George Nigel Hoyle – Wiltshire, July 2016 from S P Collins on Vimeo.

Cunning Folk, A.K.A George Hoyle, is looking forward to releasing an album of songs about the land we live in. People have made parts of Britain into ritual landscapes: the video shows Cunning Folk walking through Wiltshire in high summer. West Kennett Long Barrow seemed an appropriate place to sing a song about Alfred Watkins. Before entering West Kennett Long Barrow it is advisable to show respect with a libation. A beer which you would really want to drink yourself is poured at the threshold in order to honour those whom have been here before.

Cunning Folk learned this ritual a few years ago when employed to install a sound art project in a catacomb in a London cemetery. None of the electrical equipment would work & the mp3 player was unresponsive for a number of days until a bottle of Old Thumper was bought & brought to the threshold of the catacomb whereupon it either leaped from the hand of it’s own accord & smashed, or was dropped by a nervous fellow hoping to appease restless bones. Whatever the cause of the falling bottle, the desired effect was achieved & the installation worked without hitch for the duration of the art project.

Poetic truth.

This is London. Interesting & exciting. Vibrant with a whiff of danger. Cunning Folk love London, however Cunning Folk crave the peace of the countryside. Tomorrow we go to Avebury in Wiltshire to take pictures of the Stone Circle, Silbury Hill & West Kennet Long Barrow for the purposes of promoting the upcoming album, Ritual Land, Uncommon Ground. This part of Britain close to the Ridgeway is special. Libations will be given. Scones will be eaten.

As well as putting on the Bermondsey Folk Festival, running interesting folk nights & days & running the South East London Folklore Society, Cunning Folk is also an folk artist. There is an album waiting in the wings called “Ritual Land, Uncommon Ground”, a musical celebration of the lands in which we live. Expect songs about chalk horses, Pendle witches, Augustine’s letter to Pope Gregory, birdwatching & Nan Shepherd.

The festival of Saturn approaches; what better way to celebrate than with music, storytelling, poetry & dance. Cunning Folk & Atlantis Book are delighted to host a free evening of entertainment featuring the storytelling of London Dreamtime, the poetry of Tim Cumming, the music of GentleFolk & the dance of Wolfshead & Vixen Morris.

A magical telling of Hans Christian Anderson’s classic story “The Snowqueen”, poems from one of the finest modern poets, songs of Crowley & a gothic morris side; this could be the unmissable December event!

This free event is on Friday 11th December & will start at 7ish in the Atlantis Bookshop 49A Museum St, London WC1A 1LY.

Bermondsey is a fantastic corner of London. Historic & vibrant, good eating, excellent pubs, great markets & all a stones throw from the tube.

Cunning Folk is delighted to announce that, together with the Southwark Park Road BID team, we will be organizing the first Bermondsey Folk Festival on the Weekend of the 5th/6th September with gigs in the local pubs in the week before.

Confirmed acts so far include Wizz Jones, Steve Tilston, Lords Of Thyme, Bara Bara Band with more to be announced very soon.

So if you want to go to a FREE folk festival in the heart of South East London with great bands & food & real ale you know where you are going to be on the 5th & 6th of September!

A magical evening was had at Sutton House on Friday. Some GentleFolk to commence the affair & then upstairs to the panelled room where Forbes-Moncrieff wove a spell.

In the dark they appeared to glow.

Traditional songs of Somerset, Liverpool, the Antipodes, songs collected by Ruth L.Tongue in the fantastic “Chime Child”

We took some cine of the affair.

& then tales were told by Olivia Armstrong; of giants & of villains.

Cunning Folk: we’ll charm you.

Cunning Folk put on regular folk & roots music & spoken word events in interesting places. We are a London based club who occasionally strike out further afield in our mission to bring wonderful interesting music, storytelling & poetry to like minded souls. In 2014 we put on events in Tudor houses, minesweepers & magical bookshops. In 2015 we will be putting on events in woodlands, edgelands & forgotten corners….