Medieval Banquet

‘Extremely Compelling’ – The Independent

‘Gorgeous’ – The Daily Telegraph

‘Becoming one of the hottest tickets in folk’ – Mark Radcliffe, BBC Radio 2 folk show

‘Seeps almost imperceptibly into your psyche’ – fRoots

‘The green shoots growing from the very top of the English folk family tree’ – PRS Magazine

Double BBC Folk Award nominees Josienne Clarke and Ben Walker infuse ageless stories of love and loss with their exquisite command of many instruments. Whether interpreting words centuries old or singing her own authentic lyrics, Josienne’s jewel-like voice finds the nuance in the simplest phrase and sends it, effortlessly, straight to your heart. Ben’s musical tact and flair for arrangement provide the perfect setting, allowing the song centre-stage.

Josienne was born in Sussex and Ben, in Evesham. It was after studying in London, and utterly by chance, that they met in July 2009. Together they have resolutely forged their own path through traditional music.

Critical recognition soon followed, along with the Isambard Folk Award, and the FATEA Awards for Best Album and Female Vocalist of the Year, and the Spiral Award for Best Duo, as well as coveted BBC Radio 2 Folk Award nominations for Best Newcomers and Best Duo. The live performance is a thing of delight – enchanted reviewers have spoken of shimmering cathedrals of sound – and its purity will stay with you long after the last note fades.

Their first major album together ‐ Fire and Fortune ‐ confirmed their place among the very best musicians of their generation and reached No. 1 on the UK Amazon folk chart.

Josienne Clarke and Ben Walker’s next album Nothing Can Bring Back the Hour is one of the most anticipated releases of the year and is due for release autumn 2015.

Tickets £11

Peter Knight’s Gigspanner has been hailed by Songlines magazine as “another milestone in folk’s rebirth of cool moment”, but those in the know will tell you that there is far more to Gigspanner than meets the eye.

Fine British traditional music is to be expected from Steeleye Span’s legendary fiddle player, but Gigspanner’s musical reach probes into Eastern European, French, African and even Aboriginal influences. It is no surprise that author Terry Pratchett wrote that “Peter Knight can spin the world on his bow”. It is music played with a potency and love that leaves audiences spellbound.

Peter is joined by Roger Flack on Guitar, and Vincent Salzfaas on Congas and Djembe, both intelligent and powerful musicians in their own right. Together they promise “a blistering pace of a flamboyant musical world tour” (Lancashire Evening Post).

Gigspanner’s Debut Album ‘Lipreading the Poet’ was named as one of the best 15 Global Albums of 2009. But leave any pre-conceived ideas at the door, and ditch the pigeonholes. If you have a taste for “music of intelligently crafted brilliance” (Songlines magazine) there is something here to nurture your soul.

Tickets £10

gigspanner.com

The Founders of Bellowhead

Twice winners of the BBC Folk Award for Best Duo

Spiers and Boden gave a storming performance at the Tolmen Centre in Spring 2013, and we are delighted to welcome them back a year later, when we expect another sell-out show. Their spring tour will be their last for the forseeable future, so this is one not to miss.

Described by The Guardian as “the finest instrumental duo on the traditional scene” and twice winners of the BBC Radio 2 folk award for Best Duo, Spiers and Boden have made the genre of spontaneous, punky English folk very much their own stomping ground.  Loud, proud, and with just a few acoustic instruments, they create a multitude of textures upon which they present traditional stories and dance music which have taken them on to the main stages of major festivals.

“Technically they stand head to head with the best of their generation…Jon Boden plays fiddle with an earthy vigour that’s utterly compelling and sings in a frantic breathless manner as if the hounds of hell are taking lumps out of his backside, while John Spiers harmonises and plays urgent driving melodeon to a very high standard indeed…halfway to reinventing the style without even realising it…” fRoots Magazine

“Dynamics, drive and passion” BBC Radio 2 folk website

Winners of the Best Duo category at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards in both 2004 and 2006, and a Critic’s choice nomination at the BBC World Music Awards, and nominees for the same award in 2009, John & Jon are also founding members of the wildly ambitious eleven piece big-band folk phenomenon, Bellowhead (BBC Folk Awards for Best Live Act in 2005, 2007, 2008, Observer Top 20 albums of 2007).

Jon Boden (singer, fiddle, guitar, stomp-box) follows in the footsteps of many of the great folk-singers with his theatrical style.  Born in 1977 in Chicago, he grew up in Winchester and graduated in Medieval Studies from Durham and Composition for Theatre from the London College of Music.  As well as forming half of Spiers & Boden and singing lead vocals in Bellowhead, Jon has also found time to release his own, self-penned album of contemporary indie rock songs, ‘Painted Lady’.

John Spiers (melodeon, concertina) was born in Birmingham and grew up in Abingdon (home to one of the few truly traditional morris sides) with a morris dancing father.  He has a Masters degree in Natural Sciences from King’s College Cambridge and has carved his own space in the folk scene with his unique blending of traditional squeezebox styles with his knowledge of contemporary dance music to create an infectious acoustic groove which provides the infectious rhythm of Spiers & Boden.

“Anyone who needs convincing that the current folk revival is becoming as intriguing, varied and experimental as it was back in the 1960s should check out the remarkable career of John Spiers and Jon Boden. In just a few years, they have established themselves as the finest instrumental duo on the traditional scene, and the contemporary equivalent of Martin Carthy and Dave Swarbrick….” The Guardian

Spiers & Boden’s retrospective album ‘The Works’ was released July 2011 to mark their 10 year anniversary.  Spring 2014 marks their final tour together for the foreseeable future.

www.spiersandboden.com

£13  (no concessions)

dalla.co.uk