Ags Connolly / Melissa & Giles / Owl Light Trio / Sam Twigg Johnson / The Hex Collective
Ags Connolly
A traditional country artist from the perhaps incongruous surroundings of Oxfordshire, England, Ags Connolly is considered to be one of the best country singer-songwriters ever to emerge from the UK.
A constant presence on the UK, Ireland and European touring and festival circuit, Ags has built a reputation over the years as an uncompromising country traditionalist in the UK and beyond. In an era when the pop and rock incarnations of country music are enjoying a surge of popularity in the UK, Ags continues to defend the last outpost of the genre’s traditional roots.
Melissa & Giles
Owl Light Trio
Owl Light Trio are an instrumental group based in Oxfordshire.
They take good tunes to pieces and put them back together again. Sometimes the insides end up on the outside. At other times the tunes will seem to go back together seamlessly until they find a stray note or two in a pocket or under the sofa.
The Owl Light Trio joined us on the Oxford canal last season for a great Towpath session, videos of which can be viewed here.
Sam Twigg Johnson
Originally from Washington, DC, Samantha Twigg Johnson has sung in dark corners and on bright stages in the US, New Zealand, The Philippines, Spain and the UK. In addition to the flamenco guitar, she plays the Puerto Rican cuatro, a ten-stringed instrument she bought under the influence of heavy anaesthetics after a root canal in Chicago. She now lives in Oxford.
We were joined by Sam Twigg and her band for a fantastic Towpath session last year, videos of which can be viewed here.
The Hex Collective
The Hex collective are a group who are Resurrecting lost folk songs and crafting tunes to the Alfred Williams archive of songs collected in Wiltshire, Gloucestershire, and Oxfordshire in the early years of the twentieth century.
Alfred Williams was a fine poet, and he was meticulous in noting down the words to the songs that he heard in his travels by bicycle around the counties of Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire, and Wiltshire; but he was no musician and so was unable to write down any of the tunes. The tunes to some of the songs Williams collected are known from elsewhere, but for the bulk of the nearly 1,200 songs in the archive, no-one has any idea what tunes they were sung to.
We were joined by the cello & guitar duo for a great Towpath session last season, which can be viewed here.
