www.michelgriffin.com
Wednesday 10 March 2010 
 

The 'SOS Haiti' concert

 

There's not much about the music in this review in La Depêche of the benefit concert for Haiti, which Mark Newman & I ended up opening on 9th February 2010. But, if you were there, you might recognise yourself in the photo accompanying the article ! More than 700 people turned up in a blizzard, to see Mark Newman and myself, Rag Mama Rag, Francesca Graziano & Limmie Snell, the Toubib Jazz Band, Judy Blair Quartet and Gary Brooker (Founder of Procol Harum) - and a good time was had by all.

Most importantly, the concert raised more than 10,000 € [$14,000] for the orphans of Haiti.

A much fuller review appeared in the 18th February edition of La Vie Quercynoise, where Jean-Louis Crassac had this to say about us:


Photo: Ian Maclean

"Marc [sic] Newman et Michel Griffin, qu'on a eu le plaisir de découvrir au Carré d'Art, avaient pour redoutable mission d'ouvrir le bal. Deux chanteurs guitaristes rappelant sans servilité le duo Simon and Garfunkel, avec en plus la touche d'humour toujours maniée avec délicatesse par ces deux Britanniques terriblement quercynois."

There's a full review of the concert on the 'French Entrée' website, and there's also now a YouTube channel devoted to clips from the concert.

Cahors Folk Club in the news

 

Unbeknownst to me or Mark Newman, there was evidently a journalist covering the November 2009 session of the Cahors Folk Club, because the following Saturday, this article appeared in La Depêche, underneath a photo [left] of us jamming with Michel 'Coco' Correch (double-bass) and Marcel 'Frenchie' Dègre (harmonica).

I'm the one with the hat !

 

Folk Clubs ...

 

The Cahors Folk Club made the national press in August 2009 - David Gabella kindly made mention when contacted by 'Le Point' for their special feature on Cahors. Here is the resulting article.

And I am delighted to announce the debut of a new folk-club in the area - the "Gourdon Folk Music Club" which will take place on every second Friday of the month, at the Orange Tree Hotel/Restaurant (formerly The Bissonnier), in Gourdon. The inaugural session is on Friday 11th September 2009. I, alas, will be unable to make it, as I will be taking part in the 3-choir extravaganza performance of Dvorak's "Stabat Mater" in Cahors cathedral that night.

 

Here comes Summer ...

 

... and a busy Summer, too, by the look of it. The Bumets jazz group had three gigs on three successive Fridays, which is a bit of a record, for such a normally almost reclusive ensemble. You can read about the last of the series, at Vers, in an article in La Dépêche.

Mark Newman & I will be giving seven concerts in four weeks, including an extraordinary session of the Folk Club as part of the Cahors Blues festival. When time permits, I will write more about all that !

 

Here's looking at you ! (Photos of the Cahors Folk Club)

 

We had a record number of guest singers at the March and April 2009 sessions of the Cahors Folk Club, and there were almost as many photographers in the audience as there were performers on stage !

 
 

From strength to strength

 

February 2009's session at the Cahors Folk Club was, like January's, a sell-out, and Rag Mama Rag - and our customary variety of talented floor-singers - played to a capacity crowd.

Mark Newman and I headlined the next session, on Friday 27th March 2009, which was also sold out two weeks in advance ! There were memorable floor-spots from 'Les Portes de Temps', John Bamford's quartet from near Gourdon, from Babette Mellac, Valérie Rapaud, Didier Gaillien, Francis Nouet et Michel 'Coco' Correch, Brian Harpwood and the 4-part harmony ensemble 'Les Bumets'.

I have established a YouTube channel, as a 'virtual' folk-club, for those that cannot get to the club in person, or that want to 're-live' highlights from a particular session.

 

A busy January 2009

 

January 2009 was a busy month, with Mark & I making four radio appearances. You may still be able to catch our interview on CFM and you can listen here to a couple of the songs we sang on Radio Asso:

 
Cocaine lo-filo-fi. hi-fihi-fi
Pamela Brown lo-filo-fi. hi-fihi-fi
 

Extrait d'un article publié dans Le petit Journal de 10 Decembre 2008: [Par Geneviève Marty]

 

On cultive l’art sous toutes ses formes, rue Pèlegry, chez David Gabella, le convivial maître des lieux. Ce soir-là, l’espace était dédié à la musique folk, avec Mark Newman et Michel Griffin, d’origine anglaise et guitaristes passionnés, en compagnie de tous leurs amis chanteurs ou musiciens, devant une salle comble composée d’un public franco-anglais averti !

La soirée était bien rôdée. En effet, depuis le mois de mars dernier, ce groupe complice se retrouve dans la charmante galerie-salon de thé une fois par mois. Présentés avec talent et humour, accompagnés avec brio à la contrebasse ou à l’harmonica, les « assemblages » musicaux se succèdent sur scène pour des chansons françaises ou anglophones intemporelles, reprises en cœur par les spectateurs.


Marcel Dègre, Mark Newman, Michel Griffin & 'Coco' Correch
 

Michel Griffin, poète jazzy, tour à tour clown ou romantique, dans un français charmant venu d’Outre Atlantique, présente ses propres compositions de sa belle voix grave, douce et chaude, qu’il cultive par ailleurs au sein de la chorale de Cahors. Connu sur les radios anglaises, il est arrivé en France en 2000 « avec le nouveau millésime », et a déjà enregistré 4 CDs.

 

September 2008

Finally, my latest album is released. The fruit of many happy hours in the studio, and of collaboration with other musicians around the globe, it is a collection of seven original songs and five covers, on the intertwining themes of Love and the passage of Time. It is titled Who Knows Where the Time Goes ?

 

Michel Griffin & Mark Newman in action at the Cahors Folk Club                                            Photo: Mo Newman
 

Extrait d'un article publié dans Le petit Journal de 28 mai 2008:

 

Ambiance surchauffée, soirée inoubliable ! Le 23 avril dernier, dans l’enthousiasme général, avait eu lieu la première session d’un nouveau folk-club à Cahors, dans la Galerie « Carré d'Art », 46 rue Pélégry (entre la place de la Libération et le quai de Regourd). La galerie était noire de monde, et le public a apprécié l’humour, la poésie, les styles variés, et la qualité des musiciens intervenants.

Le folk-club a été créé par deux musiciens britanniques vivant dans la vallée du Lot, Michel Griffin et Mark Newman. Désormais, le quatrième mercredi de chaque mois, ils accueilleront chaleureusement chanteurs, guitaristes, et autres instrumentistes et les invitent à partager musique, pizza et vin rouge.

Le folk-club, c’est l’ouverture aux autres. Toutes sortes de musiciens s’y rencontrent avec une immense spontanéité qui donne ce côté si sympathique et si singulier à ces moments musicaux.

Lors de cette première soirée, on aura pu remarquer l’entente cordiale qui régnait avec la participation de Rick Jones (guitare et chant), George Callaghan (guitare, violon et chant), Brian Harpwood (banjo), Michel Hocquet (chant), Babette Mellac (chant a capella) et Mick Gardiner (harmonica). On retiendra également les prestations magistrales et fougueuses de Mark Newman à la guitare, et la poésie des textes de chansons de Michel Griffin.

 

Mark Newman & Michel Griffin open a folk-club in Cahors

The folk-club will take place on the fourth Wednesday of each month, from April to September, at the Carré d'Art Art gallery at 46, rue Pelegry (just off the Place de la Libération) in Cahors.

Doors will open at 8.00 p.m. on Wednesday 23rd April. Floor singers are welcome, and there will be free wine and pizza to accompany the musical offerings.


At the Carré d'Art Gallery                  Photo: Mo Newman
  
Michel Griffin & Mark Newman on stage at Latoulzanie
 
Play video Watch video of Michel & Mark in action
"Mark Newman & Michel Griffin team up to form folk/blues duo.

Each a talented guitarist and composer in his own right, two British musicians living in the Lot valley have decided to join forces, and give concerts as a duo in 2008.

Michel Griffin was playing at L'Espace Culturel de Leclerc in Cahors in July 2007 when he first met Mark Newman, whom he subsequently invited to come along to play at Latitude, in Latoulzanie, in August. It was there that the two played as a duo for the first time, jamming and improvising together with such ease that few in the audience believed that they had never played together before. They – and the audience - had such a good time that the two musicians decided to team up. Since they each had commitments to discharge in the Autumn – Mark touring in the UK, and Michel giving a series of concerts locally, culminating in a concert at Le Goût des Arts in Cahors – it was only in 2008 that they were able to get together again.

Mark Newman played extensively in folk clubs when in the UK, and also taught the acoustic guitar: one of his early pupils was Terry Lees, recently voted Acoustic Player of the Year in Guitarist magazine. Mark's recollections of his time in Leicester include opening for the Rev. Gary Davis and Ramblin' Jack Elliott at the college. Mark is today recognised as "a major influence on folk and blues music in Leicester....part of the folk heritage in the city and as a teacher and guitarist who laid the foundations of the city's current roots music scene". (Leicester Mercury)".

- The French News.

  
This site describes and contains Michel Griffin's songs, piano, orchestral, New Age and guitar music in MP3 format.
The site and all the music it contains and describes are copyright © M.J.C. Griffin. All rights reserved.

Booking agent: Mick Gardiner