SOLD OUT SOLD OUT SOLD OUT SOLD OUT SOLD OUT SOLD OUT

Hot on the heels of their storming show at the Newport Festival 2015, The incredible Sinderins will be appearing at Letham Village Hall on Saturday 4th July 8pm

SOLD OUT – CONTACT DETAILS OPPOSITE TO GO ON WAITING LIST FOR RETURNS

PLEASE DO NOT MAKE ANY FURTHER BANK TRANSFERS WITHOUT CONTACTING US FIRST!!!

One of our most keenly anticipated Letham Nights is almost upon us!  Just two weeks to go until ‘THAT band’ are back at the village hall weaving their magic spell with their enthralling repertoire of music (sorry, we refuse to put a label on their diversely beautiful sound). Sinderins, formerly known as Anderson, McGinty, Webster, Ward & Fisher, are embarking on a new phase in their upward trajectory with a new identity and a new album. As many of us know, this extraordinary collective of musicians are probably the best band in the whole world! It is hard to pin down the way in which they craft their vocal and instrumental talents into such a beautiful soundscape but it is a combination of brilliant individual songwriting with a deep respect for each others creativity and the sheer joy they take in playing together, especially for a live audience.

We are also delighted to present the amazing Ed Muirhead as support, together with a short set from new songwriter Euan Stamper, one third of an innovative new theatre company called Yellow Magpies Productions. You will be impressed!

Tickets on sale NOW!

www.letham.org.uk/lethamnights/tickets

Don’t forget that the Clap and Tipple bar will be on hand to quench your thirst and tickle your tastebuds

Letham Village Hall is on the A92, 5 miles from Cupar, 9 miles from Glenrothes and 16 miles from Dundee.

Finding us is easy.  Just check our ‘Where We Are’ page for details.

Letham Nights – The Best Small Gigs In The World!

Songs can change your life and your life can change the world!

So get yourself along to the next Letham Nights.  We have a treat in store!

Saturday 30th May 2015 8pm.

Tickets on sale here!

For our early summer offering, we bring you two exceptionally talented singer-songwriters. Bristolian Jez Hellard and Canadian Scott Cook returning to Letham Nights, having enthralled us with their playing, storytelling and shenanigans in 2013.  Jez on the harmonica is a sight and sound to behold, taking virtuosity in moothie-playing to a new level whilst the warmth and intensity of Scott’s writing, his deep, rich vocals and beautiful guitar picking will enthrall you.

Scott is a roots balladeer with a rare personal warmth.  He has distilled stories collected over a decade of near-incessant touring across Canada, the USA, Europe, Asia, and Australia into straight-talking, keenly observant verse. Road-worn, painfully honest, and deeply human, his tunes weave folk, roots, blues, soul and country with spacious fingerstyle guitar and clawhammer banjo arrangements. His 4th album, One More Time Around was nominated for a Canadian Folk Music Award and its opening track “Pass It Along” won the Folk and Acoustic category in the 2013 UK Songwriting Contest.  At Letham Nights we have also adopted the song as our anthem, evoking as it does so perfectly the spirit of our humble music venue.

UK magazine Maverick Country named Scott “one of Canada’s most inspiring and imaginative storytellers”. He is one of the hardest-working DIY troubadours on the road today, averaging over 160 gigs and ten festivals a year. All the hard miles notwithstanding, he still believes that songs can change your life, and your life can change the world.

Jez Hellard is a singer of potent songs, and a stunning harmonica player, guitarist and producer.  He thrives on music of all stripes. Since 2005, Jez has played over 800 gigs; from Vancouver to Istanbul, New York to Taipei.  Whether he’s improvising over Gypsy rhythms, stomping out fiddle tunes on the harmonica, singing a rebel ballad, or dropping fresh beats on a variety of drums, his infectious energy, skill and passion for music have gained him fans far and wide.

This time Scott and Jez are joined by two of Dundee’s finest musicians and performers, Dave Webster and Stevie Anderson of Sinderins.  All four know just how to establish a rapport with their audience and there is no audience more receptive than a Letham Nights audience! It’s going to be emotional!

Tickets on sale here!

A huge thank you to Cera Impala and The New Prohibition and The Jellyman’s Daughter for kicking off our 2015 programme in such high class style.  Read the review here >>

But now it’s time to announce a full and exciting schedule of gigs for the rest of 2015.

As usual, we think that they will probably be the best small gigs in the world this year. Letting you know now will help you to plan some top quality entertainment for the year ahead!

Tickets for all the shows can be found here >>

So here goes:

Saturday 30th May – Scott Cook & Jez Hellard

with special guests Dave Webster & Stevie Anderson

This time we bring you two exceptionally talented singer-songwriters. Bristolian Jez Hellard and Canadian Scott Cook returning to the Letham Nights, having enthralled us with their playing, storytelling and shenanigans in 2013.  Jez on the harmonica is a sight and sound to behold, taking virtuosity in moothie-playing to a new level whilst the warmth and intensity of Scott’s writing, his deep, rich vocals and beautiful guitar picking will enthrall you.  This time they are joined by two of Dundee’s finest musicians and performers, Dave Webster and Stevie Anderson of Sinderins.  All four know just how to establish a rapport with their audience and there is no audience more receptive than a Letham Nights audience! It’s going to be emotional!

Tickets on sale here!

Saturday 4th July – Sinderins

Yes, Really!  We are very excited to say that ‘THAT band’ will be back at the village hall weaving their magic spell with their enthralling repertoire of music (sorry, we refuse to put a label on their diversely beautiful sound). Sinderins, formerly known as Anderson, McGinty, Webster, Ward & Fisher, are embarking on a new phase in their upward trajectory with a new identity and a new album.  As many of us know, this extraordinary collective of musicians are probably the best band in the whole world!  It is hard to pin down the way in which they craft their vocal and instrumental talents into such a beautiful soundscape but it is a combination of brilliant individual songwriting with a deep respect for each other’s creativity and the sheer joy they take in playing together, especially for a live audience.

Tickets on sale NOW!

And just in case you want time to think about it before deciding to come to this gig, all tickets were sold within a week last time – just sayin’!

Saturday 5th September – The Coal Porters

According to Billy Bragg, the Coal Porters, led by ex-Long Ryder, Sid Griffin, were playing Americana long before it was called that. Reckoned to be the first Alt-bluegrass act, The Coal Porters live show is legendary and they are certainly not, as Chris Hillman of The Byrds noted, your average ‘fish and chips’ bluegrass band. What a steal to have booked them for Letham Nights! Yeeha!!

Tickets here >>!

Saturday 10th October – Kirsten Adamson

The stunning, the irrepressible, the amazing and fun-loving Kirsten Adamson has once again agreed to share her joyous upbeat and soulful country-pop choons with an adoring Letham Nights audience.  Last time she played our humble hall as the Gillyflowers, the roof nearly came off so we can’t wait for this one to come around.  Check out the preview of her new album here >>

Click here to book! >>

Saturday 12th December – Lindsey Black

To round off the year in style, we are delighted to announce the booking of Bevvy Sisters’ founding member and all round wonderful human being, Lindsey Black, playing with her own band and presenting brand new material from her recently released album Raise A Storm.  Lindsey’s silky vocals and beautiful songwriting will melt your heart.  Don’t miss it!

Click here to book! >>

Don’t forget that the Clap and Tipple bar will be on hand to quench your thirst and tickle your tastebuds

Letham Village Hall is on the A92, 5 miles from Cupar, 9 miles from Glenrothes and 16 miles from Dundee.

Finding us is easy.  Just check our ‘Where We Are’ page for details.

Letham Nights – The Best Small Gigs In The World!

Moon shoots, roots and musical fruits, what an elegant swellegant sonic soiree we were party to on the occasion of Letham Nights fortieth incarnation. It was the Night of The Strings with not a single piece of woodwind, brass or percussion (craftily mounted cymbals and unorthodox double-bass playing not withstanding) anywhere near the stage for what proved a sumptuous and soulful treat for the LN faithful.

We pride ourselves on finding the best talent out there and that doesn’t just mean our headline acts. The Jellyman’s Daughter were our openers this evening but they could just as easily have topped the bill such is their class. Based in Edinburgh, and travelling under their own steam for the first time ever due to the recent acquisition of an automobile (cello’s and public transport, anyone?), Emily Kelly (acoustic guitar / vocals) and Graham Coe (cello / vocals) share an easy on-stage dynamic borne out of their off-stage partnership. The result is that their ‘banter’ never seems forced and maintains a natural intimacy with the audience. Their voices are beautifully sympathetic and any egos are refreshingly kept at bay with each seemingly as happy singing backing as lead vocals. Their virtuosity is not limited to their singing with Graham playing cello unlike anything you’ve heard before, at times running conventionally up and down the neck with classically trained precision, then ‘chopping’ funky octaves to get toes tapping and even, at times, strumming it like an guitar. You sometimes come across acts which pack such musicianship but lack the songs but TJD back up the chops with plenty of creativity with songs such as ‘Anna’ and ‘Little Child’ a deserving part of anyone’s playlist. A unique take on ‘Can’t Buy Me Love’, all rich dark strings and minor harmonies, was also a particular treat and the finale, a stunning version of the traditional ‘Darling Corey’ was a proper spine-tingler. Our very own answer to The Civil Wars! Can there be any higher praise?

Cera Impala already knows a thing or two about a Letham Nights welcome having previously wowed us with her harmonies as part of The Bevvy Sisters but she was back tonight doing her own thing with her band The New Prohibition, featuring the wonderfully accomplished talents of Joel Sanderson (double bass / vocals) and Dr Dirk Ronneburg (fiddle / vocals / husband). Originally hailing from Flagstaff, Arizona, Cera has made her home in various bits of the USA and Europe and this shows in the myriad cultural flavours evident in her writing. Cera herself is a truly dazzling musician turning her hand to ukelele and guitar but it is the banjo where her true magic lies and, boy, she can pick with the best of them. Where there’s a banjo, bluegrass isn’t usually far behind and Cera and the guys serve up great handfuls of mountain melodies and hillbilly harmonies with an energy and passion that can’t fail to put a smile on your face. Foot stompers sit effortlessly next door to slow-burners like the gorgeous ‘Whisky’, a paean to the great universal cause and solution to all of life’s problems. Cera’s voice is truly wonderful and versatile too and she shifts into jazz without effort, her vocal soaring to new heights. Fans of murder ballads will love ‘Flicker and Shine’ whilst her cover of Hoagy Carmichael’s ‘Star Dust’ was just magnificent. The intimate feel of Letham Nights (and the natural warmth and loveliness of the LN audience!) invites artists to establish a certain rapport and Cera and her boys have a lovely line in witty chat. You can’t fail to warm to the banjo jokes and easy conversation including a routine so simple and hilarious that it’s amazing we’ve never seen it before: Cera: “I’d like to take a moment to introduce the band. Joel, this is Dirk. Dirk, Joel.” Brilliant!

So, another great night had by all. Forty down; here’s to the next forty!
Check out Cera Impala & The New Prohibition here: ceraimpala.com

Check out The Jellyman’s Daughter here: thejellymansdaughter.com

 Saturday 28th March – 8pm

(doors at 7.45, music from 8.15ish)

Tickets here >>

Well we can’t quite believe it’s March already and we still haven’t had our first Letham Nights of 2015. But, Oh Boy!  It is going to be worth the wait!

We are delighted to present Cera Impala & the New Prohibition with guests, The Jellyman’s Daughter for an evening of banjo-wielding, fiddle-blazing folk, jazz and americana.

Songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Cera Impala is a banjo-wielding mama who oozes wild style and has unique, timeless voice and a writing style that draws you in like magic. She creates songs that feel instantly familiar. Cera performs with her hand-picked band, The New Prohibition, featuring the talents of Joel Sanderson on double bass and Dr. Dirk Ronneburg on fiddle.

And opening the evening will be the stunning new Edinburgh duo, The Jellyman’s Daughter, who are making huge waves and wowing audiences wherever they play.

Tickets are going fast so get your orders in for what is going to be a real treat!

Tickets here >>

Don’t forget that the Clap and Tipple bar will be on hand to quench your thirst and tickle your tastebuds

Letham Village Hall is on the A92, 5 miles from Cupar, 9 miles from Glenrothes and 16 miles from Dundee.

Finding us is easy.  Just check our ‘Where We Are’ page for details.

Letham Nights – The Best Small Gigs In The World!

We realise it’s a wee while now since the turn of the year but hey, we’re relaxed about that…

2014: what an amazing year in so many ways and for Letham Nights it was positively stellar with 6 really top notch acts taking to our humble stage and belting out performances that conjured up no end of superlatives.  Follow the links for a wee reminder:

• The Bevvy Sisters & Erin Scott
• The Hazey Janes with Pauline M Hynd
• Breabach & Elisabeth Flett
• Anderson, McGinty, Webster & Fisher with Seven Sons
• The Travelling Band & Syann
• Kirsty Almeida & Roberta Pia

It seems wrong that most of these amazing artists have to work quite so hard to make a living from their music when they are quite obviously far superior to most of what we hear on the mainstream music channels.  But they love what they do and we love them for it.  At Letham Nights we believe in creating a stage for local talent and bringing high quality music to the community regardless of what the media tells us we should be following. We are committed to bringing you the very best!

So, 2015… what do we have up our sleeves for you?  Our programme is building nicely!  So far, here are the acts we have booked for your delectation:

First up:

28th March – Cera Impala & the New Prohibition with guests, The Jellyman’s Daughter.  We know Cera better as one of the Bevvy Sisters – the one with the top hat wielding a banjo!  Well, we are delighted to say that she is coming to Letham with her own band and it’s going to be a treat!  And we’ll have support from the stunning new Edinburgh duo, The Jellyman’s Daughter, who are making huge waves and wowing audiences wherever they play.  Tickets here >>

And then….

30th May – Jez Hellard, Scott Cook and Fraser Ross – 3 brilliant singer-songwriters from different corners of the globe coming together to tell stories and sing songs – heartwrenching and heartwarming in equal measure.  Jez and Scott played for us in 2013 to great acclaim and now they are back. This time we have invited  the amazing Fraser Ross from New Zealand to join them and we think that the chemistry between these guys is going to create something really special. Tickets here >>

4th July – TBC – the hall is booked, the bands contacted.  Just remains to sort out a few wee tweaks… Watch this space!

10th October – Kirsten Adamson – yes, it is she of the silky, slinky vocals and mean guitar picking.  By the time this comes around, Kirsten will have launched her new solo album and if, like us, you were part of the Kickstarter campaign to get this off the ground, you’ll understand that this show is going to be a cracker! Tickets here >>

Letham Nights 39 – The Review

Wowzers trousers, ladies and gentleman! It was a soulful one, right enough, but no less rousing for all that. Some of the finest voices and songwriting talent we’ve yet assembled joined together for a toe-tapping Christmas shindig that will be remembered for years.

First on stage was old friend of Letham Nights, Robert Pia. Roberta has graced us with her presence on several occasions and in several guises. After dazzling us previously with her work with The Banana Sessions and The Bevvy Sisters, Roberta tonight gave us a solo performance which got the night started with a bang. Roberta’s voice is simply amazing. She has real power but, where some singers blessed with such pipes, would get carried away, Roberta knows enough to sing within herself, respecting the songs and creating a performance of real poise and class. Accompanying herself with effortless and simple guitar picking the overall effect is just lovely. Her encore of Aretha’s ‘Baby I Love You’ was just sublime.

Kirsty Almeida comes from here, there and everywhere, it would seem, and her influences are no less diverse. Combining elements of jazz, folk and blues (I know, I hate labels too but you try making sounds into words!) it’s obvious from the first note that this is what Kirsty ‘does’. Equally at home with her own material as with, say, Joni Mitchell, she owns the stage and nails her performances, charming the whole room in the process. And talk about engagement! There’s nothing a LN crowd appreciates more than a nice bit of chat to bond audience and performer together and, boy, does Kirsty love an inter-song chinwag. From the story of discovering her parlour guitar to anecdotes about baby brain (“where’s the capo? – there’s the capo! – who put that there!”) and her moving reminiscence of her time as a child spent visiting elderly Rosyth ‘landmark’, Josie Brown, Kirsty’s chat kept us just as enchanted as her singing.

Of course, you can’t be a great singer with average backing and Kirsty brings the noise in the shape of smooth jazz fountain John Ellis on keys, ‘Mr Upright’ Matt Owens on upright bass and Pete Churchman on guitar and drums (simultaneously, folks!). A tidy little band and no mistakin’. And smashing chaps to boot. And we mustn’t forget the moral support and ‘vibes’ provided by Baby Ray! What a champ!

Special thanks also to The Doorstep Bakery who turned out with some hot little Cajun Swirls to raise the temperature further.

Good times!

Check out Kirsty Almeida at:  https://www.facebook.com/kirstyalmeida

Check out Robert Pia at:  https://www.facebook.com/thebananasessions

… Here we come again on a Saturday night, oh with your fussin’ and a fightin’ won’t you get me to the rhyme, I wanna move, playin’ in a Travellin’ Band, yeah! Well, I’m flyin’ ‘cross the land, tryin’ to get a hand, playin’ in a Travellin’ Band….

Yes indeed folks and folkettes, The Travelling Band of lore visited us for LN38, and what a wicked whirlwind of sonic sorcery and bouncing balladry they served up. ANTHEMS! No one does anthems like our Mancunian brethren and Letham’s newest chums sit right up on the rock n roll pantheon with the greatest of their civic cousins. Treating us to tracks from new album, The Big Defreeze, scattered amongst older numbers, they started us up slowly with some damned fine harmonies and soulful, subdued guitar work from co-frontmen Jo Dudderidge and Adam Gorman before they were joined by the rest of the gang for a first set that lit the touch-paper nicely for what was to follow.

So, a mighty toe-tapper of a first half but would they be capable of ramping up the stomp-factor for the denouement? Oh my stars! We needn’t have worried on that score. Rip-snorting rhythms from Spennie (bass) and Nick Vaal (drums) pushed along Jo and Adam’s voices and guitar/key work with a tasty urgency that got the Letham faithful whirling around like grinning idiots, with Steve ‘Guitar’ Mullen spinning his web of sound over the whole thing like a bearded guitar wizard. ‘Hands Up’ from The Big Defreeze was a sing-a-long highlight and ‘Passing Ships’ a spine-tingling delight. May they travel far and prosper further still.

Check out The Travelling Bands schedule and music here >>

Support was provided by 19 year old Dundee vocal sensation, Syann. Syann is starting to make waves having been getting radio play by the likes of Lauren Laverne and Jarvis Cocker and her single, Far Beyond The Sun, was a Q Magazine website Track of the Day in August. With simple acoustic guitar picking, a faultless voice and, it would seem, bags of material, it wouldn’t be a surprise if we start hearing more and more of this rising star. She really does sing beautifully. Check her out live if you get the chance.

Hear more of Syann here >>

See y’all at Letham Nights #39 for the mighty Kirsty Almeida & The Troubadours plus Roberta Pia!

Oh my!

(And thanks to Gill Mair Photography for letting us use her photos)

Mouthwatering!  That is the prospect…

Saturday 13th December 2014 8pm

Book Tickets Here

For our next offering at Letham Nights we bring you WinterSongs from the outrageously talented Kirsty Almeida and her band, The Troubadors, together with special guest and Letham Nights favourite, Roberta Pia of the Banana Sessions.  The days will be short and the cold will be seeping into your bones but this show will bring you HAPPINESS and SUNSHINE! So get yer skates on and book!  Have we ever let you down?

Book Tickets Here

With WinterSongs, Kirsty Almeida will draw you into her enchanting, uplifting and, at times, devilishly dark world. Classic songwriting mixes with murder lullabies, broken blues-folk beauty, New Orleans soul, voodoo-tinged-pop and a healthy dose of Tim Burton-style brooding.  Kirsty has attracted the attention of BBC Television who featured her as a BBC Introducing artist and have broadcast an excellent ten-minute documentary on how she is creating new and exciting paths in the music industry as an independent artist.  We love your style Kirsty.  You will fit right in here in Letham!

“An artist who has to be seen live to be appreciated…it’s on stage, with her band in full bawdy flow that she flourishes.” Caroline Sullivan, The Guardian

Try here for a wee preview

Top Banana!

Banana support will be provided by the wonderful Roberta Pia – frontwoman and co-founder of The Banana Sessions – a Brixton-based soul singer, songwriter and DJ who hails from Edinburgh. A youth worker by day, she spends her time outside of her job making music of all shapes and sizes, managing events, frequenting festival fields and singing at the top of her lungs in the shower. With a honeyed voice that will tug on the blackest of heart-strings, Roberta usually sings love songs and writes about back in the day when jukeboxes weren’t rubbish. Roberta’s previous visits to Letham with The Banana Sessions and the Bevvy Sisters are now part of Letham Nights legend and we can’t wait to have her back!

Try this cover of Billy Holliday’s All of Me for size!

Book Tickets Here

Don’t forget that the Clap and Tipple bar will be on hand to quench your thirst and tickle your tastebuds together with the Doorstep Bakery with their brilliant, bready snacks!

Letham Nights – The Best Small Gigs In The World!

The Travelling Band

Special Secret Garden 10th Anniversary Party!!

Saturday 11th October 2014 8pm

Book Tickets Here

It has been a wonderful summer for all of us at Letham Nights and we hope it has been for you too.  As we move into the tail of the season and the weather takes on a chill and feels a bit damper, we wanted to remind you of a little bit of SHEER JOY that we have in store for you come October.  By then the nights will be well drawn-in but open the doors of Letham Village Hall on Saturday 11th October and you will step into the light and warmth of yet another wonderful night of superlative music because once again we have booked a truly exceptional act: Manchester’s finest folk­rock superhumans, The Travelling Band.

The band have received widespread critical acclaim from the UK music press including Marc Riley who featured them as ‘Album of the Week’ on 6 Music with their “shimmering blend of cosmic­country­pop” (his words!) as well as winning the Glastonbury new talent award in 2008. As I write this blog, their new album ‘The Big Defreeze’ is about to be released and I am streaming it live from a feature in the August edition of Q Magazine.  It is an ear-caressing, uplifting work of genius!  And now they are coming to the village – Woohoo!!

We think 2014 could well be the year that sees The Travelling Band really cement their place as the true champions of blissful cosmic­pop. They really are great on record and according to fellow organisers Roy and Claire, who went to see them in Manchester, they are outstanding on­stage too.  If you haven’t got down with The Travelling Band yet, now is the time and in our wonderful Letham Nights setting.  Do it! – before they disappear onto much larger stages.

We are also delighted to announce that this event will be the official 10th Anniversary Party of our fantastic community outdoor nursery, The Secret Garden.  The grown-ups in the Secret Garden Community have decided to get the babysitters in, put on their dancing shoes and their glad-rags and head on down to the hall for a full-on celebration of their fantastic achievement. That means tickets are going to be at a premium, so get in early!

We are excited to announce that rising Dundee star, Syann has agreed to open the show.  Syann is one of a number of acts to emerge from the Creative Scotland supported Youth Music Initiative at the Gardyne Theatre.  As well as being championed by Jim Gellatly on XFM Radio, Syann has recently been featured on Radio 2 on the Dermot O’Leary show and her new single ‘Far Beyond the Sun’ was recently selected as Q Magazine’s Track of the Day.

Book Tickets Here

Don’t forget that the Clap and Tipple bar will be on hand to quench your thirst and tickle your tastebuds together with the Doorstep Bakery with their brilliant, bready snacks!

Letham Nights – The Best Small Gigs In The World!