Chantelle Smith

Late Autumn Catch Up (November News)

Sunday, 13th November, 2016

So, I haven’t quite managed to keep up with regular news updates; that’s been more down to how busy life has been over the past several months rather than having nothing to report.

I’ve been busy with various gigs over the spring, summer and autumn. Kevan and I took ‘The Bonnie Road’ to Malvern in March where it went down really well. Related to that was ‘Across The Lost Border,’ a show based on Kevan’s collection of poems ‘The Lost Border’ interspersed with folk songs from Scotland, Ireland and Appalachia. The height of summer saw us landing at the New Forest Fairy Festival to bring fairy-ish tales to the more adult members of the public enjoying the magical weekend. More recently, we put together a show for Wessex Week to celebrate Athelstan and the achievements of Anglo-Saxon Wessex. The show, ‘Flight of a Sparrow,’ was performed in the library of the Abbey House which was wonderfully atmospheric and went down very well.

I’ve also been busy performing in Talis Kimberley’s band over the spring and summer at a series of eclectic and lovely gigs: Lambs Day at Vowley Farm, TWIGS Summer Open Day, Folk Music in the Park at Hillworth Park, Havant Music Club and Cotswold Living Landscape Festival.

On top of all that, I also performed in my first solo gig last weekend which was great fun. The wonderful Repair Cafe in Swindon (a make do and mend initiative I wholeheartedly support) invited me to sing folk songs with them and I had an absolute blast. I look forward to doing more solo gigs in the future.

My creative endeavours haven’t solely been limited to performing music. I’ve handed in my contribution to Ballad Tales, a series of prose re-workings of traditional British folk ballads edited by my partner, Kevan, and published by The History Press. Ballad Tales should be coming out in the middle of next year so keep your eyes peeled for news on that if you’re interested. I’ve also written an article of Cotswold Life which will be appearing in the January edition of the magazine.

Long term projects are still steaming ahead. I’m continuing to learn the harp and the guitar with a view to bringing them into my solo music in the future. My EP is slowly moving ahead, although with everything else that’s been going on, it’s taken a bit of a back seat for most of this year. Hopefully the cold days of winter will give me the space to focus on the arrangements for the final few songs before I begin the recording process in earnest.



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