Rocky Bay Folk Club are pleased to present ethnomusicologist and performer of 19th century Lancashire dialect and Victorian street ballads, Jennifer Reid.
Jennifer plays the character of Barb in Shane Meadows’ period drama The Gallows Pole. She has supported Pulp, John Cooper Clarke, for Chanel’s prestigious Metiers d’Art show, and is in the second year of touring with Eliza Carthy. She will tour New Zealand this year solo.
Folk music has lost its way, and people have lost track of their geographical heritage. The working classes made music as a provocation and this is a tradition Jennifer continues: think rousing songs and passionate oratory.
The show will also feature clog-stepping - a percussive dance form that developed in the industrial areas of the North of England.
"She is singing our belonging to our land, history, ancestry, with streetwise modernity” - Casey Orr
“Lancashire dialect and Victorian Broadside ballad singer Jennifer Reid is brutally honest, powerful and authentic. Reid deserves our attention and embodies the gritty, honest truth of folk music. Reid reminds us that the streets, pubs and alleyways is where folk lives and not behind the glass of the studio.” - Folkmylife.co.uk
Jennifer as a performer and writer breathes life back into these fascinating songs that vividly describe the tumultuous environment of the industrial North West. Taking their subject matter from the urban street and people the ballad effectively bridges the gap between folk and pop music as we know it today. – Jeremy Deller
Following Jennifer's performance she will be joined by Professor of Geography and Head of School at the University of Auckland's School of Environment, Robin Kearns, for a conversation on music and place. Robin has a lifelong interest in music, despite never having played any instrument except a stereo. He published his first concert review at 17 and has been writing about music since. In latter years he has integrated a career as a geographer with a musical curiosity. Robin's key interest is place: where music comes from, the significance of where it is performed, and it's contribution to people's experience of community and identity.
BYO event + tea and coffee provided at half time.
https://www.jenniferballads.com
