Folk Alliance Australia

Folk Alliance Australia

Connecting the folk community, industry & culture

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BANDZOOGLE Benefits for FAA Members

April 8, 2021 by admin

A website for folk artists
FAA welcomes a new partnership with the North American company Bandzoogle which will benefit FAA members.
Bandzoogle makes it easy to build an engaging website and Electronic Press Kit for your music easily. You can choose from dozens of mobile-friendly templates, then customize your design and content in just a few clicks.

All the features you need for a professional website and EPK are already built-in, including:

  • Tools to sell music and merchandise commission-free, right on your website
  • Stream your music, with flexible options for music downloads
  • Commission-free crowdfunding and fan subscription features
  • Mailing list tools to grow your fan list and send professional newsletters
  • Integrations to pull in content from your online profiles including YouTube, Twitter, and SoundCloud
  • Live support from their musician-friendly team, 7 days a week

Folk Alliance Australia members receive a 3-month free trial, plus 15% off any subscription! Plans start at just $8.29/month (USD), which includes hosting and your own free custom domain name.
 
HOW TO TAKE UP THE BANDZOOGLE BENEFIT
Simply email president@folkalliance.org.au with your membership name and number and we will email you the direct link for the FAA Bandzoogle – 3 month free trial and 15% discount.

Filed Under: Membership, News

Australian Folk Music Awards 2021 (AFMAs) Presented By Folk Alliance Australia

April 8, 2021 by admin

Last month we announced that Folk Alliance Australia will launch the inaugural Australian Folk Music Awards (AFMA) in October 2021.  

We are currently working through rules of eligibility and judging panel composition.  Stay tuned as details emerge.

Nominations will open in late May, closing on 31 July for the following 8 Awards:-

  • Album of The Year – Traditional
  • Album of The Year – Contemporary
  • Youth Act of The Year
  • Folk Artist of the Year – Solo
  • Folk Artist of the Year – Duo/Group
  • Folk Community- Cultural Project of the Year
  • Contribution to Folk
  • People’s Choice Award

Filed Under: News, Australian Folk Music Awards

FAA Membership Benefits

April 8, 2021 by admin

FAA-Logo

Joining FAA

As well as the Australian Folk Music Awards, FAA is working on a number of ways to support and connect the folk music community in 2021 as we grapple with emerging from the pandemic. 

You can help the community as well by signing up to the FAA for a modest fee and derive insurance and website benefits through our partners AON and Bandzoogle.  Also, as a member, you would be eligible to vote in the ‘People’s Choice Award’.

JOIN HERE 

Filed Under: News

RISE Funding Opportunities

April 8, 2021 by admin

The Australian Government has announced a $125 million extension of the Restart Investment to Sustain and Expand (RISE) Fund, available until 31 December 2021.  Funding is now available to support a broader cross section of music and entertainment sector workers such as managers, booking agents, musicians, and roadies.

RISE funding is provided to businesses and organisations as competitive project grants towards the cost of putting on activities such as festivals, concerts, tours, productions and events.
FAA encourages folk organisations and artists to apply for funding support.

To find out more information, visit www.arts.gov.au/funding-and-support/rise-fund If you have any questions, you can email RISE@arts.gov.au, or phone (02) 6271 7971.

Filed Under: News

Bill Jackson’s ‘Wayside Ballads Vol. 3’

April 8, 2021 by admin

Melbourne singer/songwriter Bill Jackson has revealed the release of the final part of his recording trilogy of Australian colourful stories and history.  ‘Wayside Ballads Vol. 3’ will be released in April with a live launch in June.
The first song from the album “The Shed which recounts a shearers strike in New South Wales is now available.

Filed Under: News

John Thompson – Inaugural Services To Folk Music Award

April 8, 2021 by admin

John Thompson and Cloudstreet – Photo: Cloudstreet Website

Folk Troubadour John Thompson Passes Away

Receives Inaugural Services To Folk Music Award From Folk Alliance Australia

Folk Alliance Australia (FAA) announces a “Services to Australian Folk Music Award 2021” to John Thompson.

FAA is currently considering the Awards it will present to members of the folk community and we are in the process of launching a program of national folk awards.

In announcing the award, FAA President Keith Preston said:

“When singer John Thompson’s ill health was called to our attention we moved to recognise his contributions to folk music by making him the inaugural recipient of our discretionary Award for Services to the Folk music community. This was awarded 4 Feb 2021 the same day as his passing.”

About John Thompson 1964 – 2021

John Thompson was an acclaimed singer and collaborator, an interpreter of traditional songs, a lover of Australian folk music in all its guises, and an artist who will make you laugh.

His biography (on the Cloudstreet website) reflects not only his musicality, which embraced many genres, but his wry humour. There you will also find recordings of his beautiful singing.

Early musical highlights include the St. Stephen’s Cathedral Boys’ Choir in Brisbane, joining the band No Right Turn and being a founding member of One Step Forward where he developed his trademark harmonies with Maree Robertson and Ann Bermingham.

His work with the Legal Aid Office took him to Townsville where he launched himself into the local folk scene. One Step Forward continued to perform at festivals around Australia and in 1994 played at the National Folk Festival in Canberra.

John’s unique vocal style and strength earned him the inaugural Lis Johnson Memorial Award for Vocal Excellence. It was in Townsville that John started to perform with Martin Pearson, their madcap adventures in satire and storytelling evolving into the duo Never the Twain.

It was also in Townsville that John met and fell in love with Nicole Murray. In the early years of their relationship, they each performed with different groups before Robertson asked them to support Chris While and Julie Matthews at their first Brisbane performance.

Shortly after, Cloudstreet came into being as a vehicle for their ongoing collaborations. After three years of festivals and two albums, John left the legal world in 2003 and took up full-time performing. Cloudstreet travelled to the UK ten times and performed in Japan, the USA, New Zealand, Denmark, Morocco and Germany.

John played guitar, English concertina and whistle and also began learning trombone and violin. Singing remained his passion and his remarkable vocal range provided some enthralling listening in Cloudstreet’s arrangements.

In 2009, he toured the UK with the legendary Spooky Men’s Chorale and three years later was invited to join the Australian tour of War Horse, the National Theatre of Great Britain’s worldwide phenomenon. He played the role of the Song Man from December 2012 for nine months.

In 2015, John was awarded a QANZAC100 fellowship by the State Library of Queensland to undertake a research and song-writing project around the conscription debate in Queensland in the First World War, and produced a show and album called Censors, Conscripts and Queensland.

He co-founded the Maleny Celtic Winter School, an annual school for traditional music which ran for seven years, and played Scottish music for community dances and weddings with The Ceilidh Clan for many years.

John’s final concerts included a gala performance with Cloudstreet and a small orchestra at the State Library of Queensland in 2019, and taking the orchestra to his beloved Woodford Folk Festival that year.

John also performed as a debater, master of ceremonies, marriage celebrant and parodist.

Other John Thompson achievements are:

  • Graduate Diploma of Folk Life Studies
  • 2006 Trad and Now Album of the Year for Dance Up The Sun (with Nicole Murray)
  • 2010 Artist of the Festival, Mt Beauty Music Muster (with Nicole Murray, as Cloudstreet)
  • Recipient of The Order of Woodfordia, 2020 (presented for his outstanding contribution to the Queensland Folk Federation and Woodfordia Inc, as a dedicated volunteer in many roles; and as a source of wise counsel. A much-loved performer and orator with a stunning voice, known for his strong social conscience, and proudly advocating for Woodfordia across the globe)

He was diagnosed with advanced cancer after Cloudstreet’s 2017 UK tour and sadly passed away on 4 February, 2021.

Filed Under: News, Australian Folk Music Awards

New Australian Folk Music Awards

April 8, 2021 by admin

Folk Alliance Australia announces the launch of the
Australian Folk Music Awards in 2021

Folk Alliance Australia believes that Folk Music needs to have a higher profile in the national Music and Arts industries. For this reason we will present the inaugural national Australian Folk Music Awards in 2021.

We will release details of these awards in March and entries will open in May. A National Folk Awards event will be staged live and live-streamed nationally in October.

The Categories and Awards are being finalised over the next two months as well as the conditions of entry/nomination and shortlisting. We will be looking  to bring in Panelists/Peers and Folk Industry experts who wish to participate in the shortlisting/voting component and support this important Folk Music project.

The aim of the Australian Folk Music Awards is to raise the profile of the folk music industry, bring diverse genres together and promote our current and emerging artists. We will celebrate our diversity, achievements, our musical quality and the wellsprings of traditions and community that give rise to the folk genre that is Australian Folk.

We welcome your thoughts at this point in time. Please send any comments or input through to president@folkalliance.org.au

Filed Under: News

FAA Committee

April 3, 2021 by admin

Keith Preston, President (SA)

Keith is Arts Manager at the Australian Migrant Resource Centre in Adelaide since 2007 and is involved in managing and coordinating a range of arts projects with artists from new arrival communities which includes traditional music & dance, school exhibitions and presentation of several key cultural festivals. Each year he produces a major concert at the Adelaide Festival Centre. He is involved with a range of performance projects through HATs Inc, including the acclaimed Adelaide Songs project. He currently plays with fusion band Moonta Street who blend European and Chinese music, Sufi Highway a South Asian and Middle East music show and works regularly as a performer of traditional puppetry. He has just written a musical comedy which will be produced in 2021. He previously worked for many years as coordinator of the SA State Folk Festival (Victor Harbour), the SA Medieval Festival and established the SA Folk Centre. Keith has experience in arts organisations, festival management, overseas touring, band management and youth development.

John McAuslan, Treasurer (Vic)

John McAuslan is now 5 years retired as director of the Brunswick Music Festival and Across The Borders Pty Ltd. (ATB), an event / artist management and international touring agency. Across The Borders was in the business of event management and international touring for over 18 years. ATB were the event managers of the Brunswick Music Festival, the Sydney Road Street Party and the Mechanics Institute PAC from 1997-2013. John started in the folk music movement as a performer and from the early 80s as an organiser; he was director of the 1986 National Folk Festival; an Australia Council-funded music coordinator in Brunswick and label manager of Brunswick Recordings for Brunswick Council (1990-93), a groundbreaking label featuring Victorian multicultural and Anglo/Celtic recordings, which produced 18 titles on vinyl, cassette and CD. He served as Treasurer on the original board of Folk Alliance Australia (FAA), served on the Victorian Folk Life Association and was a member of the Victorian Government festivals grant panel. In 2008 he was awarded the Graeme Squance Award for services to folk music in Victoria; he served as the chairperson of Folk Alliance Australia 2011-2013, and now returns as Treasurer of the FAA.

Cherie Harvey (SA)

Cherie Harvey is founder and manager of HATs Inc (Heritage Arts & Traditions), a multi-award winning arts organisation based in the Clare Valley wine region in South Australia. HATs Inc is based in the historic Auburn Courthouse and is upheld as a model for presenting arts and music in regional areas. HATs specialises in presenting touring acts, developing new projects and engaging with a regional audience. Cherie has a long association with folk music and dance and was Chairperson of the Folk Federation of SA from 2000 to 2004.

Erin Collins (Tas)

Erin is a musician and writer whose work has been showcased at performances and festivals as diverse as the National, Cygnet, Tamar Valley, Maldon and Majors Creek Folk Festivals, Ten Days on the Island, Junction Arts Festival, Queenstown Heritage and Arts Festival, the Wooden Boat Festival and From France to Freycinet, in addition to Regional arts and other touring. She has been involved with the Cygnet Folk Festival, predominantly as a performer since the mid 1990s. Over the past two decades Erin has qualified in courses, masterclasses and seminars in event management and festivals and combines her experience of performance with management of festivals and events. Erin has worked as performer, producer, company manager and musical director for shows during Ten Days on the Island, presented for festivals as Band Manager for Australian Folk group Silkweed, presented for “Mostly Folk” on Hobart FM community radio and is the Tasmanian producer of the Woodford Folk Festival initiative, Festival of Small Halls in partnership with the Cygnet Folk Festival. Erin has steered the artistic vision as Artistic Director for the Cygnet Folk Festival since 2011. She lives in Hobart.

Linda Bull (QLD)

Linda returned to her home town of Brisbane to work with cutting edge ensemble Topology as Executive Producer, after having spent 15 years working in the music industry in Canada, most recently as General Manager of the Nova Scotia Youth Orchestra in Halifax. She also worked for many years in the areas of Music Publicity, Booking and Tour Management, Concert Promotion and as a (folk) musician herself. She has a wide network of music contacts in the folk music community in Canada and all over Europe, particularly in Italy where she has toured with many well-known Italian musicians. Linda is keen to get more involved in the Australian folk music community and contribute to building stronger and more powerful advocacy for Australian folk both at home and abroad.

Rob Dickens (Vic)

Rob is editor of Listening Through The Lens, an on-line roots music magazine established in 2012. He has been a freelance journalist for No Depression, Addicted To Noise, Steam and Rhythms, having covered US festivals (eg. AmericanaFest, Folk Alliance International, World of Bluegrass), US music museums and cultural centres, Australian events (live shows, Port Fairy Folk Festival and Mountaingrass) and Fairport Convention’s Copredy Convention in the UK. Pre-COVID(!) he managed and led small music tour groups to the US South annually. Rob looks forward to contributing to the folk music community at this difficult time.

Therese Virtue (Vic)

Therese has spent many years engaged with folk music in various contexts. As a teacher in Victoria’s secondary schools, she found herself swapping songs and dances with Greek and Macedonian students in Melbourne’s West. She has sung in various folk groups with repertoires of English, Irish, American and Australian songs, and in the Italian folkloric ensemble Il Gruppo Folcloristico Italiano. Therese was a founding member of Petrunka, Melbourne Women’s Bulgarian Choir, and now spends considerable time wrestling with the intricacies of ancient Georgian polyphony,  in Melbourne Georgian Choir. After many years, Therese swapped teaching for work as an organiser for Melbourne’s multicultural music presenter The Boite, where she is recognised as an advocate for artists and performers from the hugely diverse range of cultures and music genres housed in Melbourne.

Filed Under: Committee

John Thompson – Services To Folk Music Award

April 3, 2021 by admin

 

John Thompson and Cloudstreet – Photo: Cloudstreet Website

 

Folk Troubadour John Thompson Passes Away

Receives Inaugural Services To Folk Music Award From Folk Alliance Australia

Folk Alliance Australia (FAA) announces a “Services to Australian Folk Music Award 2021” to John Thompson.

FAA is currently considering the Awards it will present to members of the folk community and we are in the process of launching a program of national folk awards.

In announcing the award, FAA President Keith Preston said:

“When singer John Thompson’s ill health was called to our attention we moved to recognise his contributions to folk music by making him the inaugural recipient of our discretionary Award for Services to the Folk music community. This was awarded 4 Feb 2021 the same day as his passing.”

About John Thompson 1964 – 2021

John Thompson was an acclaimed singer and collaborator, an interpreter of traditional songs, a lover of Australian folk music in all its guises, and an artist who will make you laugh.

His biography (on the Cloudstreet website) reflects not only his musicality, which embraced many genres, but his wry humour. There you will also find recordings of his beautiful singing.

Early musical highlights include the St. Stephen’s Cathedral Boys’ Choir in Brisbane, joining the band No Right Turn and being a founding member of One Step Forward where he developed his trademark harmonies with Maree Robertson and Ann Bermingham.

His work with the Legal Aid Office took him to Townsville where he launched himself into the local folk scene. One Step Forward continued to perform at festivals around Australia and in 1994 played at the National Folk Festival in Canberra.

John’s unique vocal style and strength earned him the inaugural Lis Johnson Memorial Award for Vocal Excellence. It was in Townsville that John started to perform with Martin Pearson, their madcap adventures in satire and storytelling evolving into the duo Never the Twain.

It was also in Townsville that John met and fell in love with Nicole Murray. In the early years of their relationship, they each performed with different groups before Robertson asked them to support Chris While and Julie Matthews at their first Brisbane performance.

Shortly after, Cloudstreet came into being as a vehicle for their ongoing collaborations. After three years of festivals and two albums, John left the legal world in 2003 and took up full-time performing. Cloudstreet travelled to the UK ten times and performed in Japan, the USA, New Zealand, Denmark, Morocco and Germany.

John played guitar, English concertina and whistle and also began learning trombone and violin. Singing remained his passion and his remarkable vocal range provided some enthralling listening in Cloudstreet’s arrangements.

In 2009, he toured the UK with the legendary Spooky Men’s Chorale and three years later was invited to join the Australian tour of War Horse, the National Theatre of Great Britain’s worldwide phenomenon. He played the role of the Song Man from December 2012 for nine months.

In 2015, John was awarded a QANZAC100 fellowship by the State Library of Queensland to undertake a research and song-writing project around the conscription debate in Queensland in the First World War, and produced a show and album called Censors, Conscripts and Queensland.

He co-founded the Maleny Celtic Winter School, an annual school for traditional music which ran for seven years, and played Scottish music for community dances and weddings with The Ceilidh Clan for many years.

John’s final concerts included a gala performance with Cloudstreet and a small orchestra at the State Library of Queensland in 2019, and taking the orchestra to his beloved Woodford Folk Festival that year.

John also performed as a debater, master of ceremonies, marriage celebrant and parodist.

Other John Thompson achievements are:

  • Graduate Diploma of Folk Life Studies
  • 2006 Trad and Now Album of the Year for Dance Up The Sun (with Nicole Murray)
  • 2010 Artist of the Festival, Mt Beauty Music Muster (with Nicole Murray, as Cloudstreet)
  • Recipient of The Order of Woodfordia, 2020 (presented for his outstanding contribution to the Queensland Folk Federation and Woodfordia Inc, as a dedicated volunteer in many roles; and as a source of wise counsel. A much-loved performer and orator with a stunning voice, known for his strong social conscience, and proudly advocating for Woodfordia across the globe)

He was diagnosed with advanced cancer after Cloudstreet’s 2017 UK tour and sadly passed away on 4 February, 2021.

Filed Under: Australian Folk Music Awards

FAA Announces Inaugural Australian Folk Music Awards

April 3, 2021 by admin

Folk Alliance Australia believes that Folk Music needs to have a higher profile in the national Music and Arts industries. For this reason we will present the inaugural national Australian Folk Music Awards in 2021.

We will release details of these awards in March and entries will open in May. A National Folk Awards event will be staged live and live-streamed nationally in October.

The Categories and Awards are being finalised over the next two months as well as the conditions of entry/nomination and shortlisting. We will be looking  to bring in Panelists/Peers and Folk Industry experts who wish to participate in the shortlisting/voting component and support this important Folk Music project.

The aim of the Australian Folk Music Awards is to raise the profile of the folk music industry, bring diverse genres together and promote our current and emerging artists. We will celebrate our diversity, achievements, our musical quality and the wellsprings of traditions and community that give rise to the folk genre that is Australian Folk.

We welcome your thoughts at this point in time. Please send any comments or input through to president@folkalliance.org.au

Filed Under: Australian Folk Music Awards Tagged With: australian folk music awards

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