Alan Rae

I’m a singer who sometimes writes songs. I play piano with a repertoire that’s a mixture of Jazz, Blues and old 60s and 70s numbers – Beatles, Dylan, pop classics. I have worked in several blues and soul bands like Blues Business, Ugly Bugs Blues Band, Revo6 and Just Tina. My long term piano project is Heavenly Blues which is me on piano, sometimes Cylvian Flynn on vocals and sometimes a couple of my chums on bass and guitar. I also perform as the front man of Newick Folk, a quirky Folk Band from East Sussex best described as a normal folk band with a jazz orientated rhythm section and a rock violinist. Newick Folk generally play Ceilidhs or provide music for Weddings, Big number birthday parties at the one hand or support local events on the other. Repertoire ranges from down the line English, Irish and Scottish Folk to basically any old stuff with a grin factor that takes our fancy - My Old Man's a dustman, Lilly the Pink, The Nightingale sang in Berkeley Square, Gi Blues etc. Basically nothing is sacred :) I sing and play mandolin, mandola or guitar dependent on the nature of the song. I work with other local musicians in a variety of projects for which I play keys. There’s a singer songwriter band - Kitsch 'n Sync. Most of the material is written by Rhiannon Hill – our Rock Violinist but we do some of my songs too. I'm also playing piano in an American song book duo with the Censational Cylvian and in a four piece Jazz Band "Jazz n Dave" where we're all called Dave on the I am Spartacus principle. Latest project is Xperiment a band bringing together 5 experienced trans genre musicians to fill the niche where people want Covers with a lot of Country and Irish music in the mix. Finally if you want an event that mixes two different genres - Ceilidh/Covers Jazz/ Folk etc let me know – chances are I can arrange it