Multi-award-winning folk musicians Sam Kelly and Jamie Francis are two of the hottest song writing and performing talents on the UK Folk scene.
This talented duo are the main writing partnership behind the hit folk big band Sam Kelly & The Lost Boys, one of the most energetic and sought after acts on the festival circuit.
Kelly’s passion for Celtic music, coupled with a love for the heavy riffs of classic rock and blues, and a voice described by Mike Harding as ‘one of my favourite voices ever’ has led Sam on to produce some of the most exciting music on the British folk scene in recent years.
Jamie Francis is a Bristol based banjo player, guitarist and songwriter who began gigging at the age of 12, and grew up surrounded by both the blues music popular in his home town of Maryport, and the Irish folk music played by his father. Together Kelly and Francis create haunting harmonies, soaring tunes and melodies that will make you fall in love with folk music.
Rose Horner, Director of Wem Town Hall, says: “We are hugely excited to welcome Sam and Jamie to Wem this February. Their music is regularly aired on BBC Radio 2 and 3 and Sky Arts and Sports and people may well recognise Sam Kelly from reaching the final of Britain’s Got Talent! The show will be full of charming anecdotes and instrumental performances of the highest calibre that will get your feet tapping!”
With folk luminaries such as Kate Rusby, Seth Lakeman, and Cara Dillon waxing lyrical about Sam’s live set and described by Mark Radcliffe as “amazing, thrilling music”, this will be a musical treat that should not be missed!
Get your tickets before the 31 January for Early bird prices! Sam Kelly and Jamie Francis come to Wem Town Hall on Sunday, 9 February, 7.30pm. Visit wemtownhall.co.uk for tickets.
Off-road SUVs are having something of a moment. Put another way, the Jeep Wrangler is getting some direct competition for the first time in years from the Ford Bronco; Toyota brought back the Land Cruiser as a smaller, more rugged offering; and automakers are rushing to add capability to crossovers and SUVs of all sizes and prices. Even so, there are some holes in the playing field: Toyota long ago killed off its retro-flavored FJ Cruiser—though, again, it sort of righted that wrong with the smaller 2024 Land Cruiser and forthcoming 2025 4Runner—as did Nissan its burly Xterra 4×4. And as of now, the Xterra is not officially due for a comeback, even though Nissan recently unveiled a thoroughly modernized Frontier pickup—the same pickup that shared components with the old Xterra, and even more recently, in late December 2024, it filed a trademark application for the Xterra name in America. That got us thinking …
If Nissan were about to reveal a new Xterra today, what might it look like? We turned to our speculative artist wizard, Abimilec Arellano, for a rendering of the would-be, next-generation Nissan Xterra that does not, and possibly will not, ever exist.
Wait, why?! While rumors abound that a new Xterra is coming, and there’s that trademark, and such a model would make tons of sense in today’s 4×4-crazed market, Nissan has officially said it’s not doing a new Xterra, at least not any time soon. Except that the automaker’s chief of planning and head of the Americas, Ponz Pandikuthira, spoke in early 2024 with unexpected clarity about what the allegedly not-forthcoming Xterra might need to be in an interview with Nissan is known for pragmatism—just look at the blood it’s squeezed from the proverbial stone with its more popular models’ solid fuel economy in recent years using old-fashioned, affordable port fuel injection—and we think reviving the Xterra couldn’t be simpler. After all, spinning up the old Xterra’s frame would be straightforward. It was shared with the contemporary Frontier pickup, which was revised heavily for 2022 while keeping, essentially, the same frame it used before. In other words, Nissan still builds the 2015 Xterra’s frame, or a version of it, for the 2024 Frontier and the larger Titan that uses the same components.
