A weekend of music workshops in a beautiful venue in the centre of the the picturesque historic town of Mühlhausen. I am leading the band workshop - it's for any instrument, all ages and most abilities. The idea is to make arrangements of folk dance tunes together that are great to listen to and fun to dance to,

Blowzabella dance in Oxford promoted by Oxfolk. Venue to be confirmed.

A day of workshops and evening dance.

Concert / dance with Blowzabella in Dranouter, Belgium

I am teaching a band/ensemble course for brass and woodwind instrument. We will make arrangements of folk dance tunes and maybe a song or two. The Burgbordunale is an extended weekend event with courses for advanced participants. We develop and play dance music on drone instruments, or dance to the same. In addition, two-hour mini workshops are offered on two days after lunch. It is also planned to give various instrument makers the opportunity to present their instruments. Saturday afternoon is ideal for this. On Saturday evening, the lecturers' concert/balfolk , followed by a session, will take place. The course groups play on Sunday evening before & and for the internal balfolk. Registration is open for you from April 1, 2022 !

Using traditional and contemporary “folk” tunes in different styles and time signatures (for example: waltzes, polkas, bourrées, jigs, hornpipes, schottisches, songs…) we will work together to make some fun arrangements for people to dance, listen or sing along to. Sometimes we’ll concentrate on the melody, sometimes we’ll work out other voices in harmony. We’ll play indoors, maybe under a tree or in a café, at a bal, walking through the village or as a Flashmob. Sometimes we will talk about technique and explore how to improvise and communicate emotion in music. Either by choice or necessity bagpipers often play alone, or in small groups with other instruments, so we will practice how to play together as a larger ensemble. The challenge with bagpipes is that they are either “off” (silence) or “on” (making a ferocious noise!). How do we exploit that? The workshop is about everyone working together as a team, supporting and learning from each other – and laughing a lot.

Blowzabella return to Sidmouth Folk festival in Devon to play a big dance and a concert.

Weekend tickets SOLD OUT. Tickets available for the Saturday night dance

We play one set of about 80 minutes. We are quite loud.

We'll play one set of about 90 minutes. We are quite loud. It's not a folk gig .

An extended weekend course for musicians to develop their ensemble playing skills. Drawing on European folk/contemporary/popular music traditions we’ll be making new arrangements that can go in any direction. The aim is to explore and combine all sorts of influences and ideas to make spine tingling music that is more than the sum of the parts.

The course is fairly intensive and includes all day ensemble workshop sessions with the aim of performing all the pieces we create together at a public concert on the Sunday night.

“It completely revived my creative juices – just what I needed.” 2019 Participant

The course is led by musician/composer/arranger Paul James (Blowzabella, Paul James and the Drowned Lovers). We are delighted to announce that Maarten Decombel (Snaarmaarwaar, MandolinMan and Naragonia Quartet) will join the team for 2022, plus the return of harpist, composer and teacher Merit Zloch (Zirla, Solid Ghost) for the second time.

THREO is a new trio and this is our first gig. Paul James - doedelzak, saxofoon. Hilke Bauweraerts - diatonische accordeon Thomas Hoste - draailier.

'Threo' speelt enkele van Paul's recente composities voor mensen om op te dansen - en een paar 'standaarden' die je niet altijd op folkinstrumenten hoort. "Threo" joue les compositions récentes de Paul pour que les gens dansent et quelques "standards" que vous n'entendez pas toujours jouer sur des instruments folkloriques. 'Threo' play some of Paul's recent compositions for people to dance to - and a few "standards" you don't always hear played on folk instruments.

Jam session in one of Heuvelland's finest pubs! All kinds of music, all abilities.

Paul's solo album The Drowned Lover and Other Dark Tales draws on his love of traditional folk songs with strong stories and his ability to bring all kinds of musicians and influences together in striking ways. The band build on that, drawing on folklore, world music, indie rock, funk and jazz to make a glorious sound that veers from quiet acoustic textures to full-blooded rock and electronica. Live they play everything on the album and a few surprising cover versions about life, death, joy and disappointment.

A long weekend of music workshops. I'm leading a band workshop - all abilities, any instrument, any musical background (folk, jazz, pop, classical). We'll explore some tunes and bring them alive by making interesting arrangements. Questions? email pauljames.eu@gmail.com