Folk in the Cellar

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Folk in the Cellar

2nd & 4th Mondays in the month. Folk in the Cellar is an inclusive and eclectic folk club, with an emphasis on everyone joining in.
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We meet on the 2nd and 4th Monday of every month (except August and Christmas week). Our nights take place at the fabulous MAP Studio Cafe in Kentish Town. £5 cash donation requested, so we can pay our guest artists. Most evenings feature an extended set from a guest artist or group, but half of the evening is open to anyone to share a song, a tune, a poem…… Some evenings are singarounds, where th

e audience is the star attraction. We’re not dogmatic about genre, but we are completely unplugged. And we do not talk while people are performing, though joining in is usually welcome! Coming up:

Oct 23 Jacken Elswyth

Nov 13 Davies and Daughters

Nov 27 Roswell

Dec 11 Michael and Louise

22/08/2024

Our Autumn programme is up on our website now at folkinthecellar.wordpress.com

Here it is in glorious detail - we really do have some wonderful acts for you.

September 9 Sophie Crawford

Based in London, Sophie Crawford sings a combination of traditional songs and her own compositions, accompanying herself on dulcimer and accordion. She has run the Saturday singarounds at the Harrison in King’s Cross since 2018, and is co-founder of Q***r Folk.

September 23 Forbes Moncrieff

Long-time friends and favourites of the Cellar Caz Forbes and Ste Moncrieff perform English folk, weaving beautiful traditional songs with their own unique style. From beguilling ballads to stomping shanties they engage audiences with their own distinctive style firmly rooted in a love of the English tradition. Once upon a time they went by the name of The Raven, performing regularly on the London folk scene and further afield, before little children stole their late nights!

October 14 Diego Brown and the Good Fairy, plus Richard Allen

Diego Brown and their Good Fairy, aka Kate and Adam, describe themselves as the original twisted folk. Some say they’re like the Carpenters on a lost weekend in Twin Peaks. They claim to have been the talk of the chip van queue at Sidmouth Folk Festival. They run the Clerkenwell ArtSLAB at the Betsy Trotwood in London, where they frequently push the envelope right out of the box..

Richard Allen is a poet whose work is both serious and seriously funny, a righteous, riotous response to these and all other half-truth times, executed with tongue-twisting intensity in his mesmeric live performances

October 28 Hannah Lovell

Velvety and surreal punk-folk, with good enunciation, is how Hannah introduces herself. Impossible to pin down in one musical genre, with lyrics roaming from quantum physics to medieval badass women. It’s all firmly grounded in strong vocals and beautifully entwined guitar work

November 11 To be confirmed

Excuse us coming over all music-biz, but we have an exciting act lined up that we can’t tell you about yet for contractual reasons!

November 25 Singaround

No guest act. Just the chance for you to share a song/tune/poem or two, or three! If you’ve been before, you’ll know the amazing variety and huge fun of a good sing-around. If not it’s the friendliest possible way to make your performing debut. Plus it’ll be a special occasion as one of our organisers haas a Big Birthday!

December 9 Christmas Special

Celebrate the festive season (or at least add some mince pies to your singing) at our Christmas special. Guest artist stilt be confirmed.

Camden's Friendly Folk Club

22/08/2024

Getting ready for our exciting autumn season - some dates for your diaries:
9 September - Sophie Crawford
23 September - Forbes Moncrieff
14 October - Diego Brown & the Good Fairy plus Richard Allen
28 October - Hannah Lovell

19/07/2024

This Monday, July 22nd - Join us for our last evening before the summer break - it's going to be a memorable one!

Louisa Jones & Dakota Jim played for us in the cellar back in 2016, a mostly traditional jazz set but here they are as WHISKEY MOON FACE with an entirely original repertoire.
Think of Surrealist tales, mystifying but strangely moving, beautifully sung to a hypnotic and slightly psychedelic version of East European folk music with a smattering of swing jazz and you are set for a truly enchanting and unique musical experience.

Lots of floor spots of course, 7.30 start and £5 cash on the door.

15/07/2024

Two of our organisers are in this band, which has its first full gig just down the road from us on Tuesday July 23. Trad and new material, vocal harmonies, multi-instrumentalists. What’s not to like?

https://www.tickettailor.com/events/thevillagegreen/1272042?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR3N81H2lPcexrmOG8Pck7HQTnxMU9hnJmF7BWVbyC5EfPY1ZIlhKSWh9Lc_aem_uJ_guKZH0Fe9j5exVw4cEg

09/07/2024

Another lovely night last night, with the always-wonderful Daria Kulesh and brilliant floor-spots, including the world premier of the new Nesta James and Gabriel Hawkins-Pottier duo

22/06/2024

Louella JC (of Lou & Leo) is playing at Walthamstow Folk Club this Sunday (Leo will join her with her luscious harmonies on a selection of songs). Come along!

30th June 2024 Louella JC is a singer-songwriter. Accompanying herself on guitar, banjo and ukelele, Lou’s songs, often about London, range from angry tales of social injustice through the trials of navigating contemporary motherhood to the joys and perils of a seriously drunken night out, and mor...

05/04/2024

28/03/2024

Not only will this be a stonking good gig, but it’s in a good cause too, and a lovely venue. See you there?

*FREE TICKETS* for refugees and asylum seekers and heavily discounted tickets for those on limited income. If you can think of anyone who would love to come to a live concert in London, in a stunning church, but would normally struggle to afford it, please let them know, thank you! One week to go...
https://stethelburgas.org/event/daria-kulesh-and-marina-osman-firebirds-at-listen-to-the-world/

21/03/2024

Here's a taste of Monday's featured act, Nesta James' gorgeous music for you

Listen to tracing lines by Nesta James on

09/03/2024

Here's a clip of Lou & Leo - Monday's featured act.

20/02/2024

Here’s a clip of next Monday’s guests, Copper Viper, in action

Catch them at the MAP Cafe, 45 Grafton Rd, Kentish Town, NW5 on Mon 26 Feb at 7.30

Copper Viper - Feather BedRecorded live at GOOT Studio, 18/2/22.Video and audio recorded and produced by Max Benoist (https://www.gooutoftune.com).© Copper V...

25/10/2023

Monday 13 November - Davies & Daughters at FITC. It is going to be a good one!

We are delighted to welcome Davies & Daughters to our next Folk in the Cellar event on Monday 13 November at the MAP Bar Cafe at 46 Grafton Road, NW5 3DU.

Davies & Daughters are a family vocal trio singing unique, close-harmony arrangements of folk songs both old and new - giving new 'daring' and 'spine tingling' harmonies to different vocal traditions, including English, Georgian, Sephardic, Gaelic and Ukrainian. Some of our regulars know Sally Davies through her time as the amazing musical director and arranger of Cecil Sharp House Choir.
'Davies & Daughters held the audience spellbound with a beautiful set of arrangements delivered with warmth, skill and passion'

Floor spots available as always. Get there at 7.30 sharp to put your name on the list. £5 cash donation on the door please.

For your diaries the rest of 2023 looks like this:
27 November - Roswell
11 December - Michael & Louise

25/10/2023

12/09/2023

Thanks to Broomdasher for a great show and to all the people who came along and gave us a song, joined in or just added to the atmosphere. A cracking night!

Join us on Monday 25th for a sing around with surprise guests!

31/08/2023

Looking forward to a great start to our autumn season of Folk in the Cellar, with the brilliant Broomdasher!

A wonderful evening raising the roof at Walthamstow Folk Club

31/08/2023

Summer may be on its last legs but there's plenty to look forward to through the rest of the year, not least Monday nights at Folk in the Cellar. You're always guaranteed a friendly welcome, good music, a chance to sing or play if you want to and the excellent food and drink of our hosts, the Map Cafe. We've put together an exciting programme for the autumn season, so come and join us on the 2nd and 4th Monday of the month

Sep 11 Broomdasher
5-part harmonies from this London-based a ca****la group, who first formed as members of our Camden neighbours, the Cecil Sharp House choir and have been touring widely with the likes of Paul Hutchinson

Sep 25 Singaround
Your chance to share a song or tune, or two, as the audience is the star! Or of course you can just sit and listen. Also featuring a short set from Village Green, an exciting new venture from our regulars Richard and Nigel with instrumentalists and singers from, again, the Cecil Sharp House Choir.

Oct 9 Gabriel Hawkins-Pottier
A Cellar regular who always delights us when he does a floor spot, Gabriel is a multi-talented multi-instrumentalist who is long over-due his own headlining show.

October 23 Jacken Elswith
Jacken Elswyth is a London-based folk musician, banjo player, and instrument builder. In her music-making she is focused on exploring traditional tunes, developing extrapolations on folk styles and techniques, and investigating drone, ambience, and improvisation within and beyond folk music.

Nov 13 Davies and Daughters
Lush harmonies meet daring segues in a program of English, Serbian, Sephardic, Georgian, Bulgarian and French folk songs from this unique family vocal trio, led by our old friend and (continuing a theme) long-time leader of Cecil Sharp House choir, Sally Davies

Nov 27 Roswell
Roswell are Zoë Wren and Jasmine Watkiss, two harmony-obsessed multi-instrumentalists who are both making waves in the folk scene in their own right. Together they formed Folk-Americana duo Roswell after an impromptu open mic night in Cambridgeshire in 2018. Within a few months, they had won Purbeck Rising 2018 and released their debut EP ‘Remedy’, which won Fatea’s EP of the Year 2019.

Dec 11 Michael and Louise
Heading up our Christmas celebration, Michael and Louise are old friends of Folk in the Cellar who feature beautiful guitar and harmony vocals on a wide range of finely arranged traditional and contemporary music

10/08/2023

Folk in the Cellar summer break and autumn schedule:
Just a reminder that FITC is on holiday in August. We are back at MAP Studio Cafe for our autumn/winter programme in September. Here's what we have in store for you lucky people:
11 September -Broomdasher
25 September -Singaround
9 October -Gabriel Hawkins-Pottier
23 October -Jacken Elswyth
13 November -Sally Davies & Daughters
27 November -Roswell
11 December -Michael & Louise

More details about the club, the venue and our guests on our web-site https://folkinthecellar.wordpress.com

See you there!

Camden's Friendly Folk Club

23/06/2023

Camden's Friendly Folk Club

Address

42 Street Pancras Way
London
NW10QT

Website

https://folkinthecellar.wordpress.com/

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Videos

Here's a clip of Lou & Leo - Monday's featured act.

And another new floor spot performer at FITC last night - Emily.

A floorspot from Dom and Eddie last night.

One of our featured acts last night - Pearl Fish. Her songs are beautifully crafted and totally compelling.

We had an amazing evening last night. The place was rammed for Archie Shuttler who did us proud with a great set of original and cover songs, performed with a changing cast of talented friends. We also had a constant procession of really outstanding floor spots, both regulars and first timers, including some great originals, some classic traditional belters and an extraordinary couple of tunes from Yuan, visiting us from Norway, on the ghuzen, a Chinese plucked harp. Plus we were treated to a couple of songs from the one and only David Rovics, who just happened to drop in. Finally, the bar tell us that they had their highest ever takings on a Monday, so an all round top performance from everybody. Thanks to everyone who came and helped to make it so special. Sadly we have no pics. If anyone has photos, we'd be delighted if you could share them with us. (Thanks to May Linn who responded by sending us some pics and this video) Next time, Mon 25 July, will be our last before the summer break and it'll be a singaround with no guest artist set. So plenty of opportunity to come and try out the tunes or songs that youve been working on, or just the old favourites that you fancy sharing

Beautiful singing from last night. It's a pity about the woman singing too loud near the phone...... (me) but gives a good impression of the loveliness of the whole thing.

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Our Story

This page is dedicated to our shared love of Folk and Roots music at the Constitution public house in London's famous Camden Town. The cosy cellar bar of The Constitution is home to one of London’s favourite folk and roots music venues. Every 2nd and 4th Monday, musicians and fans of live, acoustic music head for this traditional pub on the Regents Canal in Camden. “Folk in the Cellar” has been run since 2007, at first by London Celtic band, The Northern Celts, and it has gone from strength to strength. On at least one of the evenings, usually the 4th, we have a special guest artist as well as regular floor spots. On other occasions we have a “singaround” when everyone takes turns to contribute a tune or a song. The atmosphere is friendly and relaxed, with a fondness between musicians, notable particularly in the regular “session” at the end of each club night, when many musicians join together to share great music. Folk in the Cellar has played host to musicians from countries around the world playing from their traditions as well as contemporary music. It is a great place for singer-songwriters to come and showcase their material and for instrumentalists to play tunes or accompany singers. Folk in the Cellar is one of the vibrant forums keeping live acoustic music alive in London. Long may it thrive.