In 1999, Cloudstreet began when two Brisbane musicians, John Thompson and Nicole Murray, put some songs together to do the support for a touring UK act, Chris While and Julie Matthews!
In 2000, Cloudstreet recorded our first album, Swallow the Concertina, and started performing at folk festivals around Australia. That stream of festivals has included Woodford, The National, Port Fairy, Yungaburra, Cobargo, Dorrigo, Yag’ubi, Eudlo, Maleny Music Weekend, Fairbridge, Nanga, Nannup, Fleurieu, Red Earth, Palm Creek, Burke and Wills, Mackay Arts Festival, Wintermoon, Illawarra, Newstead, Neurum Creek, Georgetown, Cygnet, Yackandandah, Mt Beauty Music Muster, and more, with concerts and house concerts in every state except the Northern Territory so far.
In 2002 we recorded Violet Sarah and Muckle John, and set off the next year for the UK, for a huge adventure in a very slow campervan called Swaggy. We met an extraordinary community of folk up and down England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland, and relished their singing, their playing, their enthusiasm and their hospitality. We played everywhere we could, and made our third album, The Fiddleship, which featured special guests Vicki Swan and Jonny Dyer. We toured with that album in 2004. Even though we eventually returned to our families in Australia, we have come back to play in the UK in 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 (with guest cello singer Rebecca Wright), 2010, 2012, 2015. In between we have toured three times in New Zealand and performed in Denmark, Morocco, America, Japan and Germany.
We have made five more albums: Dance Up The Sun, Clouds on the Road, The Circus of Desires, The Land of Bright Gold, and Clouded House.
In 2014, our regular guest fiddle-singer, Emma Nixon, joined the band permanently. We toured as a trio in 2015, and this year, we are doing it again!
We think that 2017 will be our last big UK tour, and we would dearly love to see you at whichever concert or festival you can attend, for a big harmony sing and a catchup.
We are in the process of recording our new songs, which will be released later in the year, after our return to Australia. We can’t wait to sing you the new songs, but we also want to sing you some of our oldies!
Please forward this email to anyone you know who loves this kind of music – acoustic instruments, close harmony singing, storytelling and crazy humour. We want to play for them!
Here are the dates:
England, Scotland, Wales and Denmark – May and June 2017.
We are off on our ninth UK tour, this time including a bit of Denmark in the journey. Can’t wait to see all our long-lost friends and sing our way round these countries! Here is the list of gigs in short form. All the details including venues and postcodes are on our website at www.cloudstreet.org.
MAY • 24 Llantrisant Folk Club • 25 Bideford Folk Club • 26/27 Chippenham Folk Festival • 31 Red Lion Folk Club, Birmingham •
JUNE • 2/4 Halkaer Folk and Roots Festival, Denmark • 8/9 Gate to Southwell Roots and Acoustic Music Festival • 10 Lewes Saturday Folk Club • 11 Folk on the Moor, Devon • 14 Ely Folk Club • 15 Ritz Acoustic Club, Burnham-on-Sea • 16 Deal Friday Folk Club • 18 Horsham Folk Club • 21 Faversham Folk Club • 22 Black Swan Folk Club, York • 23 Baccapipes Folk Club • 24 Shakespeare’s, Sheffield • 25 South Shields Folk Club • 26 Glenfarg Village Folk Club • 27 Live at the Star, Glasgow • 28 Edinburgh Folk Club • 29 Denholm Folk Club • 30 The Old House – Corstorphine
See you soon,
love John, Nicole and Emma
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