DURHAM: Old Cinema Launderette

Sunday 16th November, 2014

7:00pm

Event information

Dan Walsh - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Czs-i7OZcyg

Meaghan Blanchard - (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cL1ecVZBRo)

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Tickets £13 in advance or £15 Door. Tickets also available at Old Cinema Launderette. Check http://www.oldcinemalaunderette.com/events.html for further information

Mix of seating (limited) and standing.

Doors 7pm. Support around 7.30pm. Headline around 8.00 - 8.15pm.

We have an drinks licence. Real ales, lagers, wines. ciders and spirits will be served along with OCC Coffee, Yorkshire Tea and Twinnings Fruit Teas... and of course soft drinks.

About Dan

Touted as one of the finest banjo players in the UK as well as being a superb singer, songwriter and guitarist, Dan Walsh is described as 'the real deal' (UNCUT). His unique and eclectic style, taking in folk, funk, bluegrass and even some Arabic music, has stunned audiences across the UK many times but is also spreading its wings with recent successful performances in Germany, India and Canada and a very successful first tour of New Zealand. His high energy performances and witty banter have made him one of the most exciting new talents around.

As well as his solo work, Dan has joined the award winning Urban Folk Quartet. He also regularly performs with Northeast concertina legend Alistair Anderson as well as recent tours with sensational Indian sarangi player Suhail Yusuf Khan and Canadian country singer Meaghan Blanchard. He's also been on the stage or in the studio with Seth Lakeman, the Levellers and Walsh and Pound. Both his solo albums have also received critical acclaim and extensive airplay on both sides of the Atlantic with FROOTS calling recent effort 'The Same But Different' consistently brilliant.

He also retains a passion for outreach work and through the prestigious Live Music Now scheme has performed throughout the UK in hospices, hospitals, special schools and care homes. He also teaches banjo both in person and over skype.

About Meaghan

Meaghan Blanchard, a vibrant red-headed singer-songwriter; grew up in the rolling hills of beautiful Prince Edward Island. Although a shy and quiet child, Meaghan gravitated towards music with a natural ability to hum up her own tunes at a very young age. No alarm clocks were needed at the Blanchard house, as Meaghan at four years old was known to be up and singing in her bed at 6am every morning. As she grew, Meaghan’s natural vocal ability had her front and center of a number of community gatherings, children’s choirs and kitchen parties in her home town of Hunter River. Although Meaghan’s shyness followed her throughout her school years, she found comfort in logging away her hopes and dreams in small journals that she kept tucked into her desks.

Tired of letting her shyness get in the way of her musical dreams, Meaghan turned to her grandmother Glenda; a country singer who performed most weekends in the rural halls of PEI, for advice. Grammy Glenda’s words still rings in her ears to this day; “Look for the person in the audience who is looking like they’re having a bad day and sing to them; make em’ smile. It’ll take your fear away, and you never know what that could mean to somebody”. It was by sitting side stage at her grandmother’s performances that Meaghan also came to know and love some of the greatest female country singers of our day; Tammy Wynette, Emmylou Harris and Dolly Parton; huge influences on her music even to this day.

Meaghan Blanchard soon found her strength in writing songs and it wasn’t long after she picked up her mother’s acoustic guitar that she was off like a bullet; writing and performing all over Prince Edward Island, Canada and beyond.

Meaghan recorded “Changing Things”, her first collection of songs at the age of 18 which garnered notable success across Canada recieving 4 MusicPEI awards and 2 ECMA nods. Meaghan’s second recording in 2011 “Chasin’ Lonely Again” was named Country Recording of the Year at the ECMA awards in Charlottetown, PEI.

She has performed for the Royal couple, William and Kate during their Royal Visit to PEI in the summer of 2011 and played 47 shows in 15 days at the Winter Olympics in Vancouver BC in 2010.
She has toured in Alberta, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Ontario as well as select Maritime dates.

In January 2012 Meaghan appeared in the television special “The Songs Of Gene MacLellan” aired nationally on the CBC in Canada. She has played the Mariposa Folk Festival, as well as, the Deep Roots Festival in Wolfville NS.

Meaghan has just returned from Athens, Georgia where she recorded her first full length collection of songs with producer John Keane (R.E.M., Nancy Griffith, B52′s). “She’s Gonna Fly” will be released in July 2013 and is sure to be a hit!

Venue information

38 Marshall Terrace
Gilesgate Moor
Durham
DH1 2HX

www.oldcinemalaunderette.uk/retro-gig-venue

01913841412