Kettlehawk
Soaring melodies, swirling sax riffs and steaming guitar chords
Ceilidh music to make your dancing feet fly!
Kettlehawk are Matt, Josh, and Ray. Together they have a wealth of experience in playing for ceilidhs in bands such as Ceilidhography, Urban Folk Theory, Team Stompit!, The Cuckoo Ale Band and more. They have played together as part of other musical line ups at times over many years, but in 2022 decided that the time had come to join together to form their own band and Kettlehawk was born. With a wealth of experience of playing for ceilidhs between them, Kettlehawk provide ceilidh dance music that lifts the spirits and energises tired dancing feet.
Matthew Keegan-Phipps; saxophones, Josh Smallbone 8 string electric guitar, Ray Langton melodeons.
'Wow last night was epic! Over 200 people came together in Shrewsbury to celebrate the trees of Darwin's childhood landscape in the NW of the town. We danced and had fun and raised loads of money to challenge the Council over wanting to build a road through it all. Fantastic evening'.
Matt Keegan-Phipps gained his strong grounding in English folk through dancing and playing with the Ironmen and Severn Gilders as a teenager. He has been in demand as a folk wind instrumentalist and workshop leader ever since, teaching with Shooting Roots and ReFolkus at festivals around the UK for over a decade. His performing credits include Ceilidhography, playing across the UK and abroad, and with morris super-group Morris Offspring, where he performed with Jackie Oates, Gav Davenport, James Delarre and Saul Rose. He's also been wind instrument tutor for Team Stompit! at Sidmouth Folk Festival for many years.
Ray Langton has led the Sidmouth Seaside Stompers Ceilidh Band for many years as part of Team Stompit!. He has led numerous music workshops at festivals, including Sidmouth, Towersey, Whitby, Ely, Acoustic Festival of Great Britain, and Music on the Marr, as well at many events and in schools. In his home county of Shropshire, he is known for his playing in The Cuckoo Ale band and Cuckcuriosity delighting audiences with wonderfully danceable music. His CD For Curiosity was well received and one reviewer referred to Ray as 'the melodeon players melodeon player-. a great accolade.
Josh Smallbone has been a folkie since he was 6 when he started attending Sidmouth Folk festival. He immersed himself in the workshops and became a Shooting Roots tutor as soon as was able! As part of Ceilidhography he created a unique style of guitar, inspired by different music genres to create varying soundscapes for dance. Josh has used his experience and his knowledge of bass lines from playing in the Urban Folk Theory to develop his sound for 8-string guitar in KettleHawk.
Why Kettlehawk?
The sight of a group of hawks taking advantage of a thermal, all swirling and spiralling, is reminiscent of objects being stirred or boiling in a pot-hence the term for a group of hawks is a 'kettle of hawks'.Â
The term kettle is believed to have originated from descriptions of hawk flocks looking like soup boiling in a cauldron, pot or kettle due to the bowl like shape of the thermal currents the birds use for soaring. The birds' pattern of flight is also similar to steam rising from a teakettle.
Festival engineers: for our tech specs, please click here.