The Exchange in partnership with TwickFolk presents CHRIS WOOD – So Much To Defend

Date/Time Thu 07 Dec 2017 8:00 PM

Price Online - £10 - £15 + booking fee; On The Door - £10 - £15

Website: http://exchangetwickenham.co.uk


The Exchange

The Exchange is the Twickenham community centre opposite the station.
This concert is presented at The Exchange, in partnership with TwickFolk

Chris Wood is an uncompromising writer whose music reveals his love for the unofficial history of the English speaking people. With gentle intelligence he weaves the tradition with his own contemporary parables.

A self-taught musician, composer and songwriter, Chris is a lifelong autodidact whose independent streak shines through everything he does. Always direct and unafraid to speak his mind, his songwriting has been praised for its surgical clarity. He cites his major influence as “Anon”.

His eagerly awaited new album ‘So Much to Defend’ (officially released 27th Jan 2017) was previewed at Cambridge Folk Festival last summer and includes reflections on minor league football, empty nest syndrome, learning to swim, Cook-in Sauce and, not least, the Gecko as a metaphor for contemporary society.

Hollow Point; his chilling ballad of the shooting of Jean Charles Menezez, won a BBC Folk Award (he’s won six.) and emphatically secured Wood’s place as a serious speech-master for the unofficial history of England.

Collaborators include Martin Carthy, Dizraeli, Billy Bragg, Andy Cutting, Andy Irvine, Karine Polwart, Jean Francois Vrod, The Imagined Village, Hugh Lupton, Martin Butler and many others.

On stage Chris has the air of a craftsman who no longer needs to be precious about his art. Without any apparent effort he reaches deep into an enviable repertoire of songs before revealing another gem.

“… at art school they said I had a remarkable eye for trivia, like it was a bad thing.”

Praise for ‘So Much to Defend’:

fROOTS MAGAZINE

“Chris Wood might be the Ken Loach of songwriting. Very political, but at the same time full of compassion, and he grows sharper and more acute with each passing album. He’s good, quite probably the very best we have today, and we

need him more than ever.”

ACOUSTIC MAGAZINE

“Steeped in tradition, yet always striving for a new day, this is a glorious album proving that Chris Wood is a bit of a national treasure.”