Rowan Rheingans is an award-winning fiddle player, banjoist and songwriter, known for her work with Lady Maisery, The Rheingans Sisters and Songs of Separation.
Rowan’s debut solo show, Dispatches on the Red Dress, is an unflinching musical essay on memory, history, fascism, waltzes, folk-song, birdsong, trauma, family and war… Weaving storytelling and song with fiddles, banjo and guitar, live looping and pre-recorded sounds, Rowan unravels the urgent message hidden in the folds of a story from her own grandmother’s youth in 1940’s Germany.
The result is a meditation on ancestry and an elegy on the modern human condition, both intimate folk gig and theatre.
Rowan explores how hope for the future might be found in the very darkest pockets of history in this celebration of human empathy and resilience.
Rowan’s much anticipated solo record The Lines We Draw Together brings together songs from Dispatches on the Red Dress in an experimental and provocative début, featuring collaborations with indie, jazz, classical and electronic musicians, including bassist Michele Stoddart (The Magic Numbers) and clarinetist Jack McNeill (Propellor).
This event is part of Manchester Folk Festival – an urban folk festival. It takes place from 15-20 October 2019, in and around HOME and the city centre. Over the autumn weekend, they present an exhilarating range of events, with the spotlight on contemporary and traditional English folk music.
