The Grateful Fred Newsletter
June 2025
This coming Wednesday, 4th of June, I am so pleased to be welcoming back to Grateful Fred’s Jo and Shanteya of the Australian duo:
Saije
Jo and Shanteya last played for us Fredheads at the Grateful Fred Bijou Sessions in 2023 and I immediately asked them to come back and perform for us at The Atkinson so that more of us could see and hear their unique performance.
Here’s a little more about them:
Saije is an award-winning, indie-folk duo from Australia whose soulful harmonies, dynamic guitar-lines and percussive breakdowns breathe life into heartfelt stories. Their songwriting is crafted from the depths; stirring melodies bound together with graceful lyricism, and through multitasking techniques, the pair create a full-bodied sound enriched by flavours from their travels around the globe.
After being awarded Folk Alliance Australia’s ‘Young Artist of the Year 2019-2021’, Saije has toured extensively in Australia, throughout Canada in 2020 and most recently two 50-plus-date Europe and UK tours in 2023 and 2024, playing a plethora of sold-out performances and festival appearances, including at Woodford Folk Festival (AUS), Galway Folk Festival (IRE), Surfana Festival (NL), Magpies Nest (UK) and a Folk Alliance International Official Showcase (US). Saije have supported some of Australia’s most renowned singer songwriters such as Ziggy Alberts, Kim Churchill and Steph Strings and continue to uplift both national and international audiences through their unifying performances and a warmth that fills small halls and overflows from large festival stages.
Supporting Shanteya and Jo will be:
Penni Neale
Many Fredheads will remember Penni’s last appearance at Grateful Fred’s in March 2024 supporting Charlie Dore. Penni has been singing on the North Wales coast for many years and she has been an integral part of the Folk Club Scene engaging her audiences with her choice of songs and sense of humor which she brings to her performances. She sings in Welsh and English leaning heavily on her Folk, Jazz and Country roots, and more recently her own songs and she is a great performer and…great fun.
https://www.facebook.com/penninealemusic
Opening the evening will be my bandmates and I:
The Wanderers
There are still tickets available at: https://theatkinson.co.uk/events/grateful-freds-jun-2025/
The Grateful Fred Bijou Sessions:
Called Canada’s finest singer-songwriter, James Keelaghan is an artist who has proven to be a man for all seasons. For almost a quarter of a century now, this poet laureate of the folk and roots music world has gone about his work with a combination of passion, intent and intensity, and curiosity.
Armed with a songbook that has enlightened and enthralled, and been embraced, by audiences around the world, Keelaghan’s life as an artist is one that is a perpetual journey on so many levels.
His masterful story telling, over the course of nine recordings, has been part of the bedrock of his success, earning Keelaghan his share of nominations and awards, and acclaim from Australia to Scandinavia. The necessity to write has always been a double-edged sword."
"I’ve always had the urge to write. Some things weren’t being said in the way I wanted to say them. Then there are the different sides of what I write about. The narrative writing, the historical material, as well as the personal, where you have to take responsibility for what you are saying,” says the Calgary native who has been calling Winnipeg home for the past few years.
Not only does his deep catalogue include timeless originals like Fires of Calais, Cold Missouri Waters, Jenny Bryce, Hillcrest Mine, and Kiri’s Piano. Keelaghan is also a possessive interpreter of outside material, a fine example being his gripping take on Gordon Lightfoot’s epic Canadian Railroad Trilogy on the Lighfoot Tribute disc Beautiful.
“I want my audiences to know that I am open enough to try new things and push their bounds.” It was Dave Marsh, the award-winning American music critic and historian who not so long ago stated that James Keelaghan is “Canada’s finest songwriter,” and those few but powerful words of praise say it all about an artist who continues to set the bar at a lofty height.
https://keelaghan.com
Supporting James will be:
Visions of Albion
With comparisons to the likes of Fleetwood Mac, and the Laurel Canyon songwriters of old, it’s easy to see why Visions of Albion have gone from strength-to-strength in the Liverpool music scene.
Blending a curious mix of roots, psychedelia, and electric folk, they have impressed as their high-flying harmonies soar over a bed of musical fusion.
Founded back in 2018 as a duo by Samantha Shields, a lead singer cut from the same cloth as the likes of Linda Rondstadt and Heart’s Ann Wilson, and Daniel Ryan, whose Krieger-esque blend of acoustic and electric fingerstyle guitar provides the cornerstone for the band’s musical backdrop, they have proven themselves to have one foot in the present and another firmly in the musical past as they lead their listeners on a musical journey that is as striking as it is ethereal.
https://www.facebook.com/VisionsofAlbion
Tickets are available from: https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/southport-bijou-cinema/t-lnpdrno
I hope you will come and join us for two great concerts of live acoustic music here in Southport.
In the meantime…
Peace and Love
Grateful Fred
