Brunswick Ballroom
314 Sydney Road, Brunswick
A while back we previewed the New Melbourne Folk Club, a folk residency initiative at the Brunswick Ballroom in Melbourne inner north (formerly The Spotted Mallard).
Now, here’s the full story as relayed by Jo Windred.
“Back in 2021 Mabel and Ivy Windred-Wornes (Australian Folk Music Award winner Charm of Finches) and I decided we wanted to showcase some of our favourite singer/songwriters from Melbourne at the Folk Alliance International Online Conference.
We called it New Melbourne Folk Club presents Melbourne Indie Folk Underground. We filmed four hours of performances and broadcast it at the Conference at 11pm till 3am in the morning to festival directors and bookers around the world. We found it got a great response, and it was amazing sitting online chatting and seeing the responses of everyone as they discovered the new artists form our hometown.
You can watch the showcase HERE
Here are the artists we showcased: From the rising stars of contemporary indie-folk sisters CHARM OF FINCHES, the soulful power of FENN WILSON, the warm embrace of KHRISTIAN MIZZI, the mesmerising indie sounds of HANNAH CAMERON, ANNA CORDELL’s spellbinding ethereal folk, the vocal purity of LUCY WISE, the charismatic wit and humour of ALANA WILKINSON and the lyrical genius of CHARLES JENKINS.
During 2021 we were hoping to start a real-life folk club, but lockdowns got in the way. This year, Mary from the Brunswick Ballroom actually approached us to host a folk club vibe residency and we jumped at the opportunity to bring the New Melbourne Folk Club alive! I personally love folk festival type shows, listening rooms, seeing storytelling-based performers and innovative acoustic music and I love discovering new young artists – hence the up and comer opening set for our shows..
Each night has a double headline and a short opening set by an emerging artist in the indie-folk, acoustic vein. We have encouraged the artists to bring up surprise guests and encourage collaborations between the acts. It is set up as a seated, listening room, with the atmospheric grand ballroom aesthetics and an MC. I LOVE a listening audience. It creates an amazing feeling in the room, and I think we all need a lot more of that kind of connection right now after two years of social distance!
The headline artists for March are Charm of Finches, Skyscraper Stan, Colin Lillie (NT), Kerryn Fields, Melanie Horsnell, Georgie Boomsma (UK), Two if by Sea, Lisa Miller, Khristian Mizzi and Domini Forster.
We intend to take the folk club into new spaces and iterations in the future.”
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