TheBowerHouse

Welcome to the Bowerhouse

2019

The Bowerhouse is an independently run art and performance space in Maidstone, Kent. We have regular concerts and community events including folk club (4th Tuesday of the month 8pm-11pm) life drawing (every Thursday 7pm-9pm), community choir (every Wednesday 7.30pm- 9pm)

Rankin Robertson

November 15th | Doors 7.30pm music from 8pm

A night of Celtic Song and Music with Mairi Rankin and Ailie Robertson
Winner of ‘Best Group’ in both the Live Ireland awards and the Tradition In Review awards, the duo are one of the top Celtic acts in the world. With their band The Outside Track, they were ‘Best Live Act’ nominees in the 2013 MG Alba Scots Traditional Music Awards, and won the German Radio Critics Prize 2014, for their latest album Flash Company. Live Ireland called them, ‘Among the top bands in the world – stunning on every cut!’.
Mairi Rankin – One of the hugely influential Rankin Family – legends on the Canadian music scene – she plays fiddle, sings and also step-dances up a storm. Born in Mabou, Nova Scotia, Mairi has been influenced by some of the best Cape Breton traditional musicians and instructors on the island. She has developed her own unique style by
being immersed in such a rich musical culture.
She has toured nationally and internationally as a solo artist, a sideman and is a member of the Cape Breton Celtic super group Beolach. She has performed with the Rankin Sisters, Unusual Suspects and Bruce Guthro to name but a few. Mairi has recorded one solo album, two CDs with Beolach and has been featured on numerous compilations and recordings.

Ailie Robertson – Ailie Robertson from Edinburgh is widely regarded as one of Scotland’s leading young traditional musicians. She is a musician in the broadest sense: composer, arranger, teacher, improviser and harp virtuoso. Her accomplishment on the clarsach is such that leading Irish flautist Niall Keegan said: “Ailie’s synthesis of Irish, Scottish and contemporary harping technique into an individual style represents the realisation of otherwise unimagined possibilities for the Celtic harp.”
Ailie grew up in Edinburgh, Scotland, and was immersed in the harp world from an early age. She began playing the clarsach when she was eleven years old and through her piano and clarsach lessons she developed a love for both classical and traditional music. She has won a plethora of awards for her harp playing.

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16.11.19 11am-3pm

Christmas card making workshop

This year, why not send your friends and family beautiful hand-crafted Christmas cards made by you!
Create your own handmade Christmas cards using print, paint, batik and collage techniques.
The workshop is hands-on, creative and fun. You will make at least 10 cards.

No experience or equipment necessary. All tools and materials provided. Some design ideas will be provided, but please feel free to bring along images, sketches or thoughts to work from.

Light lunch will be provided

Limited spaces!

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Martin Simpson

With support from Emily Portman

December 8th | Doors 7.30pm music from 8pm

Nominated ‘Musician of the Year’ – BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards 2018

“Martin Simpson has transcended borders and oceans to quietly become a superb storyteller and musician of great depth and unquestionable taste.” Stephen Fearing

The remarkable intimate solo performances Martin gives go from strength to strength - every gig is a masterclass. He travels the length and breadth of the UK and beyond, giving rapt audiences passion, sorrow, love, beauty, tragedy and majesty through his playing.

Universally acclaimed as one of the finest ever acoustic and slide guitar players, and a fine banjo-picker to boot, his solo shows bear witness to an artist at the very top of his game. Whether interpreting material from tradition or singing his own potent self-penned songs, Simpson is a remarkable storyteller: captivating and profoundly moving. His own songwriting produced the poignant ‘Never Any Good’, from Prodigal Son, 2007’s Folk Album of the Year.

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