Ella Spencer and Bitter Sheep

Ella Spencer is an established Indie/Roots multi instrumentalist and Millie and Bena play together under Bitter Sheep. We are a group of friends who have come to folk from a number of different directions with our musical experience traversing everything from classical singing to DJing, but we share a vision for folk nights that are inclusive and accessible, shaking off the unspoken rules and sometimes exclusionary nature of some of the traditional folk nights.

Our understanding of an accessible night involves a pay-what-you-can model, lyric sheets and chances to learn songs (rather than expecting the crowd to know the old favourites), and a friendly, relaxed, non-judgemental space for people to try things out. Our sessions at the Gleaners have already encouraged people who have never shared their music publicly to come and play or sing with others which is an incredible privilege. Our nights are also women and queer led with an emphasis on the less represented voices and instruments in folk. Our understanding of folk is also broad and encompassing of different traditions and heritages.

We have been running our nights in 2 parts - the first half we share some songs and warm up the crowd with some singalongs and song learning, then we open up the floor in the second half (taking names in the break) and intersperse this with a couple more singalongs that we encourage musicians to come and join us for!

Instagram:

@ellaspencermusic

@bitter_sheep