Folk and Acoustic
Folk & Acoustic Music
BlueJam runs regular workshops for adults and families, provides sessions for schools and community groups, and offers a variety of music bands and performers for festivals and events locally.
Our leaders play a variety of folk and world music, early music and world genres, on a wide range of instruments. We have strong links with excellent folk musicians whom we can bring into projects as specialists.
Folk Group Sessions
Wednesdays 7.30- – 9.30pm
Christchurch Rooms, Drovers Lane,
Penrith £3
Winter Wonderland
Centerparcs Nov-Dec
BlueJam Folk Sessions
Who We Are
What We Do
A group of adults and some young people have been meeting weekly for over 4 years now as they wanted a space to try out tunes, and practise outside of a public folk session. They are now popular as a performance group adding their own relaxed folk feel for free to many local events.
BlueJam Folk is a group of up to about 15 musicians, playing a wide range of instruments, with various levels of experience and a mutual enthusiasm for playing music and developing our skills together. We organise ourselves on a collective basis, sharing responsibility for running the group and also taking on specific jobs as individuals when needed. We feel that we are are a friendly, supportive and welcoming group.
We play mainly traditional tunes (Irish, Scottish and English in particular) and modern tunes written in a traditional style. We have a core ‘repertoire’ and a large number of other tunes and sets which we play regularly. All members have access to the sheet music for these online via our Dropbox account. Some people play by ear and others use sheet music to play from. Members are encouraged to introduce new tunes and sets to the group.
We play once a month at Kirkoswald Farmers’ Market and also play at an increasing number of outside events, such as Apple Day at Acorn Bank, Woolfest and Greystoke Craft Fair. We have also started playing some fundraising ceilidhs. We prefer to play at community and charitable events and for ‘not for profit’ organisations. We don’t charge a fee though do ask for an amount to cover our travel expenses etc.
We meet to play tunes each Wednesday evening from 7.30pm to 9.30pm in a room at Christ Church, Drovers Lane, Penrith. We each pay £2.50 per week to cover the cost of the room. We have a tea break in the middle, when we also discuss any admin matters etc.
If you’d like to join us just turn up (first session free) or get in touch beforehand for more information: di.wallace11@btinternet.com
If you would like us to play at your event please get in touch to discuss.
Winter Wonderland
Acoustic Bands
Who We Are
BlueJam has run various Blue Acoustic sessions for adults and young people. These incorporate any acoustic instrument and voices as well and look at a wide variety of folk, early music and roots music from around the world.
If you would like us to run a session in your school or club please get in touch
An acoustic band can be a small group of BlueJam tutors or participants or a combination of both.
We can handle professional gigs, though generally do not do Ceilidhs as we don’t have a regular caller.
We play throughout November and December at Whinfell Forest Centerparcs with a 7 – piece band, singers and “audience interactors”. Our set of early music, folk, winter and traditional songs has proved really popular.
We are also playing at local Winter Festivals.