Hay Castle Events

We are proud to announce the birth of a new two act Americana show featuring the undeniable talents of Home Of The Free and Chuck Micallef.

Home Of The Free is a collaboration between Dave Luke and Alex Valentine, two Londoners who relocated to Presteigne (nicknamed ‘home of the free’) in Mid-Wales. Lush harmonies and virtuoso guitar playing combine to create a unique blend of Country, Contemporary Folk and Americana. Dave Luke served his musical apprenticeship in award-winning London-based Country Rock band The Coyotes.

Since relocating to Mid-Wales in the 1990s he has toured Europe extensively in a variety of bands and played at legendary USA institutions such as the Grand Ole Opry, The Ryman Auditorium and Kerrville Folk Festival. Alex was born and grew up in Camden, now living off-grid in a small wooden house surrounded by an ancient oak woodland. To date he has made eight albums on the Struck Dumb Records label.

First discovered by Bob Harris on GLR he has since been featured by Johnnie Walker, Jonathan Ross and Dermot O’Leary on BBC Radio 2 and on 6 Music. Chuck Micallef paid his dues in the Coffee Houses of his native Toronto, an experience that provided him with a first-hand education in the craft of the Singer-Songwriter. In the early 1980s he recorded a clutch of 45s of his own songs, produced by Ron Dann and engineered by Bob Federer, which scored in both the Canadian and U.S.A. national charts. His 30 year tenure in the U.K. has yielded a live recording in 1996, the acclaimed 2007 album The Moon, The Stars & The Sun, and an enthusiastic involvement with the British roots music community, having organised two Community Music Festivals, Festival in the Forest Barton under Needwood 1996-2001 and One Day In May Newcastle-under-Lyme 2009-2010.

Home of the Free

FOLK HORROR STORIES

Ancient folklore meets modern anxiety...Dive into the eerie and unsettling world of Folk Horror. Contemporary authors and film-makers draw on the archiac folk and fairytales of our ancestors to reveal another, more precarious relationship with our environment -in which we are no longer in charge... Expect shapeshifters, foolhardy pacts and unquiet graves. Don't expect happily ever after! 16+

Daniel Morden is a Welsh storyteller in the oral tradition. Morden retells traditional stories from various cultures, in particular the Celtic and the ancient Greek. He has performed all over the world, in schools and theatres, at festivals and on the radio. He is also an award-winning author of such books as DARK TALES FROM THE WOODS. In 2017 he was awarded the Hay Festival Medal for Drama.

'To experience Daniel Morden in full flight is an amazing thing. He combines the skills of the Troubadour, the actor, the bard, the standup comedian and the preacher in the pulpit. One of the UK’s greatest storytellers.'

Ian Macmillan, Radio 3