Music

The Local and The Magpie’s Nest are two of our favourite local promoters, so when they join forces, we get very excited indeed. This ten-band bill takes place across the three rooms of London’s folk headquarters, Cecil Sharp House. But the music will run the gamut from klezmer to Cuban, including a chance to strip the willow, box the gnat and cuddle the guinea pig (we may have made that last one up) with young twenty-first century hillbillies Cut A Shine. Looking like an explosion in a tablecloth factory they’re bringing about what we just can’t resist describing as a revolution in barn dancing.

Elsewhere there’s Benjamin Wetherill, whose tremulous alt.folk sounds like a nervous dandy being chased by a brass band; Tom Paley, an American banjo player who used to be in a duo with Woody Guthrie, goddammit; eclectic eight-piece Revere, whose string-assisted melodramas incorporate everything from gypsy marches to gospel; and Sam Carter, who plays his guitar like a harp and describes his oeuvre, modestly but not wholly inaccurately, as ‘Twiddly widdly moany moan’.

Oh and don’t miss the wonderfully wobbly blues singing of Liz Green, or the warm, intricately-picked party music of 11-piece Congalese soukous band The Zing Zong Allstars (pictured).  Never mind joy, you’ll be positively euphoric.

Further listening: www.themagpiesnest.co.uk/audio