, and once again began work­ing the club cir­cuit as a solo per­former, going on to pro­duce the albums: “Liv­ing in a Span­ish Town”, “Two Frets from the Blues”, “Clean Feet – No Shoes”, “The Bridge”, and more recently: “Thir­teen Rea­sons”, all released on his own M.V.S label.

In 1997 Ken joined The Albion Band as lead gui­tarist and singer, writ­ing much of the band’s mate­r­ial him­self and co-writing with Ash­ley Hutch­ings. They pro­duced four albums in this time: “Happy Acci­dent”, Before Us Stands Yes­ter­day”, “The Christ­mas Album” and “Road Movies” on the Topic record label.

In Decem­ber 2002, he suc­cess­fully joined forces with the leg­endary folk-rockers Steel­eye Span on their UK ‘Reunion Tour’, and due to its great suc­cess, his col­lab­o­ra­tion with the band con­tin­ued for a fur­ther seven years.

Ken is to embark on a tour of Australia in 2014, promoting his latest album ‘Historic Events and Other Subjects’.  The show also features an opening set from Dominic Finley –a British session musician, singer songwriter, and Australian migrant…


John Boothroyd
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John Boothroyd has been a very well known and respected singer and instrumentalist around Melbourne for many years, dating back to the 'Folk revival' of the late 1960's.  He prefers the American Old Timey songs and tunes from the pre war 'golden age' of Country music, and lists performers such as the Carter Family, Delmore Brothers, Clarence 'Tom' Ashley and New Lost City Ramblers as his inspiration.

John plays guitar, and pre Bluegrass 'clawhammer' style 5 string banjo. Apart from solo performances, he has been a member of Chilly Strings String Band and until recently, the Appalachian Heaven String Band.

Audiences enjoy his variety of songs and tunes, and interesting song introductions.  He recorded and released his first solo album "Still Rollin' On" late last year.  The 17 tracks are a mixture of traditional songs and tunes, and original banjo and guitar instrumentals.



The Harmonizers
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Jacqui, Dani and Jess a.k.a. The Harmonizers, have been singing for most of their lives (some longer than others). However it was not until moving to Wonthaggi and joining the Wonthaggi Sing for Fun group (meets last Wednesday of every month at Mitchell House) that they discovered their love for harmonies. This fascination led to a new form of entertainment in the Paulson household - accapella singing. From this...The Harmonizers were born. 

The Harmonizers have performed throughout Gippsland at numerous festivals, fundraisers, and concerts, incorporating a variety of music styles and genres. Accapella singing is still a large part of what we do, but we also like to jazz things up a bit with our ukuleles and percussion. Singing for us is about having fun, but our greatest joy comes from having touched somebody's heart through our songs.


Interested in performing?

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If you'd like to be part of the concert, go to the 'Application to perform' page and fill in your details.  Let us know a little about yourself, your contact details, your act, what kind of support you might need e.g. one or more microphones, required stage space etc.  Preference will be given to those who've made arrangements in advance.

Click on the quilted birds on the left to take you to the contact page, you can fill in all your details there!  


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