‘Catching lives’ with The Chartham String Band

The Chartham String Band have released a new song called ‘Catching Lives’ and are donating all the sales proceeds to the Catching Lives Homeless Centre.

The Chartham String Band play their own brand of folk music, blues, rock ‘n’ roll, traditional, modern, and more. ‘Catching Lives’ was written by Phil Brown, lead vocalist and mandolin player. The band is made up of two couples: Phil and Marjorie Brown, who plays the guitar, along with Jake Weekes, a second guitarist who produced and engineered the new single, and his wife Emily, a violinist.

The band, who are all close friends, have been around for 5 years and originally came together as they played at the crib service at St Mary’s Church in Chartham, of which Phil is the Vicar. They now perform monthly at the local pub ‘Artichoke’, with their brilliant ‘Folk at the Choke’ set every 2nd Friday where they play acoustically with no microphones and encourage anyone to come and see them play.

The inspiration for the band comes from the British psychedelic folk band, ‘The Incredible String Band’ from the early 1960’s/70s. Each month they have a whip-round for a different local charity to write a song about and donate to. In 2017 they recorded a Christmas album called ‘Beer and Carols’ to raise money for St Mary’s Church in Chartham. The album was a fantastic success which has sold out twice and is now on its third release.

The lyrics to their new song are really important and highlight the difficulties of living on the street, and they are hoping this single will bring attention to the amazing work that is done by the Catching Lives Homeless Centre. The digital track can be brought for £1 on Bandcamp at this link https://thecharthamstringband. bandcamp.com/track/catching-lives. 

The Catching Lives Homeless Centre is an independent charity that aims to support rough sleepers, homeless and vulnerably housed in Canterbury and East Kent; those who have for many reasons fallen through the gaps in society and feel they have nowhere else to turn. The charity has been running for 20 years and they provide support by offering immediate respite at their project in Canterbury: the Canterbury Open Centre. In addition to this, they work with their clients to help them to tackle any issues that they may have as well as get access to suitable accommodation and find the motivation to take steps towards personal recovery and independent living.

As part of the charity’s community work, they take work and study placements, do schools talks and training events, deliver tailored training on a variety of subjects, arrange visits to their Open Centre for schools and youth groups, take and train all kinds of volunteers, talk to church groups and congregations.

Jake, who works in Canterbury as an archaeologist, became connected to the charity and has an emotional attachment to what they do by supporting people and bringing them back from the brink and focusing on the person; not the numbers.

They also do personal work with charity; in Canterbury, they have a studio where Jake gives drum lessons to individuals from Catching Lives who benefit greatly from the learning as it builds their confidence, they’re able to learn a new skill and it is therapeutic.

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