Workshops and speed painting started this busy year. Now we're gearing up to record again before hitting the road in April bound for Canberra and the UK
1. The Land Of Bright Gold - Pre-order our new album
We go into the studio this weekend to begin recording our seventh album, The Land of Bright Gold. We're excited by the new songs and tunes that we'll be recording and especially happy to be working again with the amazing Pix Vane Mason of Pix Records, the engineer with whom we've worked since Dance Up The Sun in 2006.
The Land Of Bright Gold is inspired by a range of Australian traditional songs, with the added cloudstreet touch of innovative arrangements and rich vocal harmonies. We're on target to release the album in Canberra at the National Folk Festival at Easter.
Pre-order The Land Of Bright Gold now and be among the first to receive a copy. As a bonus, you'll receive a secure link to downloadable mp3 files of all the album tracks at least a week before the hard copy is released. (And our undying gratitude for supporting us in making the album!)
To pre-order you copy now for A$25 including postage worldwide, follow this link to our CD page: cloudstreet.org/shop.html
2. A Year Of Blogging Dangerously...
John's blogging project, An Australian Folk Song a Day (ozfolksongaday.blogspot.com) finished it's year of posting on Australia Day (January 26). 367 songs were posted in all, with John recording all but a handful especially for the blog. Each song has been posted with lyrics, illustration and notes and will remain up on the web. The blog continues to attract around 300 visits per day, with the 70 000 visit mark due to be passed in a couple of days time. An Australian Folk Song A Day has also been selected for preservation by the National Film & Sound Archive.
The final entry is well worth a look - Waltzing Matilda sung by the 150 attendees at this year's Celtic Southern Cross Summer School.
If you prefer hard copies, you can order either a two-disc set of 287 selected tracks as mp3s or month by month audio CDs of selected tracks (on average 25 tracks per month) from the blog.
3. UK Tour 2012
Jacey Bedford has organised a cracking tour for us this year. Starting in mid-April, we'll be playing at clubs and festivals all over the United Kingdom. If we're going to be in your area, come along and say hi and let your friends know that there's going to be some fabulous music nearby!
Here's where we'll be:
April:
Wed 18, Maudslay, Coventry
Thu 19, Newport Folk Club
Fri 20, Bingham Folk Club
Tue 24, St Neots Folk Club
Wed 25, Kirkham Concerts
Thu 26, Bromsgrove Folk Club
Sat 28, Sing With Cloudstreet Workshop, Lewes
Sat 28, Lewes Saturday Folk Club
Sun 29, Woolston & Burlesden Folk Club
May:
Tue 1, The Hoy At Anchor, Leigh On Sea
Sat 5, Upton Riverside Folk Festival
Fri 11, The Woodman Folk Club, Kingswinford
Tue 15, Dartford Folk Club
Wed 16, Havering Folk Club
Thu 17, Folk At The Drum, Folkestone
Fri 18, Milkmaid Folk Club,
Bury St Edmunds
Sat 19, Wortley Folk Club
Sun 20, South Shields Folk Club
Mon 21, Stirling Folk Club
Tue 22, Montrose Folk Club
Wed 23, Edinburgh Folk Club
Thu 24, The Star, Glasgow
Fri 25 Stonehaven Folk Club
June:
Fri 1- Sat 2, Chippenham Folk Festival
Sun 3- Mon 4, Chester Folk Festival
Tue 5, Great Knight Folk Club, Northampton
Fri 8- Sun 10, Sing With Cloudstreet Workshop Weekend,
North Broomhill, Northumberland
You'll find contact details for all of these gigs on our gigs page. See you there.
4. UK Workshops
This year's tour includes two workshops, including a weekend for developing your singing skills in Northumberland. These are great opportunities to explore your voice, build on your skills and take your singing to the next level.
Here are the details:
Saturday 28 April - Lewes, East Sussex
Vocal Harmony Workshop
A day-long workshop covering warmups, harmony development, tone-matching and fun repertoire.
Elephant & Castle, White Hill, Lewes BN7 2DJ
10.45 a.m.- 4.45 p.m. Cost: £35
Bookings: Valmai Goodyear, Tel. (01273) 476757
Email: valmaigoodyear@aol.com
Saturday 9 - Sunday 10 June - Broomhill, Northumberland
Singing Weekend
A weekend workshop for singers of all abilities. Go into more depth with harmony and expression, and enjoy your voice.
“Sandpipers”, North Broomhill, NE65 9UL
10 am - 5 pm each day. Cost: £90
Price includes lunches, tea and coffee
Bookings: Susan Craven, Tel. (01670) 761872
5. The National!
Before embarking on our next jaunt to the United Kingdom, you'll find cloudstreet at this year's National Folk Festival in Canberra. As well as regularly programmed concerts and our workshop, we'll be joining in with the Brisbane Celtic Fiddle Club and the massed morris for The Green Man Cycle, and singing one of Bob Wilson's songs in Tales from the Story Bridge. Look for us in the program. Updates will be posted here: http://www.folkfestival.org.au/
6. Fiddle Icons - Works in Progress
Nicole's exhibition of paintings for the North Atlantic Fiddle Convention is continuing apace. Her paintings will be travellig to Northern Ireland in just over a month, for the show in June. We've posted a short video to give you an idea of the works in progress.
This link will take you to the video: http://youtu.be/7Kr4xvzgZK8
An exciting project with some beautiful work underway.
7. Come and sing in our choir.
Nicole and John direct a weekly choir in Bulimba. Morningsong meets every Friday from 9.30am – 11.30am and everyone is welcome to come and enjoy singing a wide variety of world material. We sing in Zulu, Scots Gaelic and even English and teach a lot of the music by ear. More info at www.morningsong.com.au. While we're away on tour, Rose Broe from the Pirate Brides will direct Morningsong.
8. Come and play tunes.
Maleny Tunes Class, run by Nicole, meets every Wednesday night from 7-9pm in Maleny, and we learn Irish tunes by ear. If you can play a couple of tunes on your instrument, you're ready to come and join this very social group and add to your repertoire. More info at malenytunesclass.blogspot.com.
And now.... To the studio!
