Janet Russell plus support from Mark Dunlop
08 December 2011 (19:30 - 22:30)
A homecoming gig for singer/songwriter Janet Russell plus support from Mark Dunlop ex Malinky
Janet Russell
Singer, vocal workshop leader, arranger.
Janet first made a name for herself on the folk circuit in the ‘80’s as a young singer songwriter writing with hard-edged humour about issues affecting women. Her “Secretary’s Song” was the most requested song on “Folk on 2” in 1987/8, and “Breastfeeding Baby in the Park” has been taken up by the pro-breastfeeding lobby nationally and internationally. Her work on Scottish traditional material with Scottish singer Christine Kydd has received huge critical acclaim, particularly in her native Scotland, and in the US.
Janet has now worked on the folk scene professionally for more than 25 years, starting in Edinburgh pubs, in 1980/81, and has experience of folk clubs, arts centres, concert halls, church halls and village halls of all sorts and sizes in the UK, Europe, and the USA. Throughout this time Janet has worked with other musicians, such as Sisters Unlimited colleagues Sandra Kerr, Rosie Davis and Peta Webb, and Scottish singing partner Christine Kydd, and also toured the show “Take These Chains from My Heart”, written by partner Jim Woodland with storyteller Taffy Thomas. Janet worked as musical director for Mikron Theatre for ten years, and is recognised as an accomplished vocal harmony workshop leader. She is a member of the Natural Voice Practitioners’ Network. At the end of 2001 Janet produced the first English performances of “The Christmas Truce” with international vocal trio Coope Boyes and Simpson. “Well done. Professional, moving, beautifully sung.... Best wishes - Roy”(from Roy Bailey MBE) a show which received a standing ovation at the Sheffield Raise Your Banners Festival in November 2001. The show ran successfully again in November 2002. In March 2005 the same team put on two performances of “Hearts of Coal” celebrating the lives of miners and mining communities with the Roses and Thorns choir, a magnificent group of 80 voices from across northern England. In November 2007 the third show in this same format was “The Toilers’ Gift”, a reference to the innate musicality of the rural workers of Yorkshire. In 2009 Janet helped Leon Rosselson celebrate 50 years of performing and writing songs. Alongside Sandra Kerr, Frankie Armstrong, Roy Bailey, Rob Johnson and Martin Carthy, Janet sang Leon’s songs in London, Brighton, Gateshead, Bradford, Manchester, and Edinburgh in a concert entitled “Turning Silence Into Song”.
JigJaw is a new performance project with Rosie Davis, Kerry Fletcher, and Frances Watt singing for dancing and dancing for singing. This group works as a performance ensemble, a ceilidh band and also leads workshops in singing for dancing and dancing for singing. See www.jigjaw.co.uk JigJaw appeared at Towersey Festival in 2009 and there are videos of some of their performances on Youtube, which you can reach through the website.
http://www.brian-peters.co.uk/russell.html
Janet leads three community choirs, in Silsden, Burnley, and Settle, and does guest work with choirs all over the north of England.
This website has been created due to the release of my solo debut album. Entitled "Islands on the Moon" it is an album of traditional songs, mostly from the North of Ireland, and some jigs, reels, and marches, most of which I composed.
I was born in Ballymoney, Co Antrim, and grew up in the rural townland of Garryduff. Although there was no shortage of music in the house, it was Jim Reeves, Charley Pride, and Porter Wagoner who provided the soundtrack to my childhood. Irish music was always on the periphery then; something that was on the edge of my experience, but not central to it.
I began playing the tin whistle in 1993, mostly influenced by the music of The Pogues and The Dubliners, with a bit of The Saw Doctors thrown in for good measure. Within a few months I was listening to more straight "traditional" music - Mary Bergin, Planxty, and Matt Molloy being strongly to the fore. In 1995, influenced tremendously by Johnny MacDonagh's playing with Mary Bergin, I started on the bodhran.
By 1998 I had been living in Scotland for 5 years and had been fortunate enough to meet some great musicians and singers who became great friends. In September of that year I was asked to jam with Karine Polwart, in what quickly became the first line-up of Malinky. Malinky came from out of nothing to win one of the first Danny Awards at Celtic Connections in January 1999, and my love for music and performing finally had a platform.
In late 2000, whilst in the company of some great Scottish singers in Cy Laurie's pub in Edinburgh I was flung in at the deep end when Cy asked me for a song at the end of a long, well lubricated session. The fact that nobody threw me out after my rendition of "The Queen of Hearts" gave me the encouragement to start singing seriously, rather than just for myself.
By 2003 I had recorded one song with Malinky, and had started tinkering with the flute and the uilleann pipes, as well as writing tunes of my own. That's when the album that would eventually become "Islands on the Moon" was conceived. I wanted to promote the songs of the North of Ireland, and ideally to record songs and tunes that were either unrecorded, or not widely known. This wasn't easy, as many of the best songs from that area have already been recorded extensively. The search for material actually took the best part of 4 years, and I'm pleased to say that 4 of the songs were taken from the Sam Henry Collection and have not been widely recorded in those versions.
http://www.markdunlop.co.uk/index.asp