Folk head to Kelso for a grand weekend of music

After its postponement last year, Kelso Folk and Acoustic Music Club is running its annual folk music festival on the weekend of September 3-5.
By Kevin Janiak
Published 18th Aug 2021, 09:52 BST
Maggie MacInnes and Siobhan Miller, who both open the festival at the Tait Hall.Maggie MacInnes and Siobhan Miller, who both open the festival at the Tait Hall.
Maggie MacInnes and Siobhan Miller, who both open the festival at the Tait Hall.

Some of the best acts on the circuit will be heading to the Tweedside town for the weekend, which will also see a ukelele workshop, open mic sessions and singarounds.

To allow for a safe, socially-distanced seated environment for the audience, all the concerts are taking place in the Tait Hall.

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The Friday night concert features two great acts, singer and Celtic harp player Maggie MacInnes (accompanied by her son Callum Park on guitar, fiddle and backing vocals) and the Siobhan Miller Band. Miller won the 2018 BBC Radio 2 Folk Award for Best Traditional Track, and is the only ever four-time winner of Scots Singer of the Year at the BBC Alba Scots Trad Music Awards.

She is supported by her four-piece band of double bass, fiddle/mandolin, keyboard/percussion and guitar.

Saturday, September 4 brings a lunchtime concert from North Sea Gas (Dave Gilfillan, Grant Simpson and Ronnie MacDonald), who have received gold and silver disc awards from the Scottish Music Industry Association and regularly have sold-out shows at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and around the world.

On the Saturday evening there is the chance to catch the legendary ballad singer and guitarist Martin Carthy and his daughter Eliza, who was twice nominated for the Mercury Prize.

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Appearing with them are the Cobhers, a band featuring some of the finest young traditional musicians on the scene.

Finally on the Sunday, a lunchtime dance and music concert features Edinburgh-based Absolutely Legless.

This Irish dance troupe perform original dances in the Irish soft shoe and hard shoe traditions, to the driving rhythms of airs, jigs and reels played by their own band of musicians.

They perform an entertaining, energy-packed show of Irish dance virtuosity that will have the wooden floor of the Tait Hall bouncing.

This year their show will also incorporate a few dances involving younger dancers that are under tuition.

For full details of the programme and where to buy tickets, visit www.kelsofolkfest.org/