Eleanor McEvoy (Ireland)
and Chloe Matharu (Scotland)

Saturday 23 March, 7.00 p.m.
Everglades Club, Woy Woy

‘A rare opportunity to hear one of Ireland’s finest singer-songwriters’

Book here: https://www.trybooking.com/COJDX

ELEANOR McEVOY

Eleanor McEvoy, is perhaps best known as the writer and performer of ’Only A Woman’s Heart’. She’s got a whole catalogue of fabulous songs and is one of Ireland’s foremost contemporary songwriters and is celebrated as a performer wordwide. 

After her previous tour was abruptly terminated by the onset of the pandemic, she’s now back on the road and heading to Woy Woy. Surely this has to be the highlight of her long awaited return to Australia.

This is going to be a truly special night. Eleanor’s 16th album “Gimme Some Wine” has just been launched to rave reviews. Her latest single “South Anne Street” has also drawn universal praise. Her live show is spellbinding. She walks in a single pool of light, the stage set with an electric guitar, an acoustic guitar, violin, piano and a small amp. What follows has been enthralling audiences around the world for decades.

CHLOE MATHARU

Eleanor will be supported by Chloe Matharu is an Award winning Scottish singer songwriter and harpist from the West Coast of Scotland. Many of her songs draw on her time in the Merchant Navy, inspired by the natural world as experienced at sea. On tour she performs solo with her harp in English, Scots and Welsh. 

Her music offers “an intriguing insight into a new tradition of maritime folk music with thoughtful song writing embellished by her voice and superb harp playing” – The Herald.

She also brings electronic soundscapes to the stage, as heard in her single The Silkie of Sule Skerry, with a three piece band. She has won numerous awards for her performances and appearances and was shortlisted for the Scots Singer of the Year Award 2023.

Make sure you don’t miss this wonderful event. Tickets just $20 (members) or $25 (non-members)
Book now to be certain of a seat:
https://www.trybooking.com/COJDX

Fred Smith (Aust) Sat 24 February

7.00 p.m, Everglades Club, Woy Woy

The acclaimed Australian singer-songwriter, Fred Smith, Folk Alliance Australia 2022 “Solo Artist of The Year” will be launching his new album ‘Look’ on the Central Coast on Saturday 24 February, at the Everglades Club in Dunban Rd, Woy Woy. 

He describes this recording as “a collection of songs that are not about Afghanistan”. Some, he has confesed, were written while he was there.  ”They are about the stuff of our lives and the world we live in: the speed of modern life, love, isolation, and the internet in a world that seems to be lurching forward by a rolling series of crises”.  

This new album, he says, offers a “warm blend of mirth and meaning, with a squiggly line of the absurd running through it. Absurdity being the only sensible response to being human! “

Fred Smith has earned himself an enviable reputation as a great singer-songwriter with a unique perspective on life and an unerring ability to focus in on his subject matter in a sensitive, moving and often quirky manner. Often he draws on a powerful voice to draw attention to an issue, such as the experience of war amongst Australian soldiers in Afghanistan. But he is equally well known for his engaging, observant, deeply honest and sometimes quirky songs about people, their amazing personal relationships and life in modern world. His sense of humour is sharp, even wicked, and never far from the surface, but he is also a singer who confronts the serious issues and darker sides of life. He also sings and plays guitar very well and writes some great tunes. And his band is never short of brilliant. No wonder he is one of Australia’s most successful prformers and one of our greatest singer songwriters. Fred’s return to the Troubadour is always very special. Make sure yoou don’t miss it.

About Fred Smith
“Fred Smith is simply the best folk/country musician working in this country… Beyond writing some of the finest songs about Australians at war, he has created a repertoire that is wry, literate, witty, powerfully emotional and insightful.” Bruce Elder, SMH.   

“Fred Smith is an Australian national treasure. Diplomat, philosopher, poet and raconteur his songs reverberate with the prophetic voice of humanity.”  Peter Wilkins, Canberra Critics Circle.

Click on the links below to hear his tributes to Helen Garner and Leonard Cohen, two of his major influneces. 

(1) Hel (a tribute to Helen Garner) – YouTube 

 (1) “Lenny” – Fred Smith & The Lost Quays – YouTube 

This is sure to be a popular event. Tickets are just $20/25. 
Click on the link below to book now and reserve your seat. 
https://www.trybooking.com/CNFGW

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Irish Shanty Singer, TOM LEWIS, is coming to Woy Woy

House Concert:  6.00 – 9.00 p.m.   Wednesday 24 January

Tom Lewis is legendary.  Born in Belfast, Northern Ireland; then moving with his family to Gloucester, Tom joined the Royal Navy as an Engineering Apprentice in 1959, just a few days after his sixteenth birthday.  Posted to a naval training establishment in Scotland in 1960, he soon started frequenting THE HOWFF Folk Club (in nearby Dunfermline) being exposed to such luminaries as Willie Scott, Alex Glasgow, Ewan McColl, Archie Fisher, John Watt, Louis Killen, and more, where he learned his trade as a folk singer and song writer.   His output includes the famous “LAST SHANTY”; a song sung around the world.   He cemtented his career in North America, where he lived for many years.

After thirty six years; tours in Australia, New Zealand, Britain, Europe, Canada and the United States; major festival mainstages and tiny coffeehouses; and eight more recordings; Tom and his wife Lyn now reside aboard  their boat on the Boyle River near Carrick on Shannon, in Ireland. In a way of life where enormous success is not having a day-job, Tom Lewis has translated his love of singing into that ‘enormous success’ and more – his previous existence as a sailor – and his reincarnation as a musical ex-sailor – bringing enjoyment for all.

Tom’s repertoire—from traditional shanties to songs fashioned out of his own seafaring background—recruits his audience for a voyage by turns reflective, dramatic and humorous.   Tom’s Celtic heritage is obvious in his clear, strong voice, evoking quiet sorrow for a fisherman lost to the sea just as honestly as it powers out a shanty “to be heard above the gales.”  Tom accompanies himself on button accordion and ukulele—but it’s that powerful vocal style and infectious humour—that quality of entertaining—which keeps audiences coming back again … and again.

Old Songs Festival (Altamont NY) declares “This man knows the sea … from the bottom up!“.

Living Tradition (UK) says “Although I always knew he was good, I was not quite prepared for HOW good.” 24 years in the British Royal Navy, “provides him with that vitally authentic stance with which to tackle nautical song” Living Tradition.

This is a House Concert, and places are limited.  Bookings are essential.
All welcome, only $20.00 (One price for members, non-members, concessions)

Book Here:  https://www.trybooking.com/CNPII

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