Visiting us from Nova Scotia, Erika Kulnys is a prolific and inspiring songwriter working across genres, who writes heart-opening songs that will move you to tears and make you question the way you see yourself and the world. Her powerful voice has a striking range of timbres and emotions, and her humour and honesty onstage make her music accessible to audiences young and old, and across cultures.
Erika’s album, Angel on the Road, a record of songs of love, healing and peace, won Music Nova Scotia’s 2015 Inspirational Recording of the Year award, was in the top ten on local charts, was a finalist in CBC’s Searchlight Competition for Canada’s best new artist and received international airplay. Erika was a finalist for Best Female Artist in the 2014 International Acoustic Music Awards for her song, Had to Come Home. Her latest album, Rise Up, is about to be released; a social justice-themed album, recorded at Signature Sounds Studio by Mark Thayer (artists such as Josh Ritter, Richard Schindell). Rise Up features musicians Dave Mattacks (Fairport Convention, Paul McCartney), Richard Gates (Patty Larkin), and Jim Henry (Mary Chapin-Carpenter, Paula Cole). Rise Up tells stories of love, social justice and freedom.
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David Foster-Morgan lives and works in Cardiff. He started writing poetry in late youth - or early middle age - and continued despite the onset of late-late youth – or real middle age.
He has survived such setbacks as having his Square Fact rejected to have his poems published in a range of magazines, including: Poetry Wales, Envoi, Smiths Knoll, and The Interpreter’s House – not to mention the first edition of the eponymous Square. He was recently shortlisted in the Times Literary Supplement Poetry Competition and his first collection, Masculine Happiness, was published by Seren Books last October.
His work aims to combine the everyday with the metaphysical – and normally misfires combining yesterday with a glass of Metaxa; or teaching PE to kids from Cardiff Bay. He was a regular at the Square Writers’ in Adamsdown for two years; and is inclined to bemoan the absence of such groups, but equally inclined to forget to go when someone starts one.
He is an extremely mild tempered and tolerant man; it is as if nothing could upset him. He is a kind-hearted, intellectual type, yet he also has a dry sense of humour, all of which, to some extent, is reflected in his poetry.
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Re-united at the club in January last year for the first time in 20 years, Tony Thompson and John Lewis, two maestros of foot stomping blues/rockabilly riffs and licks, return by popular demand with another shuddering set to lift the spirits and the roof.
John recently celebrated 30 years in the business and to mark this milestone released his 15th studio album, His Other Side, an album which focuses more on his acoustic playing than his previous releases. This year has seen John tour and play in eight different countries outside the UK, often headlining festivals such as the Greeze Festival in Australia. Described as “one of Wales’ best kept secrets”, he continues to work extensively in this country and will be releasing a solo album early next year whilst also planning an eighteen day Land’s End to John O’Groats solo tour.
Together with the mind blowing virtuosity of blues harpist Tony Thompson, the duo create a sound sure to thrill.
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