6th September 2007
Hello! We have finished recording and
mixing our new CD!!!
You can hear four tracks on our
Myspace page
:)
With the help of some excellent musicians, Open All The Doors
has been born.
It's a deliciously full sound! The thirteen songs include Spade &
the Hoe (the gardening song), Mama Don't Worry, Far From
Home, A Ei Di'r Deryn Du (Welsh trad.), Storm Song,
Blood & Gold (from the singing of Maddy Prior/June Tabor on the
Silly Sisters album) and a clutch of new songs we've never
shared with anyone!
If
you'd like to order a copy for £12 incl. postage, please go to our
music page, where you can also read a bit about the featured musicians
and their instruments!
7th June 2007
Hello, lovely
Dandelion-Heads! We have been heavily rehearsing as of late, in
between bouts of making elderflower champagne and worrying the
basil. Our recent song-writing retreat provided us with two or
three new songs, and we can hardly wait to present them to you!
All of this work is being done with a view to recording a new
album sometime in the coming months, with the help of Job the
magical percussionist, and other special guests. We’re hoping
one of those guests will be an as-yet-unidentified banjo player,
since a kind audience member recently pointed out that “Spade
and the Hoe” would be great with the twang of a banjo!
Nominations are being accepted. . .
We are also keeping our ears open for recommendations of a good
sound engineer and/or studio in which to record. Ideally we’d
like to start work as early as August, but can wait until
October if necessary.
We’re looking forward to a summer full of festival fun – maybe
see you at one of them. . .
15th November 2006
The last few gigs of the season are upon us now, and we're
excited to be sharing the bill with some of our favourite
musicians:
Saturday November 18th we welcome Emma and the Professor with
Tom Leary to play here in Machynlleth at the Owain Glyndwr
Centre (above the old tourist info centre) at 7:30 pm. Emma's
voice is enough to send shivers up your spine, with her
yodelling and beautiful arrangements of old songs; Mark's
bodhran playing is like a ticking bomb, and Tom Leary's one of
the finest fiddlers on the scene. It's going to be a fun
evening: come along and bring your own drinks!
Sunday November 26th we'll play at Kitchen Garden Cafe, with the
lovely KTB and her band in Birmingham. Come early as KTB's
liable to sell out the house.
The other gigs are listed on the dates page, so check it out.
Things we are looking forward to: another fabulous festival
season next year (thanks to everybody who made this year so
wonderful, by the way!). . . recording a new album with Job
Verweijen and his Dutch posse . . . welcoming Job back to Wales
in the summer for more foot-stomping gigs. . . and generally
playing lots of music and meeting up with you lot again.
May you have a lovely winter. Pray/meditate/sing/shout/cross
your fingers for peace around the world, and we will too. Stay
in touch until we meet again. . .
R and E
Thursday 24th August 2006
Our two months with Job were
very successful - he's gone back to spend time with his baby
(nicknamed Monster!) and lovely girlfriend Barbara in Holland.
Thanks, Job, for all your good work! We've been talking about making
a new album with Job and other guest musicians in the coming 9
months (our own kind of baby Monster!) - we're all really excited
about it.
Just to let you know, our
Myspace page is fully functional now (Emily's confessed to being a
Myspace addict...) at
www.myspace.com/embersong - please come and visit us and listen
to a song or two. And become our friend! We like friends.
Oh, and maybe you can help
us out - Rebecca's looking for a second-hand full-bodied
electro-acoustic steel string guitar - she has a Takamine to trade!
Emily's looking for a second-hand bouzouki and a piano accordion
(but one that is NOT TOO BIG!)...
Monday 24th July 2006
The summer is going
exceedingly well! We're enjoying the festivals; listening to
some wonderful music, soaking up the sunshine and the real ale!
We've met some lovely people ;)
We've sent our new CD
'Spark' to some good folky/acoustic radio programs, and invite you
to request our songs:
BBC Radio 2
Mon-Thurs 10.30pm-midnight: Mark Radcliffe
or SMS 88291 or phone
0161 244 4193
or email mark.radcliffe@bbc.co.uk
BBC Radio 2 Wed
7.00pm-10.00pm: Nick Barraclough
or phone 01233 244 544 or
email nick@smoothoperations.com
BBC Radio 2 Wed
8.00pm-9.00pm: Mike Harding Show
or phone 01457 873 752 or
email mike.harding@bbc.co.uk
BBC Radio Wales Sat
10.00pm-1.00am: Frank Hennessy "Celtic Heartbeat"
BBC Radio Shropshire, BBC
Radio Stoke and BBC Radio Hereford and Worcester
BBC Radio Shropshire
Thurs 7.00pm-9.00pm: Nonny James "Fretworks"
BBC Radio Gloucestershire
Sun 3.00pm-4.00pm: Johnny Coppin
Radio Maldwyn (Newtown area)
Mon 8.00pm-10.00pm
John and Yvonne Hart "Harts
of Folk"
Studio line: 01686 623 555
General email: radio@magic756.net
Radio Pembrokeshire Sun
afternoon/evening: BB Skone
Phone 01834 869 384
Radio Ceredigion
(Aberystwyth)
Phone 01970 627 999
Cheers! We're
really grateful for your support!!!
Monday 26th June 2006
We have been joined by our wonderful Dutch
percussionist
Job
Verweijen who will be playing with us for two months - July and
August - read more about him
here! We met him at
One World Camp last summer and hooked up with him in Holland this
spring where we had the pleasure of performing with him at several
theatres and folk venues. The combined sound went down a storm! Emma
Bryden our cellist will also be joining us and Job at several
festivals and gigs for these two months - we hope you enjoy the
direction our music is taking! We are hoping to start recording a
demo soon (with Job and Emma) which may pave the way to a new album
- we hope to be able to take our time on this one.
Review
'Spark' yourself on our
CD Baby page!
Friday 7th April 2006
Bedankt, bedankt, bedankt!
We want to thank everyone who came out to hear us play this March
and April in the Netherlands! Thanks also to the kind people who
looked after us at the venues; you really are wonderful. We had a
great time meeting fellow acoustic music lovers, and saw some new
sights, such as the wide open spaces and beautiful/ramshackle
mansions in Groningen area. Thankfully, we didn’t eat too many
Bosche ballen or slagroom soezens on this tour, but we are still
making our way through a kilo of passeitjes! Thanks a lot, Henny!
A special thank you to John de Looy (and family) for being such a
marvellous “merchandise manager,” as well as a friend. We look
forward to seeing you all again in November 2007! Dooie!!!
14th February 2006 - Valentine's Day, and Ember's
6 year anniversary!
Well, it's been a long journey from our first
meeting in a ramshackle hostel in Barcelona to our glamorous
(ahem) lives in Machynlleth today! We have news for you - the NEW
CD is ready! Extracts from all of the songs on 'Spark' can
be downloaded from our
music page, and you can purchase your copy by using paypal (which
is remarkably easy to use) or by sending a cheque for £12 (email
us to find out how). Our first and second albums, 'Winejig'
and 'Land Under Water', are still available from the website
or from us in person at gigs, although we may not carry 'Winejig'
around with us now that we have 'Spark'. We're not weight
lifters, you know.
Also we have a busy summer of festivals ahead, so
do check out our dates
page (we promise to keep it as up to date as we can!) and see
if we're going to be anywhere near you! If we don't seem to
be coming your way then feel free to send us details of venues which
you think would be appropriate for our music, we are always interested
to find out about new and welcoming places to play.
Thanks for visiting the website, we hope to see you
soon!
