May Music Month – Folk in the Library
New Lynn Library, Saturday 3rd May, 10am – 4pm
and
Titirangi Library, Saturday 10th May 10am – 4pm
Drop in and out or stay for the whole day – we’ve got a jam-packed line-up of performances from the amazing members of the Titirangi Folk Music Club!
Bring your friends and enjoy a day of great music and good vibes:
Here’s the programme:-
10:00am Friday Folk
Featuring performances from a mix of musicians from the Club’s ‘Friday Folk,’ a session held each 4th Friday of the month, where various musicians gather to share, perform, play individually or together, in an informal way, giving people an opportunity to gain confidence and collaborate with new and different artistes.
11:00am Forgotten But Not Dead
Once heard, these guys are hard to forget, with Lew Black’s powerful voice, Andrew Gough’s intricate guitar work and John McKeown’s smooth harmonica playing, together with their combined harmonies. All three have a long involvement in the local folk music scene. Lew is well known for guesting at the Auckland and Hamilton Folk Festivals and for performing, internationally and locally, with the Maritime Shanty Crew, and with Andrew in ‘Brouhaha’ and ‘High Wide & Handsome.’ They’ll entertain you with eclectic songs and some humour in the mix.
11:30am Anglo
Anglo is Madeline Beasley and Bill Morrison, talented singers who have been long-time performers in the folk scene in various groups or solo. Anglo will present songs from England and America, or whatever takes their fancy. When they perform, you will hear close harmonies either a capella or backed with a variety of instruments including guitar and banjo.
12:00 Beverley Young
Beverley Young is one of the brightest stars in the New Zealand folk firmament, with a vocal talent that enables her to perform in a variety of folk genres. But her heritage is English – her father emigrated from Durham – and it is the folksong traditions of the British Isles that are her first love and that remain at the core of her extensive repertoire. Beverley has won acclaim at concerts and festivals throughout New Zealand and in Australia and the UK for her singing, and her recordings have had equal success – her first won the New Zealand Folk Album of the Year award, and two subsequent albums were finalists.
12:30pm Al Young
Al Young is an elder statesman of New Zealand blues and folk. He’s played every major folk festival in the country – and some in Australia – he’s been a featured artist on the annual “Beale Street Mess Around” in Memphis, Tennessee, three times, and he’s won the NZ Folk Album of the Year Award. As well, he’s an international authority on blues and gospel music, with two books and many articles and CD liner notes to his credit. But above all, he’s a great blues guitar picker, known for his mastery of slide-style guitar, a powerful singer… and a dynamic, entertaining performer.
1:00pm The Three Voices
The Three Voices are Hannah Pronk (18), Shannon McClennan (17) and Charlotte McClennan (15) who enjoy singing a mix of folk, theatre and country music. Individually, they have achieved significant roles in various musical productions by the Glen Eden Playhouse Theatre. The McClennan sisters have grown-up being involved in folk music with their musical families; both sisters have won the coveted Martin Blackman Junior Awards at the Auckland Folk Festival and run children’s concerts at both Auckland and Hamilton Folk Festivals. They’ve chosen a range of folk music and musical theatre songs for you because they like them. Come along and support our young musicians. We’re sure you’ll enjoy the show.
1:30pm Celtic Ferret
Celtic Ferret’s performances are lively celebrations of Jean Reid & Ian Bartlett’s rich heritage of traditional music, thoughtfully arranged, sprinkled with humour, with plenty of opportunity for audience involvement. As quality exponents of British Traditional folk music, Celtic Ferret is one of the very few duos in New Zealand keeping this genre alive. They have performed on the main stages of many NZ folk festivals and are regulars on the folk club circuit. Their repertoire includes tunes, ballads, cautionary tales, stories of rogues and vagabonds and original material. They intersperse their sets with New Zealand traditional songs and a few of their own originals performed on any one of flute, guitar, whistles, smallpipes, mandolin and a couple of bodhrans, singing in harmonies from downright raw to eerily haunting.
2:00pm Pomahaka Tyne
Pomahaka-Tyne are a folk duo who perform traditional and contemporary songs and tunes from North-East England, Scotland, Ireland, America and beyond. Janet Thomson sings and plays guitar, alongside Helen Douglas who plays the Northumbrian Small Pipes and a variety of whistles. They are named ‘Pomahaka Tyne’, after their home-town rivers.
2:30pm Paul Brown
Paul (Bolshie) Brown has been agitating the Auckland folk scene for the past 15 years since his arrival in Aotearoa. Hailing from Dundee in Scotland, Paul has a vast store of Scottish urban working-class songs which he sings with great gusto at the slightest opportunity. Paul sings with his audience, not to them, so singing choruses is compulsory! Let’s use the power of song to change the system and celebrate the working class!
3:00pm Warren & Fi
Warren Payne, a multi-instrumentalist, and regular performer on the Auckland music scene for several decades, is well known for running Celtic pub sessions, Folk Festival singalongs, numerous Folk Club and Aged Care appearances, long-time membership of The Maritime Crew, and several Celtic bands playing pubs, weddings etc.
Partner Fi Sadiq presents an eclectic selection of lovely songs, as well as bringing sweet harmonies, percussion, banjo, guitar, autoharp, harmonica and ukelele into the instrumental mix as required.
Together, they form a charming, fun-loving duet that entertains with grace and good humour.
3:30pm Paul & Jennifer
Paul and Jennifer Howarth sing without the aid or hindrance of instrumental accompaniment. Their songs mainly come from the industrial north of England, many via the folk revival of the 1960s, but at least one dates back as far as the 1560s. Songs of work and of hard times when there is no work, dramatic songs, humorous songs, songs of love, songs of war, songs of grief and loss, songs of joy and celebration.
WilkieMac – 10th May 2025
About the Duo
Lynne Wilkins and Michael Mackinnon are based in Raglan, New Zealand, a small west-coast town with a big reputation as a creative community. Inspired by songs that deliver on both melody and lyrics, WilkieMac will take you on a journey around the globe and spanning the centuries. Their repertoire will have you singing along, laughing out loud, tapping your feet; it will tug at the heartstrings, draw you along the path of whimsy, cast light into a corner, reframe a well-loved old favourite.
Wilkins and Mackinnon are seasoned performers who cover a range of musical genres, using a variety of instruments to create the right soundscape for a particular song or event. Their voices blend, whether in harmony or unison, their arrangements are well crafted. Together they are a perfect example of music being another form of conversation.
Lynne Wilkins…
…has been involved with music since she started piano lessons at eight years old. Emigrating from Canada with her parents (they returned to New Zealand, the land of their birth, in the 1970s), Wilkins became an active participant in the acoustic music scene, performing solo shows, doing guest appearances with artists, and touring New Zealand several times, both as a performer, and as a support act for visiting artists. She appeared on various albums from the 1980s and 90s under both her maiden name (Bradstock) and later as Lynne Thompson. Several of these recordings were nominated for awards, including one containing some of her songs (Together). After a contribution to a Spiralyrics compilation Acoustic Magic, releasing a collection of songs on Limited Edition, and working as a guitarist for another songwriter, Wilkins recorded and released Bead of Glass in 2007. Working on this album with Waikato-based musicians, daughter Lora Thompson (guitar), and partner Michael Mackinnon, this folk-rock version of some of Wilkins’ songs was a family affair. As part of the duo WilkieMac, and ceili band West of the Divvy, Wilkins keeps herself busy with other band line-ups, and writing.
Music is a universal language. Each note is a step on a journey that we take together.
Michael Mackinnon…
…was born in Auckland into a family where singing was a big part of the interaction between siblings and parents, and this is one of his earliest and fondest memories. Opportunities to learn an instrument resulted in a short period of studying the violin at school, but the instrument that called to him was the guitar, which he first picked up in his early twenties. This was the beginning of life-long obsession with singing and playing music with others, that eventually brought the WilkieMac duo together in the early 2000s. At that time, Mackinnon had for many years only played in standard tuning, but attending a guitar workshop at Ceol Aneas in Nelson in 2004, started a passion for playing in the tuning of DADGAD. A regular Friday jam session with musical colleague and songwriter, Rene Andre, led to the formation of the band Twisted Timber, with Andre, Wilkins, and Redgie Valente on double bass. The band was a regular in Raglan venues for many years. Mackinnon’s wry sense of humour is reflected in some of the songs that have found their way into WilkieMac’s repertoire, providing the duo with not just a journey through space and time, but also a gamut of emotions. Mackinnon is also part of the Ceili band West of the Divvy, and plays in other line-ups when the opportunity presents itself.
To play well, you have to dance with the music.
Doors open 7.30PM for an 8.00PM start.
Floorsingers First half.
Admission
Members $10.00,
Non-Members $15.00,
Under 18s Free.
Friday Folk, 23rd May 2025
We’re a totally informal, small friendly group of people who like to sing and play music. This is a good place for experienced musicians to meet up and enjoy playing together.
If you do not sing or play and would like to then here you’ll find encouragement. There is never any pressure and you may wish to visit a few times to get confidence or you may already be confident, it does not matter, no one will criticise, only support.
Doors open 7.30pm for a 7.30pm Start
Admission $5
TFMC Zoom International – Saturday 7th June 2025
7:30 p.m. NZ time, 8:30 a.m. Brit time, 07:30 UTC.
Another chance to meet up with those around the country and around the world, and zoom in for an evening of music and song.
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86445626633?pwd=bmhtTE9xOU15WjVSajZlelJkTTRvZz09
Meeting ID: 864 4562 6633
Passcode: 817884
Chris Penman – 14th June 2025
Chris Penman has been thrilling audiences with her strong crystal clear vocals since she was kneehigh to a grasshopper. She grew up performing with her dad Jack Penman and her siblings David and Theia and now her own children. They have for many years run the Family Session at Auckland Folk Festival delighting and encouraging with their own brand of humour and talent.
Within the NZ Folk scene Chris is best known for her accomplished renditions of music in the Traditional form particularly those with a Scottish origin. She frequently attends festival sessions where you can hear those vocals soar up to the rafters. In Chris own words “I am never happier than when I have a room full of people singing along with me”.
Chris has been FESTIVAL GUEST at most of the major NZ Folk Festivals notably Auckland, Cardrona, Canterbury, Wellyfest, Whare Flat and most recently WAAM.
She has RECORDED her own CD ‘Portobello Years’ with Mike Moroney and ‘Homemade Jam’ with the Penman Family. She has also guested on CDs with Martin Curtis, Mike Harding, The Chaps.
Her MUSICAL COLLABORATIONS have included Dave Nicholson, Brent Blann, Kay Row, Mike Moroney, Bob McNeill and many other stalwarts of the NZ Folk Scene.
Chris also sings for her supper with her husband John Maydon and their busy pub band(s) cover a wide range of genres including Country, Americana, Rock, Blues, and they are never out of work on St Patrick’s Day!
While this gal is most at home throwing her head back and giving it laldy she also ably accompanies herself, and others, on guitar, ukulele, bodhran, and lagerphone.
To Chris music is as important as breathing and she effortlessly pours integrity, emotion and love into all her performances.
Doors open 7.30PM for an 8.00PM start.
Floorsingers First half.
Admission
Members $10.00,
Non-Members $15.00,
Under 18s Free.
Friday Folk – 27th June 2025
We’re a totally informal, small friendly group of people who like to sing and play music. This is a good place for experienced musicians to meet up and enjoy playing together.
If you do not sing or play and would like to then here you’ll find encouragement. There is never any pressure and you may wish to visit a few times to get confidence or you may already be confident, it does not matter, no one will criticise, only support.
Doors open 7.30pm for a 7.30pm Start
Admission $5
Pomahaka-Tyne – 12th July 2025
Pomahaka-Tyne are a folk duo who perform traditional and contemporary songs and tunes from North-East England, Scotland, Ireland, America and beyond.
Janet Thomson sings and plays guitar, alongside Helen Douglas who plays the Northumbrian Small Pipes and a variety of whistles.
We are named, ‘Pomahaka Tyne’, after our home-town rivers.
Doors open 7.30PM for an 8.00PM start.
Floorsingers First half.
Admission
Members $10.00,
Non-Members $15.00,
Under 18s Free.
Friday Folk – 18th July 2025
We’re a totally informal, small friendly group of people who like to sing and play music. This is a good place for experienced musicians to meet up and enjoy playing together.
If you do not sing or play and would like to then here you’ll find encouragement. There is never any pressure and you may wish to visit a few times to get confidence or you may already be confident, it does not matter, no one will criticise, only support.
Doors open 7.30pm for a 7.30pm Start
Admission $5
TFMC Zoom International – Saturday 19th July 2025
7:30 p.m. NZ time, 8:30 a.m. Brit time, 07:30 UTC.
Another chance to meet up with those around the country and around the world, and zoom in for an evening of music and song.
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86445626633?pwd=bmhtTE9xOU15WjVSajZlelJkTTRvZz09
Meeting ID: 864 4562 6633
Passcode: 817884