Christchurch Folk Music Club
September 2024 Recap
Open Mic Night
September 29, 2024
We provide an outlet for local acoustic performers – singers, songwriters & poets all welcome. We encourage all levels – novice or expert – to hone performance skills in front of a sympathetic audience.
Anna van Riel award-winning songwriter
September 22, 2024
Lake Hāwea artist Anna van Riel is an award-winning songwriter with a passion for folk, blues and jazz.
With a music career spanning over 20 years, Anna has performed at the world’s highest musical festival in Ladakh, across two summers in the Cote d’ zur, through earth homes and permaculture farms in North America and through festivals across the East Coast of Australia. She has even performed for Prince Albert of Monaco…twice!
Anna originally hails from Invercargill; where she was inspired by the musical theatre and performing arts scene. She moved to Central Otago in her adolescence where she developed her vintage-folk fusion sound. Anna considers herself a resident of the Deep South and is serial-collaborator across the community. Her vinyl collection reflects inspiration from the greats, such as Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Ray Lamontagne and Little River Band.
Throughout the year Anna tours her original 80’s-inspired one-woman stage show for children called Waste Free Wanda, empowering tamariki how to reduce single-use waste on the planet, while infusing them with actions and 80’s-inspired power anthems that support them to remember simple tools on how to care for our planet.
Trained in vocal mechanics and breathwork, Anna delivers 1:1 coaching from her Hāwea voice studio, and runs both singing & speaking workshops across the South of NZ, supporting speakers and singers to find their true voices. A passionate veggie gardener and homesteader, Anna grows food on the family property where she lives with 3 generations, including her handsome husband and two children.
Often performing with her ukulele band, The Synergy, Anna’s compositions weave storytelling with imagery, inviting audiences to journey with her through song. Following a sabbatical in the children’s-music sector, Anna is back en force, and sporting a deeper, fuller vocal range and a brand new repertoire. Anna is currently working on her 6th studio album.
Links:
Nick Smith
September 15, 2024
Nick has a long standing interest in British folk music, attending folk clubs and festivals back in the U.K. before emigrating to NZ 20 years ago. Nick and his family settled in Gisborne for 12 years, where he was an active participant on the local music scene, performing in an acoustic duo and forming a folk / Irish band called Barleycorn.
He recently attended the Waimate Winter Folk Festival, sang a few songs at the blackboard concert. and was consequently booked for the Summer Waimate festival, where was greatly enjoyed. Nick sings and plays guitar and has a wide range of folk material – including some original self written songs. He encourages audience participation, so be prepared to sing along with him in the chorus’s – that’s where the magic lies.
Gary Elford
September 8, 2024
This folk club concert will be 2 small shows.
The first “Coming of Age” is a collection of Gary’s works in both verse and song. The second is “From Paterson to Prine”. This features Gary reciting his favorite Banjo Paterson poems which tell the stories of Aussie bush characters and display his love of the genre; Bush Poetry.
“The Night the Rat Stepped Out,” “Strength in Adversity” and his latest book “The Birthday Present”.
1 September: Sionna – Songs and Tunes from Ireland (ish)
Sionna are a dynamic folk duo formed in Christchurch in 2023. With Helen’s haunting vocal harmonies and top class fiddle alongside Lorcan’s natural traditional Irish vocals and stunning accompaniment on bouzouki and guitar this duo will not only perform but thoroughly entertain audiences with their talent and witty personalities to boot.
Having sold out gigs in Fairfield House, Nelson and the prestigious The Piano in Christchurch in 2023 – Sionna are definitely a band to look out for in 2024
Lorcan – bouzouki, guitar, vocals.
Lorcan is from Limerick and has lived and played music in Christchurch in New Zealand for the past 20-blah years. Mostly a session monster but is a founder member of Catharsis and Bang Your Frog.
Helen – fiddle, vocals and wonderfulness.
Helen has been a musician, actor and performer in Christchurch for over ten years and has acted with Showbiz and the Court Theatre as well as being a mainstay of Mollys Remedy band.
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Here We Are
19 October 2025
“Here we are” is an assemblage of three local musicians who are strong supporters of the folk music ethic and who enjoy performing and entertaining people in that environment.

Tess Liautaud and Jessie Rose Shanks
2 November 2025
Tess Liautaud and Jessie Rose Shanks weave a sound as old as the hills, writing and performing folk ballads and country twangers steeped in time and place, a little bit sage, a touch playful and full to the brim with heart.

Suzanne Lynch of The Chicks & Elizabeth Braggins
5 November 2025
The legendary Suzanne Lynch (The Chicks, The Lady Killers) and Elizabeth Braggins will regale you with tales and musical tributes.

Rob Ferris Music Variety Show
9 November 2025
For his Seventh Musos Variety Show for The Chch Folk Club, Robin B Ferris has invited another very experienced, multi talented and versatile team of professional Musos to perform a wide plethora of musical numbers carefully selected from the 1960s to the present day just for you!

Fingerpicking Delights X
23 November 2025
Jon Hooker will be the featured artist at this year’s FP Delights concert, which is also celebrating its 10th Anniversary.

Charlotte Yates + Show Pony
30 November 2025
One of our most potent songwriters’, Charlotte Yates, is a singer-songwriter with a decent sized catalogue of solo and collaborative work, including four poetry-to-song projects devoted to the work of James K Baxter, Hone Tuwhare, Witi Ihimaera & Katherine Mansfield.

The Groomsmen
19 April 2026
Collectively joining forces to form ‘The Groomsmen’ these boys are looking to
take the bull by the horns and deliver the goods at every show.