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Tour Dates

Sat, 18th July

Larmer TreeLink

Fri, 24th July

Warwick Folk FestivalLink

Live on Radio 3
Sat, 25th July

WOMAD, Radio 3 stage.Link

Sun, 26th July

Folk By The OakLink

Fri, 31st July

Cambridge Folk FestivalLink

Sat, 1st August

Cambridge Folk FestivalLink

Sun, 2nd August

Cambridge Folk FestivalLink

Mon, 3rd August

Sidmouth Folk WeekLink

Fri, 21st August

Beautiful Days festivalLink

Mon, 31st August

Towersey Village Festival - FDH, TowerseyLink

Sat, 5th September

Purbeck Folk FestivalLink

JM solo
Sun, 6th September

Moseley Folk FestivalLink

Sat, 26th September

Chipping Norton TheatreLink

Fri, 2nd October

Southport Arts CentreLink

Sat, 3rd October

Sheffield University

JM solo
Thu, 8th October

Pocklington Arts CentreLink

JM Solo
Tue, 13th October

The Musician, LeicseterLink

JM Solo
Thu, 15th October

The Anvil, BasingstokeLink

Fri, 23rd October

Band On The Wall, Manchester

Sat, 24th October

Musicport Festival, BridlingtonLink

JM Acoustic Trio
Mon, 26th October

Cambridge

Wed, 4th November

Bush Hall, London

JM Solo
Sat, 5th December

Arts Depot, London

Welcome!

Low Culture Hi and welcome to the new Jim Moray website.

"Outstanding" - The Independent, ****1/2 - The Sun, **** - The Guardian, **** - The Observer, **** - Time Out.

Buy Low Culture today - Jim Moray shop, amazon.co.uk, iTunes


Latest News / Blog

Study #1
Sun, 07 Jun 2009
Wood festival documentary
Thu, 04 Jun 2009Jim can be seen talking and playing a brief excerpt from 'Three Black Feathers' in this documentary from last month's Wood festival.

http://www.vimeo.com/4864132

enjoy!

Thu, 14 May 2009Hey you! Would you like to see Alasdair Roberts play a concert in Bristol? But Jim is also playing in Bristol that night. What if they were playing on the same bill though? That way you could see them both for the reasonable sum of only £8.50. That would be brilliant, right?

Click here my friend.
Spot the difference...
Mon, 20 Apr 2009
I've got feelings of anxiety, me.
Wed, 25 Mar 2009For your listening pleasure - click me.

(for the unitiated, yes - it's supposed to sound like that. VBS Donkumentary for an explanation)

Back in the studio for a week or so before we start work on the new Jackie Oates album. Hopefully I can get some songs of my own down before it kicks off.
Shoreham show tonight
Fri, 27 Feb 2009Hi, due to circumstances beyond my control (a car with no brakes, and not unconnected pool of brake fluid in the car park) the show tonight will be acoustic.

Apologies for this, the gigs next week should be unaffected.

Thanks

Jim



-- Post From My iPhone
You didn't see me, right...?
Thu, 05 Feb 2009I'm probably going to have to take this link down pretty quickly, so nab it while you can...

click me
Guess what...
Thu, 01 Jan 2009Low Culture is the proud recipient of Fatea magazine's Album of the Year 2008. It narrowly pipped Eliza Carthy's Dreams of Breathing Underwater and Jackie Oates' The Violet Hour. More details here http://www.fatea-records.co.uk/magazine/awards2008.html. This brings the tally of album of the year awards up to four so far. Thanks everybody, it's been quite a good year!

Also, happy 2009!

Wed, 31 Dec 2008Robin Deneslow included the Low Culture tour in his "World and folk music events: what not to miss in 2009" article in yesterdays Guardian G2.

The article can be read here http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2008/dec/30/best-world-folk-music-2009
another day, another nice thing to read
Tue, 16 Dec 2008Channel 4 Music included Low Culture in it's 'Albums of 2008' feature. Thanks to Tim "Beef Dripping" Chipping for his kind words.

The feature can be seen here.
Winner.
Sat, 06 Dec 2008

Last night Low Culture was named the winner of the fRoots critics poll for best album. It's the first English album to win in ten years (the last was Eliza Carthy's Red Rice in 2008) and the first album since 2000 to not be from West Africa.

Meanwhile, with immaculate timing my distributor Pinnacle went into receivership this week. There will be new distribution arrangements in place really soon, but in the meantime the record will continue to be available from Amazon or this website (both supplied direct rather than through Pinnacle) should you have problems getting hold of a copy.

thanks

Jim
'zines
Wed, 26 Nov 2008You may have spotted by now that Jim and Jackie are on the front cover of this months fRoots magazine. Colin Irwin interviews them both inside about all kinds of stuff. More here - http://www.frootsmag.com/

Low Culture has also been named Mojo magazines top folk album of 2008 in the current issue (with Oasis on the front). Jackie Oates' The Violet Hour also reaches number 9 on the list. Hooray!

Sat, 22 Nov 2008

(via http://whythatsdelightful.wordpress.com/)
'wards
Wed, 19 Nov 2008Hello,
By now you might have heard that Low Culture has received three nominations in the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards - for best album, best traditional track (for 'Lucy Wan' - a murder ballad! with a rapper!) and best original song (for 'All You Pretty Girls' - a pop song! from 1984!). Although I wouldn't usually suggest it, you can discuss these on my messageboard, or go and shout your opinions to the wider world at the BBC messageboards at http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/mbradio2/F2142825. The awards seem to always attract some "controversy" or at the very least minor grumbling, so get on there and show your support (whether for me or someone else).

The album has also been nominated for the fRoots critics poll album of the year. This is what used to be the Radio 3 World Music awards, so its a pretty big deal to be even mentioned bearing in mind that since 2000 the award has been won exclusively by West African artists - the last English album to win was Red Rice by Eliza Carthy in 1997 in fact! With Eliza's latest, Bellowhead's Matachin and my own Low Culture it's quite a strong showing for English music though so fingers crossed etc. You can talk about that one at http://froots.net/phpBB2/index.php where they will likely be sympathetic to your cause or http://www.charliegillett.com/phpBB2/viewforum.php?f=1&sid=37dc1e4e4a7da4bfeb6db0e909f1da19 where they probably won't (they don't like English music there much, but the winner is being announced on Charlie Gillets show on Fri December 6th so the discussion is already underway)

J

Sat, 11 Oct 2008





Thu, 09 Oct 2008


Bless You tissues - for all pretty girls.
Bristol and London
Wed, 10 Sep 2008Hi,
The Bristol show on Friday the 19th is rapidly approaching. Come along to the Folkhouse on Park St for the last warm up before London on the 23rd. Playing with me will be Low Culture musicians Nick Cooke, James Delarre and bassist Sam Norman who made his debut at Sidmouth. There will also be projections during the gig - not sure what those'll be yet but there you go... Its a big room so bring lots of friends!

The London show is now sold out, although there is likely to be an extra 5-10 tickets released the week before. I'll make sure that they are announced to the mailing list first so make sure you a signed up and activated if you want to snap one up.

Thanks

J
Low Culture postcards
Mon, 08 Sep 2008Hi,

The limited edition Low Culture postcards have finally arrived. They've been in the works for a while, but it was worth the wait as they are by far the most beautiful objects that I've ever had for sale. They are available from the webshop for £5.

There is a postcard for each song on the album by David Owen, plus a book dust jacket to enclose them. More of David's work can be found at http://theinkcorporation.co.uk/ and an exhibition of his work will be showing at Cecil Sharp House in London until Jan '09. The exhibition is launched on Weds 17th of September at 6.30pm - you never know there might be a "surprise guest" performing in the building somewhere...



J
September
Thu, 28 Aug 2008I've just found out that the gig at the Green Note on September the 23rd is listed as SOLD OUT. I am trying to find out if they can release more tickets, and I'm sure there will be a certain amount on the door, but if you want to come it might be worth getting there early. If you don't manage to get in then we've added another gig the weekend before at Bristol Folk House on the 19th. I'm also going to be playing North Devon Folk Festival on my own on the 6th. After that there's a gig at Cecil Sharp House celebrating the work of Ralph Vaughan Williams - I'm singing Dives and Lazarus (angry dogs/angels/demons), The Bold Princess Royal (pirates) and The Captains Apprentice (sadism!) - and then a month of producing the debut album by Wheeler Street (the "new faces of folk" apparently - I've heard that somewhere before...)

There should be an interview with me in the next Songlines magazine with pictures taken by Simon "Nick's dad's cousin" Cooke on Sidmouth beach. I haven't seen them yet, but I'm looking forward to seeing how they came out.

Meanwhile, after a series of really disappointing mobile phone let-downs I am most excited about my new iPhone which is due to be delivered tomorrow, and especially Izotope's iDrum software which I'll be installing straight away. The old sampler pad that I've used to play Lemady on most of my gigs since 2001 can now be retired in favour of my... phone!! Of course, it might all backfire horribly, but the prospect of performing a song using only an ipod is quite appealing. I might just be able to do it over a wireless network too with no wires. if anyone has any iPhone+MaxMSP patches then let me know. I really am geekishly excited over this.

More later.

J
Teen Soap Debut.
Tue, 12 Aug 2008Thanks to everyone who came to see us at Sidmouth. We really enjoyed ourselves and we hope you did too.

There are lots more reviews of Low Culture, too many to mention so I'll stick them all up in the gallery.

Also, I make a cameo appearance in the new episode of online sitcom Sceneagers. You need to watch the first episode to follow the plot but I play "the sailor's friend who has come to sing a song from across the seas". Watch it here.

More later.

Jim
The Independent
Fri, 25 Jul 2008Hooray. Low Culture gets the lead review in todays Independent (25th July).

"The bottomless trove of sturdy old folk tales and his musical imagination spark brightly." ****

edit: link here - http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/reviews/
Reviewz
Thu, 24 Jul 2008All the reviews of Low Culture so far are now in the 'press' section of the gallery.

Also, my interview with Colin Irwin for the Guardian is currently the featured 'Editors Pick' on the Guardian Folk Music page (only a week after it was printed...). If you haven't seen it yet then you can do so at http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/folk

Thanks

Jim
Touring
Thu, 17 Jul 2008Hi,
I'm going to be touring the Low Culture band in early 2009 and there are still dates available in Feb/Mar. If you are a promoter or would like to see us in your town then get in touch with Terry O'Brien at the Playpen Agency. I'll get my people to talk to your people. Let's do lunch.

Meanwhile, I'm always interested in recording/production/mixing work. I've been spending a lot of time doing this over the last few years, working on some things that you might have heard of and some things that you won't. I mainly work out of my own studio in Bristol with a mixture of analogue/digital and vintage/new gear. Portfolio available on request. Get in touch.

Thanks

Jim