About Folk & Ale

About Folk & Ale

This blog is about folk(ish) music and real ale (or ‘craft beer’). It’s a fannish meander through an eclectic landscape of reviews, recommendations, discussions, debates and snippets of news; anything I find interesting or remarkable, or anything that I like or enjoy enough to want to talk about.

Me? I’m called Darren. I’m a bloke from North Manchester (UK). I work in (book) publishing, building and running websites and social media channels for published authors, or helping them run their own. I’m not professionally involved in the music or brewing industries, I haven’t written any books on the subject, I don’t have any specific experitise. I’m just this guy, y’know?

Folk(ish) music?

I have a quite broad taste in music, but these days I seem more and more to be particularly enjoying folk, Americana, indie, singer-songwriters, blues and other acoustic / electric guitar-centric sounds. Ewan MacColl to Bellowhead. Bob Dylan to The Decemberists. Bruce Springsteen to The Arcade Fire. The Kinks to Mumford & Sons. Leadbelly to the Black Keys. That sort of thing, and plenty more besides and in-between.

So I’ll be posting videos, album reviews, gig notes and bits & pieces of news about the musicians, bands and artists I enjoy listening to. And I’m happy to hear from bands or artists who think their music might be something I’d enjoy listening to. I can’t promise to post or mention everything, but if something really grabs me, then I’ll be happy to give it a write-up.

Real Ale / Craft Beer?

I also have a pretty wide ranging taste in beer (or ale, stout, porter, barley wine, lager, etc. etc.) and since I started beer-blogging back in June 2008 I’ve discovered a vast number of new and delicious styles, types and variations of real ale and craft beer (not that those two terms are necessarily distinct, but that’s a whole other can-of-worms).

So I’ll be talking about the tastiest and most interesting beers I’ve sampled, the best or quirkiest pubs I’ve sampled them in, plus any snippets of beer news that particularly catch my attention. I live in Manchester, UK, so there’ll no doubt be a fair but about the local beer & pub scene as well. And I’m an online marketing manager by trade, so there might even be a few thoughts, hints and tips on how small breweries and pubs can use online channels to more effectivedly promote their brews or their hospitality.

Again, I’m happy to hear from any breweries (or their PR agencies) with news to share. And again, I can’t promise I’ll post everything, but if your news is particularly interesting, I’ll do my best to help spread the word.

Both At Once..?

My previous blog was blogobeer.com; originally it was a team-based beer & pub review blog, but by the end of its three-year run (once the other three blogobeer blokes had become too busy with real-life stuff to be able to participate on a regular basis) it had become a little tired and choresome. So I decided to change direction and branch out. Real Music and Real Ale are far from mutually exclusive interest areas. In fact, they seem perfectly complimentary to me: a few pints in a great pub with a great band belting out singalong tunes? My idea of a great night out.

And it’s my hope that by covering these two interest areas in one blog, I just might be able to introduce a few music fans to a broader range of beer-based beverages and introduce a few fellow ale-lovers to some new tunes to listen to while they sup.

Feel Free to Join In!

Please do leave a comment (or question, or correction, or counter-argument) on any post that you find interesting (conversation is the currency that fan-bloggers like me are paid in, after all). And please do drop me a line if you have any beers or bands that you think I might enjoy.