After their sellout 'A Yuletide Ramble' at the Malthouse in December, Devon-based songwriter and composer Chris Hoban once again teams up with renowned actor Martin Reeve in a performance blending original and traditional songs, interspersed with riverine poetry and prose.
The songs range from folk ballads about navvies, wreckers' laments and rollicking river shanties to plangent songs of parting, separation and emigration, with some especially written for the event. Poems featured include those by Devon's Alice Oswald, Cornwall's Charles Causley, John Clare, Fredegond Shove and Ivor Gurney, while the prose swings between the highs of Jerome K. Jerome's 'Three Men In A Boat' and the pastoral idylls of Kenneth Grahame's 'A Wind In The Willows'.
Chris is a songwriter, composer, lyricist, arranger and singer who plays guitar, piano, piano accordion, cello and mandocello. He has performed and worked alongside many artists including Billy Bragg, Jarvis Cocker (Pulp), KT Tunstall, Jerry Dammers (The Specials), Kate Rusby, Chris Difford (Squeeze), Steve Knightley, Phil Beer, Miranda Sykes and Jim Causley. Indeed, Chris has written regularly and performed/recorded occasionally with the Knightley/Beer/Sykes Devonian folk roots trio ‘Show of Hands’, adding songs such as Hallows’ Eve, The Old Lych Way, Katrina and The Padre to their repertoire. He is also a highly regarded choral composer and arranger for amateur, community and professional choirs.
Most recently, Chris co-wrote the RNLI bicentennial 2024 Christmas single ‘Pull Away’ with James Studholme of ‘Police Dog Hogan’. He is currently a Cultural Fellow at Exeter University, writing songs in a variety of genres for the History Department's four year project 'The Material Culture of Wills, 1540-1790'. Having taught music & drama in schools for over two decades, he continues to work as a music educator privately, as well as within neurodevelopmental (SEN/early years) and neurodegenerative communities (residential care homes, as a 1:1 music therapist).
Martin is a West Country actor who has appeared in many TV shows including ‘Emmerdale’, ‘Coronation Street’, ‘Phoenix Nights’, and ‘Downton Abbey’; he is also often to be found recording ‘Talking Books’ for the RNIB. In 2008, he wrote and presented a documentary for BBC Radio 4 about Punch and Judy, ‘Mr Punch Says “That’s the way to Do it”’, and has earned a doctorate for his thesis exploring both the tradition and modern cultural status of Punch and Judy shows. He continues to research in the field, writing articles and academic papers at conferences.
www.chrishoban.comwww.facebook.com/chrishobanmusicwww.youtube.com/@chrishobanmusic
CHRIS HOBAN & MARTIN REEVE
WEDNESDAY 23rd APRIL
7.30pm Doors 7.00pm
£16
BSW PRESENTS: EDDIE MARTIN
WEDNESDAY 7th MAY
7.30pm Doors 7.00pm
£16
London-born Martin was weaned on a folk, electric blues and classic rock soup that left him as at home with acoustic as electric instruments, and imbued him with deep respect for the music’s Afro-American roots.
A prolific songwriter since the age of 16, his albums have ranged from One-Man-Band to Big Band to Power-Rock trio as he has wrung every drop of inspiration and instrumental technique out of Blues tradition and pushed it ever outwards with his own writing.
Touring 35 countries with 17 acclaimed original albums and a string of National and International Awards and Nominations (including Winner, Best Solo Artist category in 2018 European Blues Awards) he has become known as “The Ambassador of British Blues”.
A browse of his work shows a broad sweep across genres from quiet folk to loud slide guitar-led Blues Rock but always with intelligent lyrics and arrangements and top-drawer collaborators. His latest release was the best European Blues Album of 2021 according to MOJO magazine.
SARAH YEO
WEDNESDAY 11th JUNE
7.30pm Doors 7.00pm
£13.50
We are thrilled to welcome back Sarah Yeo with her new album tour 'The Wisdom of Winds'.
Sarah Yeo has been making an impression on the live music scene, performing in venues both large and small, throughout the UK. In recent years she has won fans in the USA, with live shows in New York City and California. Sarah has shared stages with many artists who are celebrated performers and songwriters such as Ward Thomas and The Wandering Hearts.
Devon Based Sarah, has been a finalist in the 2019 and 2020 International Blues and Roots songwriting competition and a semi finalist in the prestigious 2024 UK Songwriting Competition, with her “glorious” recent single ‘Leap Of Faith’ from the ‘Wisdom Of The Wind’ Album.
Sarah has always had her roots in the Country, Folk and Americana genres drawing influence from artists such as Linda Ronstadt, Gretchen Peters and Show Of hands. This is reflected in her insightful, versatile and sensitive songwriting, accessing a broad musical vocabulary that audiences find moving and relatable.
Her “Beautiful Voice” (BBC Introducing) “soaring, soulful and rich”, is the perfect vehicle to express her engaging songs that captivate listeners across the globe. During her music career she has released five EP’s and Albums and several singles including a cover of Constant Craving, which received KD Lang’s approval. Sarah’s early works were produced by Richard Digby Smith of Island Records who also produced records for Led Zeppelin and Bob Marley.
Always looking to grow and develop as an artist, Sarah has recently collaborated with world renowned pedal steel player Sarah Jory. Together they have created a distinctive and electric sound which they have brought to venues throughout the South of the UK.
Having achieved so much so far, with a recent notable appearance at the Birmingham Symphony Hall. In addition to her own career, Sarah has worked tirelessly to bring awareness of other artists and the vibrant South West music scene to a wider audience. Sarah’s reputation as an accomplished singer songwriter is growing.
The next few years of Sarah’s career are set to be the most exciting yet, with the continuation of her latest album tour ‘The Wisdom Of The Wind’ and the following planned studio album for 2026.
Be sure to catch her while you can!
JAZZ DIVAS
CRAIG & ASH
MILVERTON
WEDNESDAY 18th JUNE
7.30pm Doors 7.00pm
£16
Craig and Ash Milverton invite you a new show celebrating the great female Jazz vocalists including Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughan and Peggy Lee.
Craig Milverton is one of Britain’s finest Jazz Pianists recognised in 2010 by winning Best Jazz Pianist in the British Jazz Awards.
“An extravagantly gifted pianist with an unrivalled sense of swing" Jazz CD of the Month, Dave Gelly, The Observer.
"The best pianist to come along in Britain in the last two decades, and the nearest to the great Oscar Peterson" Digby Fairweather.
At only 27, Ash Milverton has performed at jazz venues and festivals with The Milverton Legacy Band including: Brecon with Digby Fairweather and His Half Dozen, Pershore, Bude, Teignmouth, Ilminster, Beaminster and Dartmouth.
In 2019 she performed with Kick Ass Brass at The Lyme Regis Jazz Festival to much praise .She is blessed with a powerful, smoky voice which is perfect for the jazz and soul genre. Eleisha has received high praise from artists such as Tina May, Digby Fairweather and Maggie Reeday.
MUSIC IN THE MALTHOUSE
Movements
RUPERT EGERTON-SMITH
WEDNESDAY 9th & THURSDAY 24th JULY
7.30pm Doors 7.00pm
£20
Rupert returns to the Music in the Malthouse series. Movements explores the symbiotic relationship between music and dance across four centuries of keyboard writing.
The curtain lifts with Bach’s first partita and its presentation of the principal dances of the baroque and late renaissance period with the Allemande, Courante, Sarabande, Minuet and lively Gigue. Rameau weaves a series of intricate variations from the French Gavotte. The first movement finishes with a selection of Chopin’s most famous Polish dances, the Polonaise, Mazurka and Waltz.
Ginastera’s pulsing Argentinian rhythms begin the second movement before the Tango and Oriental Dance by Albéniz and Granados. The Russian segment bursts to life with the first movement of Stravinsky’s Petruschka suite and concludes with Rachmaninov’s Polka, a virtuosic and humorous dance dedicated to his father Vasily. The programme concludes with Ravel’s colourful and inventive La Valse, the composer writing at one point in his ballet score,“we are dancing on the edge of volcano”.
A wide-ranging programme which embraces the variety, joy and passion of the human desire to dance. Performed and presented by Steinway Artist Rupert Egerton-Smith, described as a ‘pianist and musician of the highest calibre’ (New York Concert Review).
