Folk Night, Rebecca Leek and Friends

Join acclaimed folk musician and poet Rebecca Leek and Michael Nolan, Chair of the Thames Sailing Barge Trust, for a captivating journey through the songs and stories of England's landscapes and coastline. Blending traditional folk melodies, sea shanties and maritime music with whistles, accordion, melodeon and rich storytelling, this unique performance celebrates the heritage of the Blackwater Estuary, the sailing barges and the timeless traditions that connect land, sea and sky along with the Madrigala choir mastered by Liz Le Fay. They sing spiritual and folk orientated traditional music. This is something which shouldn’t be missed

Rebecca Leek, musician and poet, is joined by Michael Nolan, barge captain and musician, to bring you an evening of folk music that will take you along the river banks of Maldon, up hill and down dale, and all the way out to sea.

Rebecca Leek trained at the Royal Academy of Music and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama but became distracted by being a headteacher for a number of years. She stumbled upon the sea shanty traditions, so alive and well in Harwich, and now performs across East Anglia, bringing whistles, ukuleles and her red accordion along for the ride. She sings a unique mix of traditional English folk, maritime favourites (including French shanties), and pulls together new versions of old songs. They say she is ‘uncommonly excellent’.

Michael Nolan is the Chair of the Thames Sailing Barge Trust and has been a musician and singer for over 30 years. He has devoted himself to preserving seafaring traditions and this includes both training the next generation of barge crews and keeping sea songs alive. Inspired by fellow barge masters of old such as Bob Roberts and Jimmy Lawrence, Mick taught himself to play the melodeon, to take music on board and into towns wherever they sail.

Madrigala are a small chorus who sing a variety of songs in the spiritual and folk genre. "The Magpie" is one song that Madrigala sing, written by the late Davey Dodds and performed in the past by The Unthanks and played on BBC's Detectorists. Another song is a traditional folk song called Cruel Sister, which has been sung by Pentangle in the past.
Madrigala is born of the ideas of local musician Lyz Le Fay, feeling the need to bring a group together to sing harmony. Each song has been arranged for chorus singing and conducted by Lyz