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17. Martin Coudroy: Bellows & Bows Across Cultures
53:29||Season 1, Ep. 17An accordionist, violinist, singer, composer, and arranger, Martin's artistic approach is open and curious about different aesthetics, from dance music, bal folk, jazz, musette, gypsy swing, contemporary and improvised music. Martin began playing for Balfolk at the age of 13. He built a solid background focused on the traditional music of Western Europe and has been sharing his skills since a young age in music schools and numerous workshops. He also plays in numerous Breton music ensembles. After studying musicology, he moved to Sweden to study music and dance. He works with contemporary dance and explores different aesthetics, including gypsy swing and improvised music. Today, Martin devotes himself to live performance and creation through concerts, musical theater, shows for young audiences, film concerts, and folk dances.Join me this month as I sit down to chat with Martin about his time growing up in Brittanny surrounded with traditional and contemporary folk music, the relationship between the bow of his fiddle and the bellows of his accordion, meeting accordionista Marc Perrone, how it is to learn and work across different European cultures and what public transport means to him as a performer.Martin's Links:Website | Youtube | FacebookJoin my PATREON for extended episodes, guest tutor Melinar tutorials & learning resource archive:www.patreon.com/melbiggsmusicLearn melodeon with Mel at The Stables, Milton Keynes May 10th & June 28th 2025:https://stables.org/workshopsApply to join Folk Unbound: The Gathering 14-18th July 2025www.melbiggsmusic.co.uk/folkunboundVisit my website for on demand classes, courses, live dates, merch & more:www.melbiggsmusic.co.ukIntro & outro music:'Dream Big' by Mel Biggs. All rights reserved.Listen to the full track on my album 'From Darkness Comes Light':www.melbiggsmusic.bandcamp.comGet in touch: chatterbox@melbiggsmusic.co.ukDon't forget to like/subscribe/follow:YouTube | Instagram
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16. Archie Churchill-Moss: Finding Your Musical Voice
01:01:12||Season 1, Ep. 16Join me this month as I sit down to chat with Archie Churchill-Moss who has worked as a session musician for some of the UK's top folk acts (Seth Lakeman, Sam Sweeney, Cara Dillon, Eliza Carthy, Blair Dunlop, Jim Moray) and producers (Andy Bell, Ed Harcourt). Performing with trio 'Moore, Moss, Rutter' saw him receive the coveted BBC Radio 2 Folk Award in 2011.Archie has toured extensively across western Europe and perform at some of Europe's top music festivals, including headline slots at Colours of Ostrava (Czech Republic), Tønder festival (Denmark), Cropredy Convention (UK) and Cambridge Folk Festival (UK). With a contemporary approach to composition and arrangement, Archie has developed a style of playing that draws as much influence from the tradition as it does modern popular music. His engaging teaching style comes from a wealth of experience in his position as principle lecturer at Leeds College of Music and teaching on the National Youth Folk Ensemble.Listen in to find out more about our teaching approaches, why G Major is the centre of both our musical universes, his new collaboration and forthcoming album with Irish player Moya Sweeney, his working relationship with Tom Moore and more.Archie's Links:Website | Instagram | BandcampJoin my PATREON for extended episodes, guest tutor Melinar tutorials & learning resource archive:www.patreon.com/melbiggsmusicVisit my website for on demand classes, courses, live dates, merch & more:www.melbiggsmusic.co.ukIntro & outro music:'Dream Big' by Mel Biggs. All rights reserved.Listen to the full track on my album 'From Darkness Comes Light':www.melbiggsmusic.bandcamp.comGet in touch: chatterbox@melbiggsmusic.co.ukDon't forget to like/subscribe/follow:YouTube | Instagram15. Leija Lautamaja: Finnish Folk Rock Goddess
01:02:41||Season 1, Ep. 15Leija Lautamaja is a Helsinki-based artist and musician specialised in Finnish and Nordic folk music & dance. Her instruments are 2.5 row diatonic accordion, reed organ, electric guitar and voice. She has a Master’s degree in folk music from the Sibelius Academy, with her musical roots in the local traditions of Southern Ostrobothnia in Western Finland where she grew up surrounded by the living tradition of Finnish melodeon playing. Her active bands are Nordic co-operation Floating Sofa Quartet, Finnish folky girl band ENKEL, and The Moontwins - a warm-hearted rock’n’roll duo with one of Finland’s most respected guitarists PK Keränen. Currently she’s working on her singer-songwriter solo album.Join me this month as I chat with Leija about growing up with a champion punk rock guitarist father and how that's influenced her own take on composition, song writing and performance, getting to work with one of her musical heros PK Keränen in Moontwins Duo, nerding out over trad music from other Nordic countries that travels far and wide, and we even touch upon the socio-political history of Finland and how that's likely to have had an effect on the slow growth of social folk dance in Finland. Until Leija got her hands on it, that is!Leija's Links:Website | Instagram Join my PATREON for extended episodes, guest tutor Melinar tutorials & learning resource archive:www.patreon.com/melbiggsmusicFolk Unbound: The Gathering 2025 - Early Bird prices end 14th March!www.melbiggsmusic.co.uk/folkunboundVisit my website for on demand classes, courses, live dates, merch & more:www.melbiggsmusic.co.ukIntro & outro music:'Dream Big' by Mel Biggs. All rights reserved.Listen to the full track on my album 'From Darkness Comes Light':www.melbiggsmusic.bandcamp.comGet in touch: chatterbox@melbiggsmusic.co.ukDon't forget to like/subscribe/follow:YouTube | Instagram14. Cohen Braithwaite-Kilcoyne: From Spice Girls To Folk Revivalists
01:01:09||Season 1, Ep. 14Cohen Braithwaite-Kilcoyne is well known on the English folk scene for his work with the BBC Radio 2 Folk Award nominated trio ‘Granny’s Attic’ and as a soloist. Originally from Birmingham, Cohen developed a keen love for melodeons and concertinas while still at primary school. Cohen’s main passion is for English traditional music and song, but his musical interests run broader than that, into Baroque music, ragtime, and Victorian popular music and he has been known to throw all of these into his performances and teaching.Join me this month as I sit down to chat with Cohen about his route into English folk music, how his journey through the education system all the way up to Leeds University School of Music has shaped his approach to the work, the evolution of Granny's Attic and the working relationship with Lewis and George, how he developed his distinctive style of singing and playing, and the importance of Black Music acknowledgement in the history of English folk music, and the influences that go between cultures. Cohen's Links:Website | Facebook | Instagram | BandcampJoin my PATREON for extended episodes, guest tutor Melinars & learning resource archive:www.patreon.com/melbiggsmusicMel's Improver melodeon workshop at The Stables, Milton Keynes Mar 1st 2025:https://stables.org/workshopsFolk Unbound: The Gathering 2025 - Applications open 14th Feb!www.melbiggsmusic.co.uk/folkunboundVisit my website for on demand classes, courses, live dates, merch & more:www.melbiggsmusic.co.ukIntro & outro music:'Dream Big' by Mel Biggs. All rights reserved.Listen to the full track on my album 'From Darkness Comes Light':www.melbiggsmusic.bandcamp.comGet in touch: chatterbox@melbiggsmusic.co.ukDon't forget to like/subscribe/follow:YouTube | Instagram13. John Spiers: My OG Melodeon Hero
01:08:38||Season 1, Ep. 13John Spiers is famously one of the busiest and most unavailable box players on the English folk music circuit. Most well known for his long-term collaboration with Jon Boden in Spiers & Boden, and together co-founding their multi-award winning global phenomenon big band Bellowhead, John can also be seen playing with Steeleye Span's Peter Knight as a duo, Peter's Gigspanner Big Band, and Saltlines, as well as in duo with fiddler & vocalist Jackie Oates. Join me this month as I get to fangirl my original melodeon hero - the reason I picked up a box in the first place - and find out more about his journey into folk music and what a wild ride it's been to experience such a monumentous career trajectory from the quaint, rural Oxfordshire villages he sessioned in as a young adult, to the bright lights of Bellowhead's reign.John's Links:Website | YouTube | BlueskyMel's melodeon workshops at The Stables, Milton Keynes Jan & Mar 2025:https://stables.org/workshopsJoin my PATREON for extended episodes, guest tutor Melinars & learning resource archive:www.patreon.com/melbiggsmusicVisit my website for on demand classes, courses, live dates, merch & more:www.melbiggsmusic.co.ukIntro & outro music:'Dream Big' by Mel Biggs. All rights reserved.Listen to the full track on my album 'From Darkness Comes Light':www.melbiggsmusic.bandcamp.comGet in touch: chatterbox@melbiggsmusic.co.ukDon't forget to like/subscribe/follow:YouTube | Instagram | Facebook12. Martin Ellison: Sessions, Socials & Stage Fright
01:08:30||Season 1, Ep. 12Martin Ellison is a gem of the traditional English folk music scene. Hailing from Leyland in the industrial North West of England, he's had an affinity with Southern English Country Music since his early teens. Growing up through the revival of the late 60s and 70s he was exposed to a variety of influential folkies including Bernard Wrigley "The Bolton Bullfrog", Shirley and Dolly Collins, Mike Harding, John Kirkpatrick, Reg Hall, Roger Edwards, Oscar Woods, Bob Cann among many others. He went on to form his ceilidh band Ran Tan Band and played for The Threlfall Sisters.Join us for a cosy, wholesome conversation between two generations of traditional English folk musicians comparing notes on session etiquette, the positives and negatives of sharing on social media, and opening up about our personal battles with mental health and performance anxiety.Martin's Links:YouTube | FacebookReplay Martin's Melinar: A Masterclass With The Maestro:https://www.patreon.com/posts/116906019Mel's Festive Melodeon workshop & concert Birmingham Accordion Centre 7th December 2024:https://accordioncentre.com/acb/whats-on/Mel's melodeon workshops at The Stables, Milton Keynes Jan & Mar 2025:https://stables.org/workshopsSign up to the Folk Unbound mailing list for more information about mine & Lucy's folk camp in July 2025:https://pages.melbiggsmusic.co.uk/fsuf83bapjJoin my PATREON for extended episodes, guest tutor Melinars & learning resource archive:www.patreon.com/melbiggsmusicVisit my website for on demand classes, courses, live dates, merch & more:www.melbiggsmusic.co.ukIntro & outro music:'Dream Big' by Mel Biggs. All rights reserved.Listen to the full track on my album 'From Darkness Comes Light':www.melbiggsmusic.bandcamp.comGet in touch: chatterbox@melbiggsmusic.co.ukDon't forget to like/subscribe/follow:YouTube | Instagram | Facebook11. Lucy Huzzard: Invite Yourself To The Table
01:02:45||Season 1, Ep. 11Do you reflect on how familar spaces, people, events shape you over time? Do you ever think about how these situations affect you positively/negatively, internally/externally? How can we build better 'nests' to nurture ourselves and others, allowing the discovery and development of our real abilities and talents?Big questions for a Monday morning! But don't let that put you off. Join me and Lucy Huzzard - Sheffield based singer/songwriter, musician, folk dancer & educator - for a comforting romp through some stuff we both wanted to air out with you all. And we FINALLY get to announce an exciting new venture that we're both collaborating on next summer...Lucy's Links:Instagram | Lucy & Hazel IG | Lucy & Hazel FB | Lucy & Hazel websiteReplay Lucy's Melinar: Melodeon Friendly Swedish Tune - Frejas Hymne Polska:https://www.patreon.com/posts/114442049Sign up to the mailing list to hear more about 'The Out Crowd' event in Castleton, Derbyshire, 14-18 July 2025:https://pages.melbiggsmusic.co.uk/fsuf83bapjINFO Beginner/Improver melodeon workshop with Mel 10-3pm The Stables, Milton Keynes, November 23rd 2024:https://stables.org/workshopsINFO Mel's Festive Melodeon workshop & concert Birmingham Accordion Centre 7th December 2024:https://accordioncentre.com/acb/whats-on/Join my PATREON for extended episodes, guest tutor Melinars & learning resource archive:www.patreon.com/melbiggsmusicVisit my website for on demand classes, courses, live dates, merch & more:www.melbiggsmusic.co.ukIntro & outro music:'Dream Big' by Mel Biggs. All rights reserved.Listen to the full track on my album 'From Darkness Comes Light':www.melbiggsmusic.bandcamp.comGet in touch: chatterbox@melbiggsmusic.co.ukDon't forget to like/subscribe/follow:YouTube | Instagram | Facebook