A song celebrating the challenging, therapeutic art of fly fishing and the glorious natural beauty of the great outdoors is the new focus single from award-winning songwriter Craig Joiner.
Taken from his latest album, 'A Kind Of Calm', the idea for the song came to Craig while he and his wife were walking their dog along the course of the River Test, acknowledged and renowned worldwide as the birthplace of fly fishing.
"We walked to Stockbridge, where the river flows under High Street. It was a beautiful day - the sun was shining. It was a perfect afternoon in a gorgeous setting. That gave me the idea to write a song about fly fishing, which I first took up in my early teens."
Further inspiration for the song 'Lark And Grey' came while Craig was watching a YouTube clip hosted by the very talented fly tyer Davie McPhail, who was demonstrating a fly pattern that he considered to be an absolute must for any aspiring dry fly fisherman. "It was called a Lark And Grey," says Craig. "As soon as I heard those words the title of a song came floating by. I took out my net and landed it, every pun intended!"
In the bleak days of the pandemic, fishing found itself at the epicentre of 'mindfulness' with the NHS advocating that the sport be 'prescribed' as a remedy for mental health. At the same time, rivers in the UK continue to be pumped with untreated sewage. Craig has aligned himself to the Wild Trout Trust, which will receive a £1 donation from him for each copy sold of his album. "It makes perfect sense to me that we should all take responsibility in looking after our rivers, lakes, fish and the environment that surrounds them," says Craig. "The WTT is a very big part of that.
"I'm well aware that if humans weren't involved and fishing wasn't something that was loved throughout the world, rivers would flow, fish would flourish and nature would take care of its own. But we are here, we do fish and it's our responsibility to look after all that we catch and all that we see to the best of our ability."
Released by Molano Music, 'A Kind Of Calm' was announced by the focus track 'The Wedding Day Of Eliza May', a romantic lament of 'it should have been me...' and winner of the 'Track/Song Of The Year, 2024' in the annual Fatea Awards. Featuring seven original songs by Craig - two trad arrangements and one cover - the album's ten tracks combine to carry the listener away on a journey of the mind. "My hope is that my music will help people escape the pressures and the madness of the world we all now live in and provide them with...a kind of calm, if only for a short while," he says.
Craig will be touring to promote the album throughout 2025 and beyond. Mike Brocken, of Folkscene – the longest running specialist music programme in British broadcasting history - included 'A Kind Of Calm' as one of the show's Top Ten 'Album Of The Year, 2024' choices. He says: "It's pretty special. Took us by surprise. A really interesting acoustic album.Although Craig has forged a career and won repute in the rock arena, folk music has always been his true muse and calling. "As a 15-year-old, I played my first gig, guitar in hands, at the Cellar Folk Club in Hemel Hempstead," he recalls. "Life and opportunities then led me elsewhere, but here I am again, having travelled full circle. It feels like home and it's so wonderful to be here."
Craig released his debut solo album, 'Art Of Landing', in 2018 but his incredible journey began back in 1987 when his band Romeo's Daughter was signed to Jive Records and released their debut album a year later. The self-titled album was produced by the legendary Robert 'Mutt' Lange (Def Leppard, The Cars, AC/DC, Shania Twain), spawned a whirlwind tour of the USA and saw the single 'Don't Break My Heart' shoot up the Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart there.
Odette Michell is an award-winning British singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist with a rich foothold in the folk tradition.
In April 2019, Odette released her debut album 'The Wildest Rose'. The album gained widespread positive acclaim followed by a string of live interviews, and featured notable musical contributions from Phil Beer (one-half of multi-award-winning acoustic folk band Show of Hands), and Toby Shaer (Cara Dillon, Sam Kelly & The Lost Boys).
The result is a compelling, highly impressive debut that both soars and impresses. fRoots Magazine described it as "one of the stand-out debuts of 2019" and by the end of the same year, 'The Wildest Rose' had been shortlisted as one of the '10 Best Albums of 2019' by Johnny Coppin on BBC Sounds, as well as becoming Album Of The Week on BBC Radio Cambridgeshire and BBC Radio Wales, and in February 2020 RNR Magazine touted Odette as one of their 'Top Picks For 2020'.
In January 2020 Odette won Female Artist Of The Year at the FATEA Awards, following in the footsteps of previous winners Kitty Macfarlane and Cara Dillon, respectively; and in May 2020 Odette was nominated for a Rising Star Award at the 2020 Folking Awards. In January 2021 Odette was invited to perform at Celtic Connections as part of the legendary Danny Kyle Open Stage.
A dynamic live performer, Odette plays the guitar, bouzouki and accordion, and has performed alongside the likes of Show of Hands, and opened for folk legends Martin Carthy, Phil Beer, Boo Hewerdine, Nancy Kerr, Reg Meuross and BBC R2 Folk Award nominees Ninebarrow amongst others. Odette's highly anticipated second studio album is due for release in 2025.
Born in Yorkshire with an Irish heritage, Odette grew up in a musical household and first picked up the guitar at fifteen. Inspired by the resurgence of folk and acoustic songwriters at the time, she began writing her own songs when she was just sixteen years old. Growing up in the vibrant city of Cambridge allowed Odette to take advantage of the many stages and performance venues there, including two early club stage appearances at the Cambridge Folk Festival - her first appearance there being when she was just 22 years old. Having been recently based on a rural 18th century dairy farm in the English countryside, Odette draws on these rich influences and life experience and weaves them together to form the basis of many of her songs.
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