True North Music's live music series returns to Meltham

Local roots music promoter Maria Wallace is reviving her True North Music grassroots live music series after a break of over two years due to the pandemic. Now the Americana, bluegrass and folk-roots concerts are coming back, with the first announced for The Carlile Institute in Meltham on Saturday 21st May, featuring award-winning young African-American musician Jake Blount. Jake is an acclaimed banjoist, fiddler and singer, and a winner of the 2020 Steve Martin Banjo Prize. His debut solo album was released in 2020, with glowing reviews from The Guardian and Rolling Stone among others. He’ll be accompanied by his band, in a four-piece line-up of banjo, fiddle, acoustic guitar and double bass. Expect a mix of footstomping bluegrass, old time fiddle tunes and evocative jazz and blues songs, on what’s set to be a jubilant evening of music in the Carlile’s concert room.

Working under the True North Music banner, Maria Wallace has been bringing world class bluegrass, Americana and folk-roots artists to Kirklees since 2015, with a particularly well-established regular concert programme in Meltham, as well as occasional events in Marsden, Hepworth, Honley and Huddersfield over the years. She has organised and hosted over 50 gigs in Yorkshire, featuring exceptional artists, mostly American and Canadian bands on tour. Local venues have hosted performances from celebrated artists including Sierra Hull, Molly Tuttle, Newberry & Verch, The Slocan Ramblers, AJ Lee & Blue Summit and Laura Cortese & the Dance Cards to name just a few. As a booking agent, Maria has also brought top flight roots music artists to hundreds of venues across the UK. Barney Stevenson, Artistic Director of Marsden Jazz Festival is a big supporter: “The artistic quality of True North Music’s programming is of the highest level – Maria connects terrific musicians from the USA, Canada, UK and Ireland with new UK audiences. Maria has an incredible rapport with, and enthusiasm for, the artists with whom she works, as a champion of grassroots music and a generally life-enhancing force for good.”

The pandemic has obviously been a severe blow for everyone in live music and the arts, but Maria has stayed busy over the past two years. She organised a winter online series in 2020-21 and an online festival last summer, with the support of two Arts Council England Project Grants. The livestreamed concerts and online workshops were a big hit with followers who were missing real life gigs. In 2021 Maria was named as a finalist in the International Bluegrass Music Association’s Momentum Award for Industry Involvement, and she also won a place on the 2021-22 cohort of the Both Sides Now Leaders Network, a leadership development programme run by UK music charity Brighter Sound. She’s looking forward to bringing real-life events back to local audiences: “It’s been a very tough time for grassroots music and a lot of challenges remain. We really need the support of local music fans as we revive our live music series. I’m looking forward to that joyful feeling of sharing live music together and being in the same room with wonderful musicians as they share their music with us. It’s going to be very emotional!”

Find out more about True North Music and upcoming events at their website listed below and on social media:
https://www.facebook.com/truenorthmusicuk
https://twitter.com/TrueNorthGigs
https://www.instagram.com/truenorthgigs/

For more information visit http://truenorthpromotions.co.uk/