They pair will research and explore how folk songs travelled from England to North America and vice versa, changing shape as they journeyed.
Using archive collections in the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library at Cecil Sharp House - including Cecil Sharp’s landmark folk music fieldwork notebooks and diaries from his collecting trips in the Appalachian Mountains – they will go on to perform just four shows, including a performance at renowned music festival WOMAD.
The gigs
Wednesday 23 July, 7.30pm
Cecil Sharp House, London
Tickets £16
Book now | 0844 888 9991
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Thursday 24 July, 8pm
Norwich Arts Centre, Norwich
Tickets £15, £12.50 concessions
Book now | 01603 660 352
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Friday 25 July, 8pm
Ropetackle Arts Centre, Shoreham by Sea
Tickets £15
Book now | 01273 464440
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Saturday 26 July (24-27 July 2014)
WOMAD, Malmesbury, Wiltshire
Festival ticket information and prices (day tickets to be released at a later date)
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The artists
Martin spent many years living and playing in America. He has been nominated an astounding 26 times in the twelve years of the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards - more than any other performer - with nine consecutive years as nominee for Musician of The Year, which he has won twice. 2008 saw an incredible five nominations for Prodigal Son and two wins, whilst in 2010 he had an unprecedented six nominations for his CD True Stories and a win for Best Traditional Track. 2012's nominations for Martin included Best Album, Best Traditional Track and Best Musician. Martin has recently been involved in The Full English, a musical collaboration celebrating the archive of the same name, and The Elizabethan Session in March 2014, a new music project paying homage to that era.
A performance at Cecil Sharp House and a brief visit to the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library sparked http://www.folkbytheoak.com/TES interest in how the songs from his home state of North Carolina may have sounded in the hands of English counterparts. He is a multi-instrumentalist, playing banjo, guitar, harmonica, fife, bones, bass drum, snare drum and quills, in addition to singing. Dom’s banjo repertoire includes not only clawhammer but also tenor and three-finger styles of playing. As a founding member of the Carolina Chocolate Drops, an African-American string band, Dom was able to explore his interest in bringing traditional music to new audiences. The band won a GRAMMY for its 2011 album Genuine Negro Jig and was nominated for its most recent album, Leaving Eden, in 2012.
