A new year of music at the ‘Bridge

THE 2012 Shannonside Winter Music Weekend will be held in January 12 to 15 next and has forged a new connection with Bunratty Folk Park, developing even further on its programme of events. 
The 2012 weekend is also paying homage to the late great Woody Guthrie as this year marks the 100th anniversary of his birth. Best known for his song This Land is your Land, tribute sessions will be held over the festival. The film Bound for Glory will also be shown in the Mill Bar throughout the weekend.
For this year’s festival, the ever-popular Saturday morning pickers’ session has been moved to the folk park in Bunratty and will be hosted by the Castleconnell Folk Club.
The winter weekend also welcomes a new poetry corner which takes place at 2pm on Saturday, January 14, hosted by the Ennis based Three-Legged Stool Poets. This new event will include Belfast-born critic and novelist Fred Johnston, poet Clare Sawtell and poets Patrick Stack, Brian Mooney and Arthur Watson.
Acts appearing at the festival include Lynne Heraud and Pat Turner, who also played last year and who will be putting their own interpretation on contemporary and traditional material.
Kimbers Men also return to Sixmilebridge following their 2009 festival performance. The quintet is from Yorkshire in England and their repertoire includes plenty of sea shanties, gospel, blues and modern folk.
I Draw Slow will also be performing throughout the festival. This five-piece band have a folk sound that’s rooted in an old-time Appalachian style. Norfolk’s Golden Star Morris Dancers will bring their quirky dances, costumes and tunes to the festival once again this year.
The Belfast-based Down and Out Bluegrass band was founded in March of this year and describe themselves as a strictly traditional old-time bluegrass band without the frills. The Gorale Duo, made up of Václav Fuksa from the Czech Republic and Marko Ferlan of Slovenia, will bring folk songs from their home countries to Sixmilebridge during the festival weekend.
RTÉ Radio 1’s breakthrough award winners for 2011, FullSet, will perform at the festival’s grand finale concert in the Mill Bar.
The Carrivick Sisters comprising twins Laura and Charlotte Carrivick from South Devon in England, will play a host of gigs throughout the weekend and offer a variety of bluegrass sets.
Meanwhile, Red Cloud Bluegrass Band who formed in March this year are based in and around Limerick and play for this first time at the Winter Music Weekend.
Cork singer songwriter Ger Wolfe brings his contemporary repertoire to the festival, while Wookalily – a six-piece band from Northern Ireland – will also bring their unrestricted quirky style to the ’Bridge. 
Blues singer Mary Stokes will perform an unusual selection of acoustic country blues accompanied by Andrea Rodo and Brian Balm. The Johnny Reidy Céilí Band are back by popular demand, while further new acts include four-piece ensemble The Swell Berries and French-based Cajun group Sarah Savoy and the Francadians.
The Wingers, whose musical influences range from the Bunyani goat herders of Northern Tibet to the concertina styles of Labasheeda and Lissycasey, will also perform as will Trio Elatha who will perform a classical music repertoire to their own folk arrangements.
Other performers include Gypsy Rebel Rabble, a five-piece Dublin folk band and the Castleconnell Folk Club.
Events kick off on Thursday, January 12 at 8.30pm when Brendan Walsh and multi-instrumentalist Daniel Aherne will play at the Courthouse.
On Friday, January 13, the Sixmilebridge Folk Club and friends will be at the courthouse at 2.30pm for the Bridge Active Concert and that night at 7pm, Gorale Duo will showcase their eastern swing at the Mill Bar’s main stage. This will be followed by Red Cloud Bluegrass at 8.30pm again at the main stage.
That night, Mary Stokes, Sarah Savoy and The Francadians will perform at the Courthouse from 9pm, while I Draw Slow will play at Bunratty Castle Hotel at 10pm. Also at 10pm on Friday, Gilly’s will hold a traditional music session, McGregor’s will host Gypsy Rebel Rabble, Casey’s will have John Nyhan and friends, Ó Gliasáin pub will hold a SMB Folk Club session and The Old House will stage The Swell Berries. Furthermore, on Friday at 10.30pm Wookalily will be on the Mill’s main stage.
The Saturday line-up includes 17 free gigs in the town with two large concerts staged that night.
Beginning at 1pm with the Pickers’ Session, Saturday will offer a poetry reading, traditional music sessions, rockabilly sessions, swing and bluegrass sessions as well as a Woody Guthrie session across the various venues.
That night, I Draw Slow, Trio Elatha, Carrivick Sisters, Gorale Duo, Ger Wolfe, Lynne Heraud and Pat Turner will be taking to the main stage at the Courthouse for an acoustic concert at 8pm. The Mill Bar will hold a festival concert with Sarah Savoy and the Francadians, Swell Berries and Kimber’s Men.
Meanwhile at 9.30pm on Saturday, there will be a traditional session in Gilly’s bar, Gypsy Rebel Rabble will be in The Old House, Mary Stokes trio will be in Ó Gliasáin’s, Wookalily will be in McGregor’s, McDarragh will perform in Casey’s and The Carrivick Sisters will be in Bunratty Castle Hotel.
Sunday, January 15 will be the dedicated family day will all events free of charge. The day kicks off at 11am with a festival mass in St Finnachta’s with the St Finnachta’s choir performing, followed at noon by a morning coffee traditional music session with the SMB Folk Club at the Courthouse.
Kimber’s men will perform at Bunratty Castle Hotel from 1pm, while a classical concert with Trio Elatha will be held in St Finnachta’s Church. At 2pm, Mary Stokes Trio will be in McGregor’s, Ó Gliasáin’s will hold a singers’ session with Ger Wolfe and The Carrivick Sisters, while at 2.30pm,John Nyhan and friends will be in Gilly’s for a trad session.
The Johnny Reidy Céilí Band will perform at the Bunratty Castle Hotel at 3pm and at 4pm, the Morris Star Dancers will be in the Mill Bar. Also at 4pm Gypsy Rebel Rabble will be in Ó Gliasáin’s and Wookalilly will be in the Old House.
McGregor’s will host Sarah Savoy and the Francadians at 4.30pm while Gilly’s bar will hold a trad session.
The weekend’s festivities will draw to a close with two finale events, the first at the Mill Bar’s main stage at 6pm where The FullSet, The Wingers and The Swell Berries will perform, thereafter at 10pm John Nyhan and friends will hold an acoustic roots session at the Bunratty Castle Hotel.