Canowindra Folk singer/songwriter, Nerida Cuddy, has just returned from her first UK tour, starting in Scotland and finishing in Southampton, southern England, at the end of August.
The tour developed from an online community established during the pandemic and continuing weekly since. The zoom was started by Terry Helyar, organiser of the West Sommerset Folk Festival, who has described Nerida as “one of Australia’s brightest and most talented singer songwriters”. She was invited to come to the UK, and spent a month performing in the vibrant UK folk community. This inaugural tour was built around meeting her zooming friends, performing at their folk clubs and also at the Whitehorse Folk Festival.
All of this had been foreshadowed in Nerida’s song & film, Virtual Folk Club, recorded as part of an Arts Outwest project where regional musicians responded to the 2020 pandemic. Nerida enjoyed performing the song in each concert in the UK – describing her experience of cross-continental, online community, with the last verse predicting her visit:
I long for the day, when I’ll hop on a plane,
if ever that day comes around,…
we’ll sit in a pub and we’ll share songs again,
right there on the same patch of ground.
(See link to song film below)
The response to her music was overwhelming. She received rave reviews and enthusiastic requests to return. The organisers of the Dreamers’ Folk Club, Cornwall, wrote:
“Nerida is a superb singer. Though the landscapes, the popular heroes and even the magpies are so different, the stories she sings, and the optimism she conveys are universal. This first UK tour will be followed by many others”.
The highlight for Nerida was the opportunity to meet & share music “in person” with friends she’d known online for 3 years. Nerida has been singing and writing for over 30 years, and has released 5
albums to date. Her stories-in-song are a well-balanced mix of bittersweet tales of life, with tasty lashings of humour. Detailed guitar accompanies her warm & passionate voice. ABC Central West called her “a composer & musician with not only an ear for music, but a social conscience and a sense of humour”.
Now back home in Australia, Nerida will be performing at the Yass Irish and Celtic Festival Sep 15-17, and the Kiama-based Festival by the Sea Sep 22-24. In November, her cousin, Grammy Award nominated Paul Colman, is coming to Canowindra to produce her 6th album. The two will also perform a shared live concert at Rosnay Organic Vineyard (Canowindra) on Nov 11.
Links
Virtual Folk Club song & film –
https://youtu.be/SvEEya-dl6g?si=Ov4wM5mKnHz3nBrh – The Singaround,
a song written and filmed by Nerida in the UK, about the English folk club song
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