Below is a list of all the acts that have played at the Magpie’s Nest

This is a selection of all artists that have performed at Magpie’s Nest events over the last 5 years – representing the large variety of music we programme. If you’d like to know more about programming these artists and how we can help you with your event please visit our Production Page.

4Square

From the outskirts of Rochdale in the winter of 2006, outspoken alternative-folk quartet 4Square has accomplished an incredible amount in a relatively short space of time

A Line

A-Line sound like Alice in Wonderland at a 1930’s jazz appreciation club. Mixing tales of airplane crashes and snow dust [...]

Aaron Jonah Lewis

Aaron Jonah Lewis, a native of Michigan and longtime resident of Virginia

Adam Beattie and the Consultants

The Consultants are a shifting group of musicians focused around band-leader and song writer Adam Beattie, whose distinctive voice ties [...]

Ahab

Ahab is an alt-country collective hailing from the vibrant music scene in Hoxton and Shoreditch so the Old Queen’s Head is on their patch, a home fixture.

Al Joshua

Alexis Joshua of Orphans and Vandals fame

Alasdair Roberts

One of a rare breed of singer, existing in the realm where traditional song meets the eloquent and unearthly pen of his own gentle industry, to sublime effect.

Alastair Caplin

Since Alastair Caplin’s emergence into the world of traditional and folk music, he has performed with the likes of Abigail [...]

Alua Nascimento

Since learning percussion from his father (renowned Brazilian percussionist Dinho Nascimento) Alua has studied classical percussion and toured the world with an uncountable number of groups demanding his skills.

Alua Nascimento and Alba Cabral

Alua Nascimento and Alba Cabral create a fusion of energetic rootsy Brazilian folk, by means of Thumb Piano, Berimbao, Vibraphone and Percussion mastery.

Aly Bain, Ale Möller and Bruce Molsky

A melodically and rhythmically exciting collaboration by three of the world’s leading musicians sharing their Celtic, Nordic and Appalachian cultures.

Angry & The Ducks

Angry & The Ducks are a seven-piece funk band who just want to make you dance.

Anthony Robertson

A storyteller/traditional ballad singer from an old Gypsy, Traveller family of traditional storytellers and ballad singers as well as pipers fiddlers and fortune tellers.

Antonio Lulić

Antonio Lulić is an independent purveyor of rock-folk from England’s fashionably impoverished North East.

Apple of My Eye

Arran, Ellie, Kit, Chris, Alex and Phil sing like bastard peasants who have broken into the landlord’s house, drunk all of his mead and kidnapped his daughter.

Arun Ghosh

Arun Ghosh is a British-Asian clarinettist, composer and music educator.

Balina Whalers

Three musical barnacles clinging to the creaking hull of a musical tradition stretching back over hundreds of years. Exploring ballads and seafaring songs, they tell tales of whaling ships, lost lovers, storms and hardship.

Band of Buriers

A Band of Buriers is an English alternative folk band that blends folk and alternative rap elements together. The band consists of James P Honey, an accomplished alt rapper, singer and poet and Jamie Romain, a classically trained cellist.

Bartram, Brookes and Weatherall

The much admired vocal talents and traditional song repertoire of Chris ‘Yorkie’ Bartram with the music of Neil Brookes and Tony Weatherall

Bella Hardy

Acclaimed singer Bella Hardy, three times nominated in the BBC Folk Awards, has a voice marked as ‘…mesmerising’ and ‘…faultless’.

Belshazzar’s Feast

Belshazzar’s Feast specialise in interpreting English traditional and historical dance, albeit in an unorthodox manner which often ruffled feathers.

Ben Paley and Tab Hunter

Ben’s fiddle playing combines seamlessly with Tab’s guitar playing as they range over traditional tunes from Irish, East European, Klezmer and (mainly) Swedish and American sources

Benjamin Wetherill

Despite sporting the classically gaunt features and clothes of a 1930s English poet, there is no easily explained centre to Ben’s mix of originals and covers.

Benji Kirkpatrick

Described by Time Out as a ‘fretboard wizard ‘, Benji Kirkpatrick is a gifted guitar player and an engaging and experienced performer.

Bethany Porter

Since moving to Bath in 2000 to do some dancing and playing at university Bethany has been lucky enough to play with some of the greatest musicians (both regularly, and in session work). She has recorded and toured with Eliza Carthy, Newton Faulkner, Reg Meuross, String Theory and Emily Maguire, and tries to record and gig her own stuff in her spare time.

Bill Evans and Megan Lynch

Bill Evans and Megan Lynch are combining efforts and the result is greater than the sum of its parts: their voices blend beautifully and you won’t believe how they can interpret both the classics and contemporary acoustic tunes

Bird Radio

I’m a London based act with a broad spectrum of inspirations.
“Bird” because of the flutes. “Radio” because of the technology I use.

Bishi

22 year old singer, musician & DJ Bishi was British born to a Bengali musical family. She started singing when she was 2 years old during a car journey to Sheffield.

Black Cat Balkan Band

This crack ensemble, with talent drawn from the distant lands of Bosnia, New Zealand, Australia, France and Italy (and some token Brits) has but one mission: CONVINCING THE WORLD ONE GIG AT A TIME THAT THERE IS ONLY ONE WAY TO ROLL… BALKAN

Black Cloud Island

Black Cloud Island are a Camden based primal blues rock n roll band, formed in May 2011. The duo make beautifully twisted and dark anthems that see the romance of the macabre and of fantasies that dare not see the light of day.

Blue Rose Code

From Edinburgh and Durban (SA), via the Isle Of Lewis and Bethnal Green come London alt-folk 3-piece, Blue Rose Code, with a growing legion of fans that includes Lou Rhodes, James Yuill and Polly Paulusma.

Bob Davenport

Solidly representing the Old Folk in our club mantra, Bob Davenport is, at 70, one of the stalwarts of the tradition.

Bobby McGees

The Bobby McGees are repeatedly described as “Genius” and once as “Dostoevsky singing Lonnie Donnegan” Both descriptions are correct.

Bodega

Bodega are Gillian Chalmers (Fraserburgh), Ross Couper (Shetland), Tia Files (Oban), Norrie MacIver (Isle of Lewis) and June Naylor (Isle of Skye).

Boko Halat

How do you classify the unclassifiable? Particularly when the whole point of the band is to break down stereotype images of the people who play in it. Their wry answer to the genre question is: the music you’d expect this group of people to make.

botyov1791

Finely crafted songs with themes stretching from flat screen televisions to confused whores.

Bow and Bellows

BOW & BELLOWS are a stunningly versatile violin, horn and accordion duo

Breabach

Scottish firebrands Breabach are one of the most talked about bands on the folk scene.

Breakspear Southern Harmony

A twelve-strong choral group assembled by Ed Long, Richard Makin.

Breakspear Southern Harmony

Also known as Breakspear Southern Harmony, this twelve-strong choral group assembled by Ed Long and Richard Makin follows a tradition of Sacred Harp singing, which charts the migration of 18th century English folk music to the churches of the deep south of the USA.

Brian Kelly

London continues to nurture fine exponents of the banjo: Brian Kelly is one of the latest in a long line that includes Mick O’Connor, John Carty and Bernie Conneely (formerly of The London Lasses).

Brockley Ukulele Group

We play the ukulele. In Brockley. Loud.

Bruce Molksy

Bruce Molsky stands today as the premier old-time fiddler in the world, the defining virtuoso of Appalachia’s timeless folk music traditions.

Burning Desire

Celtic fusion for passionate music lovers.

Cakes and Ale

Cakes and Ale are a six piece Norfolk based, folk inspired band.

Cath and Phil Tyler

“Cath and Phil’s combination of earthiness and grit, raw yet heartfelt and beautiful singing and immaculate playing makes this one of the most exciting and most moving albums I’ve heard in a long while.” – BBC R 3 ‘Late Junction’

Ceilidh Liberation Front

London’s newest and most radical ceilidh band, who will be subverting and converting the world with their new ceilidh regime. The finest musicians, the finest callers and the finest dancers.

Celebrity Chimp

“One Banjo, One Drum Kit, One Chimp, Two Punks”. Comedio-Folk-Punk-Banjoism. enuff said!

Chicken Shed Zeppelin

Chicken Shed Zeppelin play old-time fiddle-thrashing, yeeharhollerin’ breakneck speed acoustic dance music with attitude to get ya on ya feet in a hurry and shakin’ your old-time booty with a VENGEANCE!…

Chris Coe

CHRIS COE sings, step dances & plays hammered dulcimer, duet concertina, Appalachian dulcimer & percussion. She has been a professional performer since 1971.

Chris Sarjeant

Chris is a guitarist and singer of traditional English folk songs who grew up listening to, and travelling with, his parents, folk musicians Derek and Hazel Sarjeant.

Chris Sarjeant and Benedict Taylor

Chris and Benedict have been playing together now as a duo specialising mostly in English traditional material for around two years, performing in prestigious venues throughout the country and also for the nationwide Live Music Now organisation.

Christene LeDoux

A Telluride Troubador, Rocky Mt. Folks and Falcon Ridge Folk Festival Finalist and recipient of numerous songwriting awards, including the Billboard Song Contest to name a few, Christene’s down to earth approachability and heart-warming songs are quickly winning the hearts of both fan and industry.

Christine Cooper and Katherine Myles

Christine Cooper and Katherine Myles use violin, live loops and voice to gently blow away the thin layer of dust that has settled over old folk songs. Christine’s ethereal fiddle interweaves with Katherine’s stunning voice to draw the listener into a soundworld of fragile beauty.

Christmas Champions

Christmas Champions was originally written by BBC Folk Award winning duo Chris Wood and Hugh Lupton for BBC Radio 3’s Late Junction and is now a seasonal live multimedia show that builds on the choral and instrumental music of midwinter, with new songs and re-workings of established carols.

Chumbawamba

Always there, skirting the traditional folk scene with their politico-conscious songs, exploring English Rebel Songs and associated workers’ movements, but always with an international, contemporary and outward looking perspective.

Çigdem Aslan

Istanbul-born singer Çigdem Aslan (pronounced Cheedem) leads a band including guitar (Pavlos Melas), Persian santur (Peyman Heydarian), Turkish percussion, Greek bouzouki, and violin in a repertoire of lively music from the Aegean to the Caspian Sea, singing in Greek, Turkish and Kurdish.

Circulus

“Medieval Folk Funk – truly something else, a wonder to experience” – The Magpie’s Nest

Claudia Aurora

Claudia Aurora is a fadista (fado singer) and songwriter from Oporto, Portugal.

Cliff Stapleton

Cliff began playing the hurdy-gurdy in 1980 after a stint of oil-exploration in the African Sahara.  He has since become [...]

Cocos Lovers

An eight-piece band who play Kentish folk with an African twist.

Cosmicorus

Cosmicorus are the writing duoo Ildikó Kerék and Jon Staples, who collaborate with exceptional jazz and folk musicians handpicked from what was originally a 20 strong space, art choir.

Cut A Shine

Anarchist Hillbilly Barn Dance Shenanigans with this troupe of musicians, charismatic callers and gingham-clad dancers.

Damian O’Kane and Shona Kipling

An extremely gifted pairing, this instrumental and vocal duo plays an array of traditional and self-penned tunes and songs originating and influenced mainly from the Irish tradition.

Dan Walsh and Will Pound

Dan Walsh is a banjoist, guitarist, and singer. Will Pound is one of the most accomplished young Chromatic and Diatonic Harmonica players around on the music scene today.

Danny And The Champions Of The World

Danny And The Champions Of The World talk of music and brotherhood, good times and the cosmic yee-haa. Keep your eyes peeled and your ear to the ground – they say you can be a Champ too!

Darren Breslin & Orlaith McAuliffe

Darren has become a Comhalta’s favourite at fleadhs everywhere. His unique musical style has been heard from the Fermanagh Hills to venues and audiences across Ireland and the British Isles. Flute player Orlaith McAuliffe has been All Ireland Champion many times over and is still only 17.

David Broad

I play folk songs, mostly the American kind; this includes Appalachian, Blues, Country and Ragtime. I mostly play the guitar but sometimes the banjo, mandolin, harmonica and double bass.

David Gibb

David Gibb is a 20-year-old acoustic folk artist from Derbyshire whose music has been described as ‘Modern English folk with a witty wordy charm and a bit of an uplifting infectious feel’ (Organ Music Magazine).

Dead Rat Orchestra

Chameleon-like musical magpies, the Dead Rat Orchestra set out to plunder the music of other acts, amalgamating all within their own particular aesthetic. Uniquely able to play the entire venue as a soundsource, they equate concert violins with wineglasses, air vents with copper records, mammoth organ pipes with eskimo kisses.

Dear Winesburg

“Although Dear Winesburg are a folk band, they purvey in a sound few others have attempted to approach; frontman Chris’ dark alternative voice rages across every track, in stark contrast to the backing vocals, which lend a complementary hand but in turn get everyone to simmer down and be quiet.”

Deborah Newbold

Streaming out from the industrial landscape of the Midlands that made her, with a rich Anglo-Irish heritage to draw upon, storyteller Debs Newbold is a performer with one foot in the richness of the tradtions and the other pointed firmly at the horizon.

Diane Cluck

Diane Cluck is from America and sings and makes music.

Dog Roses

“This is what you get if you mix country music with west coast harmonies, indie attitude and the odd furious burst of vitriolic home-made punk” – CZine

Dogan Mehmet

A musician since the age of 3, Doe plays Violin, Guitar, Melodeon, Mandolin and Percussion as well as many of his native Turkish instruments. Dogan deliveries a diverse mix of Turkish and English traditional music on a battery of instruments.

Dogan Mehmet and the Deerhunters

Dogan Mehmet, along with his backing band the Deerhunters, creates an Anglo-Turkish, Gypsy-Punk style mix of traditions and strong acoustic grooves.

Donnie Scott and Robin Gillan

Donnie Scott has been a professional musician for several decades. His style of guitar is unique and particularly lends itself to swing. Robin Gillan started playing folk guitar at the age of 8, and also plays fiddle , 5 string (banjo) , squeeze box , mouth organ and voice.

Dusty Stray

Dusty Stray’s music has been described as a wolf in sheep’s clothing, a bleak world illuminated by sparks of dry wit, sunny harmonies retracing the grim path of fate with a spring in their step.

Ed, Will and Ginger

Ed, Will and Ginger are three brave young men who have taken to the roads of Britain walking, foraging and singing their way across the land.

Edey Randall Power

Edey Randall Power collectively represent a super group of Irish musicians – all undoubtedly the hottest players on their chosen instrument and genre in the world today.

Edward II

Acclaimed folk roots act Edward II’s comeback in 2009 hit all the right notes. After a 10 year absence their return to the stage saw them perform at over 20 major festivals and coincided with the launch of their new album ‘Edward II: The Definitive Collection’.

Eliza the Bear

Eleanor Rees’s language is sensuous, unpredictable. The materials of folktale and border ballad are never far away.

Elle Osborne

Elle was born on the North Sea coast of Lincolnshire and taught herself to play the fiddle. She used to sing mainly folk songs, because that’s what she heard growing up; now she also sings her own songs and makes sound collages.

Emily Barker

Emily Barker is a singer-songwriter hailing from the quiet town of Bridgetown, Western Australia. In October 2005 she won both Country Song of the Year and Regional Song of the Year at the prestigious Annual West Australian Music Song Writing Awards.

Emily Portman

Emily Portman is a singer, writer and concertina player, commended by Shirley Collins, with a BBC folk award nomination for her work with harmony trio The Devil’s Interval and frequent airplay on BBC radio.

Emily Smith

Though only in her mid twenties, award winning Scottish singer and songwriter Emily Smith has firmly established herself as one of Scotland’s leading lights in folk music.

Emit Block

I’m the miscegenated product of a cattle-ranching crew and a New York Jew … Berkley too.

Emma Gatrill

An unstoppable and multi-instrumental collaborator.

Emma Tricca

Italian-born, London-based singer-songwriter Emma Tricca has had her life shaped by two key encounters with folk legends– John Renbourn and Odetta, the mysterious and legendary singer who’d turned Bob Dylan onto acoustic music in the late ‘50s.

Eska

Zimbabwe-born and London-raised composer Eska comes from a rich musical background. As a vocalist, her legendary virtuosity has attracted the attentions of a host of acclaimed artists – including Tony Allen and David Sylvian. Her vocal arrangements have credits on three Mercury-nominated albums, which range from hip-hop to indie to jazz.

Ewan Mclennan

Yorkshire based Scottish folk singer studying traditional music at Leeds University and resident singer at Leeds Folk Club. Ewan is a gifted, passionate and well researched musician.

Faustus

All three members have been instrumental in the English revival of the last ten years. Saul Rose is one of the country’s best melodeon players, Paul Sartin is a hugely versatile musician. Fretboard wizard Benji Kirkpatrick makes up the final third of Faustus.

Fay Hield

Fay Hield has been singing traditional songs from an alarmingly early age. She was active in the lively music scene centred around the Famous Bacca Pipes Folk Club in Keighley, was instrumental in launching the Haworth Arts Festival and the Three’s Company folk agency and promotions organisation, and was part of a highly-regarded duo with Damien Barber.

Fernhill

Fernhill, from Wales, make new, beautifully lyrical and intense folk music which they have played to audiences all over the world.

Firefly

Eclectic in styles and influences, Firefly’s songs sit somewhere between classical, folk and pop, with a pinch of jazz thrown in for good measure.

Fiston Lusambo

A ‘rumba veteran’, Fiston began studying guitar aged 13. This led to a career with Gerard Madiata’s orchestra Top Musica, Ototale Zangana, Rumba Ray and Samba Mapangala’s Virung. Fiston is band leader for the Zong Zing All Stars, who play music from the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Foghorn Stringband

The sound of the Portland, Oregon’s Foghorn Stringband could have come barrelling through the grille-cloth of those big console radios in the living rooms of the 1950s, when the traditional sounds of rural America were still on the minds of young musicians transferring the old-time music to a distinctively modern age.

Folkaoke

“Folkaoke”, a twisted fusion of bluegrass, 80s power ballads and your favourite local village band at your 3rd cousin’s wedding.

Forestbrook

People who play folk on their laptops and instruments. Dream music, totally gorgeous.

Fran Ter-Berg

Francesca Ter-Berg is an explorer of musical genres, from Klezmer to Indian classical music, Arabic Maqam to Jazz.

Frankie Armstrong

I’ve been singing professionally since 1964 and more recently (1975) began teaching voice and singing through developing a variety of voice and singing workshops. I am an initiating member of the Natural Voice Practitioners’ Network, which grew out of the Voice Teacher training courses I have run in the UK since 1988.

Franky and the Jacks

Set within the walls of the wailing harmonica and the screeching fiddle, the sometimes dark and often caustic lyrics belie the foot stomping swing of the double bass and guitar.

Fribo

Fribo have become experts in finding subtle ways of exchanging traditions while expressing them anew, with an exuberant feel for contemporary sounds and rhythms. The graceful blending of voices, Willow Flute, Fiddle, Jew’s Harp and Guitar has become a “…zestful, vibrant, multi-national North Sea sound.” Womad

Gadarene

Gadarene blends obscure traditional English tunes, virtuoso acoustic musicians and a unique approach to electronic sampling. The band creates a sophisticated and exciting performance, drawing on many diverse musical influences, yet making a sound that is all their own.

Geese

Geese’s music is post-rock, but does without the swelling guitar crescendos of Explosions in the Sky or the icy soundscapes of Sigur Ros. Geese use cacophonic noise with fluttering percussion, flickering guitar strings and drenched baroque arrangements.

Geoff Berner

Geoff Berner pioneers the unique sound of klezmer punk. It’s dirty, grimy, close to the bone and hilarious politico-anarchic-folk-pop from one man and his accordion. Not to be missed – a unique show!

George Papavgeris

George’s stock-in-trade is quality songsmithery that everyone can relate to, rather than the more exclusive overt-confessional-soapbox mode that we often encounter.

Gigspanner

Hailed by ‘Songlines’ Magazine as ‘another milestone in folk’s rebirth of cool moment’, Peter Knight’s Gigspanner continues to engage hearts and minds with emotionally loaded and life enriching takes on British traditional and world music.

Gilmore Roberts

BBC Radio 2 Horizon Award nominees Katriona Gilmore and Jamie Roberts combine astounding lap-tapping guitar, fiery fiddle and their trademark harmonies with considerable songwriting talent to make a truly distinctive sound.

Gina Le Faux

Gina Le Faux is a celebrated master of the fiddle, singer and songwriter who, through her music and tireless work, has challenged engrained cultural conceptions of gender, and transgender acceptance in the UK.

Goodnight Lenin

Goodnight Lenin caught the attention of audiences in Birmingham after releasing a YouTube video of a simple acoustic performance in which they sat perched on the counter tops of their kitchen. The group attribute their sound to Bob Dylan and Elvis Perkins, mixing folk with a heavy American influence.

Grada

Grada are widely regarded as the finest of the younger generation of Irish traditional bands. The band’s instrumental sets are second to none for their energy and complex interplay between instruments, while Nicola sings both traditional material and songs with a definite Americana feel

Grainne Holland

Gráinne Holland, from West Belfast, is a wonderful talent in the Irish traditional music circuit with amazing vocal strength and beauty.

Griogair Labhruidh

Griogair Labhruidh is a Gaelic singer, piper, multi-instrumentalist. On both his mother and father’s side he belongs to hereditary Argyllshire piping traditions that go back for generations. He was brought up next to Loch Lomond and was drawn towards his family’s traditions, history and language at a deep level from a young age.

Gruff Rhys

Gruff Rhys is the lead singer of the Welsh band Super Furry Animals.

Hanif Khan

Hanif Khan is a versatile and innovative tabla player based in London who is in an ideal position to share classical Indian forms of music as well create new forms of music by lending his talent to the genre of “fusion”.

Harare Dread

Since the mid 80s Zimbabwean born and Malawian bred Pax Nindi paxHarare Dread has continued to develop a world-wide musical audience, moving reggae into musical territories mapped out by the sounds and rhythms of Africa.

Horses Brawl

The pioneering instrumental duo Horses Brawl, made up of Laura Cannell on fiddles and recorders and Adrian Lever on guitar, draws listeners into a world where driving folk rhythms collide with the high and low musical cultures of ancient Europe and beyond.

Hurray For The Riff Raff

Hurray For The Riff Raff began when a teenage Alynda Lee Segarra started hopping freight trains across the USA to satisfy a yearning to explore its mythical small towns and backwaters and live a life on the road and the rail track.

Hush The Many (Heed the Few)

The quartet Hush the Many operate in that fabled half-lit world that exists between classically lined soft psychedelia and the stranger more enticing and timeless elements of English folk.

Hyelim Kim

Taegŭm performer, composer and researcher, Hyelim Kim, is opening new possibilities for Korean music by using a traditional Korean instrument, the taegŭm (Korean flute), as a tool to promote exchange with a wide-variety of musical cultures.

Hyelim Kim

Taegŭm performer, composer and researcher, Hyelim Kim, is opening new possibilities for Korean music by using a traditional Korean instrument, the taegŭm (Korean flute), as a tool to promote exchange with a wide-variety of musical cultures.

Ian King of England

Ian King’s (The Bard of Barnsley) story wends its way from the proud streets of his beloved Barnsley, through the highs and lows of north London and, via Massachussetts, to the olive orchards of Tuscany, Italy.

Imaginary String Band

Bill Petkanas on guitars, mandolins, dobro, bass, and other assorted instruments bring you swing, folk, world, and other instrumentals.

Jack Blackman

Jack sings and performs finger style solo acoustic guitar, performing both traditional folk and blues tunes and his own unique material. Jack’s song-writing also follows these roots, but with a fresh and modern slant. He also guests and plays lead guitar with a number of bands whenever the opportunity occurs.

Jack Cheshire

I am finding it a difficult notion of why Jack Cheshire is not in the public’s ears all over the world.” www.middleboopmag.com

Jackie Oates

Jackie Oates is a singer and fiddle player hailing from Staffordshire. Her unique treatment of English ballads and songs and pure, haunting singing style has attracted increasing attention.

Jacquelyn Hynes

Jacquelyn plays silver and wooden flutes, sax, piano and Uilleann pipes, and composes. She has supported Ireland’s leading musicians, including Martin Hayes, Michael McGoldrick, Mary Coughlan and Lunasa, and has performed with Donal Lunny and for President Mary Macaleese.

Jake Flowers

A gifted multi-instrumentalist, mixing the nu folk wave sound with his fresh ear grabbing melodies. One to watch!

Jake Wilson

Jake started out playing at parties and get togethers and started noticing that people were starting to enjoy his music. [...]

Jamie Harrison

Jamie Harrison sings about the struck world and plays death-rattle guitar rags for mothers on the stairs. He has tinnitus of the heart-valves.

Jamie Smith’s Mabon

Jamie Smith’s Mabon’s (previously Mabon) music is well described as Original, Interceltic, World Music. Composed by frontman Jamie Smith, and brought to life by six highly accomplished musicians, it draws inspiration directly from the traditional folk music of the Celtic countries.

Jason Steel

Jason Steel is a unique guitarist and singer hailing from South Yorkshire, now firmly settled in north London.

JAW: Jamie and Andy Metcalfe & Will Burcher

JAW are Jamie and Andy Metcalfe, and Will Burcher, playing fiddle, guitar and bass.

Jed Grimes

I’ve been asked why, after some years of arranging and performing traditional music (with the occasional original piece thrown in), I still pursue this doggedly uncommercial and seemingly narrow channel of endeavour. Answers don’t come easily or in byte-sized chunks.

Jeff Warner

With warmth, humor and understated scholarship, Jeff Warner connects 21st century audiences with the music and everyday lives of 19th century people.

Jenny McCormick

The Mancunian folk singer’s album, “English Country Garden”, was recorded at home with family and friends. A mixture of traditional song and her own compositions, the album draws on her love of story-telling, traditional English music and poetry. Together

JigJaw

JigJaw, Janet Russell, Rosie Davis, Kerry Fletcher and Frances Watt, combine the percussion and passion of dance traditions with vocal harmonies in a tight, scintillating quartet of singing and dancing talents, drawing on European couple dances, mouth music, nonsense rhyme and songs from Britain and beyond for a highly distinctive performance.

Jim Causley

Young Devon folk singer Jim Causley became involved with traditional music from an early age via his family, the local folk scene and an historical wassailing tradition in his village of Whimple, East Devon.

Jim Moray

Jim Moray is one of the most consistently inventive musicians working in traditional folk music today.

Jo Bartlett

Jo Bartlett has been writing, recording and performing music for over twenty years.

Jo Burke

I have played fiddle for the amazing folk singer and song-writer Mary Hampton for the past three years. I am also a member of the London Bulgarian choir.

Jo Freya

Jo comes from a pioneering background in folk and acoustic music. You will have seen her performing live as part of Blowzabella, The Old Swan Band, Coope/Boyes/Simpson/Freya/Fraser/Boyes, Token Women and Scarp, and previously as a duo with Kathryn Locke, with Pete Morton and in recorded collaborations with Lal Waterson, Annie Williamson and Anne Lister.

Joe Penland

Joe Penland was born and raised in rural Madison County in the Appalachian Mountains of North Carolina. He is the proud steward of twelve generations and over 350 years of the rich oral tradition of his Scottish and English ancestors.

John Dowling

John started playing music at age 5 when, encouraged by his family at home in Cornwall, he started classical violin lessons.

Jon Gomm

Jon Gomm is a singer-songwriter and acoustic solo performer, with an incredible virtuoso guitar style, using one acoustic guitar to create drum sounds, basslines and sparkling melodies at the same time.

Jonnie Common

Jonnie Common\’s Audio Emporium

Jonny Berliner

Jonny Berliner is usually found in north London playing folk, jazz, blues, country songs, any mixtures of those genres, and others besides.

Jonny Kearney and Lucy Farrell

Jonny Kearney is a young songwriter from Hexham way and Lucy Farrell is his charming Kentish accomplice.

Josephine Oniyama

Josephine has a powerful voice, showcasing it by thoughtfully crafted music and composition, enabling her to create a sound which at once is fragile yet remarkably confident.

Kathleen O’Sullivan and Billy Teare

As a small child Kathleen, the youngest of nine children, learned to sing from listening to her mother: all her family sang and/or played traditional Irish music. Born in Ballycarry, storyteller Billy Teare now resides in Larne, Antrim, Northern Ireland. He has appeared on the big screen, stage, TV and radio in guises ranging from chicken hypnotist to jester.

Katus

Katus has been taking audiences across the world by storm, including New Zealand, San Francisco, Shanghai, Croatia, Bosnia, The Czech Republic, Ireland and France.

Katy Carr

Katy Carr is a London based performer and songwriter who sings, plays a vintage, wurlitzer electronic piano, ukulele and banjolele with her group ‘The Aviators.’

Katy Carr and the Aviators

Katy Carr is a London based performer and songwriter who sings, plays a vintage, wurlitzer electronic piano, ukulele and banjolele with her group ‘The Aviators.’

Keith Kendrick and Sylvia Needham

Keith Kendrick stands for everything inherently good about being English (which in his view necessarily means not being a card carrying member of the BNP) and, in particular, Derbyshire born and bred.

Ken Langsbury

‘King’ Ken. The West Country’s undiscovered National Treasure; a singer and story teller who will take you away into his own world of mischief, gypsy travels and cider drinking.

Kidnap Alice

A fresh new band from Clapton, London, mixing up ‘Bluegrass’ and ‘Old Time’ tunes with a modern twist, and giving some classics and originals the ‘Bluegrass treatment’.

Kirsty McGee and Mat Martin

A maker of delicate yet stubborn songs, an instinctive traveller, a human scrapbook.

Klak Tik

Creating genre-dodging alternative/orchestral/experimental folk, Klak Tik is the brainchild of 6 Day Riot co-founder Soren Bonke, a singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist hailing from the outskirts of Copenhagen.

Krar Collective

The Krar Collective (aka Geata Krar Collective) bring you dynamic roots music from different parts of Ethiopia and different tribal traditions with a contemporary edge.

Kristin McClement

Kristin sings of the curiosities of a wild and yearning world. Mixing abstract imagery with raw honesty, she aims to get to heart of the human condition.

Kristin McCLement

Kristin sings of the curiosities of a wild and yearning world.

Kudaushe Matimba

[Kudaushe Matimba] Kudaushe Matimba was a member of the Zimbabwe’s legendary Bhundu Boys. He performs now with Afrobeat colletive Harare and solo, singing the traditional songs of Zimbabwe and new compositions on Mbira and Marimba.

Laish

Laish is the given name for Daniel Green and company’s musical outlet. Green is generally making himself useful amongst the Willkommen Collective, Brighton and London’s alternative folk scene.

Lauren McCormick

Lauren is best known for her work with vocal harmony group The Devil’s Interval and with fellow devil Emily. 2008 saw her forging a path as a solo performer.

Liam O’Sullivan

Liam began the button accordion at the age of 12, winning five all-Britain titles in his teens. He’s toured and recorded with award-winning trad Irish band Mise, and is featured in the opening credits of the Irish Music Channel.

Lisa Knapp

The Baroness of Nu-folk, with her sizzling vocals and contemporary arrangements of the old songs. Lisa is making a fast name for herself with her independent approach and modern ear. A name to watch.

Lisa Knapp and Gerry Diver

The Baroness of Nu-folk, with her sizzling vocals and contemporary arrangements of the old songs, Lisa is making a fast name for herself with her independent approach and modern ear. Gerry started playing music at the age of eight and has been playing pretty much most days since then

Little Robots

There’s more than three of them and nothing robotic about their playing. The sounds of Appalachia via Sheffield, Newcastle and London ring out from the right side of the Seven Hills and beyond.

Liz Green

Liz Green sounds like a shy Nina Simone, with an extraordinary voice held right back so that sometimes it’s not much more than a whisper, making this an intimate and affecting performance.

Los Chinches

London’s very own Amazonian Cumbia band Los Chinches present their jungle grooves and psychedelic vibes.

Louis Killen

Louis Killen is one of the most widely influential musicians of the folk revival and a key voice of English traditional song. He is a hard-core, unadulterated folksinger whose passionate delivery is matched by a deep and wide-ranging knowledge of the songs and the working people who made them.

Louisa Jones of Whiskey Moon Face

Louisa Jones of Whiskey Moon Face is a girl wonder so dripping in songs that she has gathered a world of musicians around her of the highest order. All live and play in that homemade handmade realm of Hackney backstreets, back pubs and gardens, filling their lives with song and surprises. a sheer delight and full of vitality.

Lucy Wright

Lucy Wright is a singer and jews harp player currently based in Manchester, with a repertoire of traditional songs and tunes from the UK and Ireland.

Luly and the Lampshades

With instruments ranging from ukuleles to yoghurt pots, Lulu and the Lampshades are a passionately ramshackle, upbeat and harmonic folk-pop foursome.

Maeve Mackinnon

Maeve Mackinnon is tipped as one of Scotland’s leading young folk singers. An Honours graduate of the RSAMD’s Scottish Music degree, her singing really started to come into its own prior to finalising for the BBC Radio Scotland “Young Traditional Musician 2005″ award.

Maia

A relatively new quartet hailing from Huddersfield, this summer Maia blew the canvases off our stage at Cambridge Folk Festival after first wowing us at the June Folk Rising.

Malam Mamane Barka

Malam Mamane Barka is so far the only master of the Biram in Niger and all over the world. With the assistance of Barka this unique instrument is not dead.

Mara Carlyle

Lovely by name, lovely by nature?

Maria Byrne

Maria Byrne is an Irish singer-songwriter, originally from Cork but spends her time between there and London.

Martha Tilston

Martha Tilston is a captivating performer, an enchanting singer-songwriter blessed with a gloriously clear and seductively beautiful voice. Weaving her magic spell over listeners wherever she plays.

Marthas & Arthurs

Somewhere between Mamas & Papas and Belle & Sebastian (with a dash of ABBA thrown in) Marthas & Arthurs got together round a campfire deep in the Herefordshire woods and resolved to take their music to the big bad city

Martin Carthy

For more than 40 years Martin Carthy has been one of folk music’s greatest innovators, one of its best loved, most enthusiastic and, at times, most quietly controversial of figures.

Mary Epworth

Mary Epworth is an engaging new artist who makes music influenced by traditional English song, 60s west coast Psychedelia, and Greek Progressive Rock, tying these together with a knack for writing effortlessly classic sounding songs, and a love of winding harmonies.

Mary Hampton

Hello there. I am Mary Hampton and I live in Brighton in a room overlooking the sea. I find old songs and keep them in coloured vials in my fridge. Sometimes I make up new songs. And sometimes I do neither one thing nor the other.

Mary Humphries and Anahata

Since early in 2001 Mary and Anahata have together been unearthing and bringing to vivid life the best of England’s traditional song and music and their musicianship and enthusiasm have won them a steadily growing reputation.

Matt Norman and Paul Wilson

Critically acclaimed due from the west country. Matt Norman is gaining a well-deserved reputation as one of the leading lights of the new generation of Devon-based folk artists. He is an innovative and entertaining musician, exploring traditional and contemporary English music as a performer, arranger, composer and songwriter.

Matt Sage

Matt Sage is an inspirational song maker and performer. After moving onto a boat on the Oxford Canal in the mid-nineties, he founded the now legendary Catweazle Club, Oxford’s performance space for ‘music, poetry, song and all manner of acoustic artistry’, a proudly beating community heart, still going strong 13 years on.

Matthew and the Atlas

Matthew and the Atlas is the creation of Matthew Hegarty, described by RockFeedback as being ‘blessed with the kind of voice that bears instant comparison with the likes of Ray Lamontagne and Nick Drake, but that sounds, above all, like the hoarse voice of a storyteller, the kind that would have held an assembly of listeners captivated in any century’.

Matthew Ord

Matthew Ord is a London based singer and guitarist with a fresh take on the traditional music of the British Isles and North America. Although a newcomer to the UK blues scene, Matthew is already beginning to build a reputation as an exceptional player and vocalist.

Mawkin

Mawkin have gained a name for themselves in the festival circuit as a hardworking live band playing at over 50 festivals in four years, and supporting Show of Hands, Eliza Carthy and Shooglenifty on their tours.

Max Baillie and Sura Susso

In a magical meeting of two string traditions, Max Baillie and Sura Susso present a mix of Baroque and West African music, including pieces by Bach, Merula, and centuries-old African bardic spirituals.

Meaiti Jo Sheamuis O’Fatharta

Sean nós singer and uilleann piper from the south Connemara Irish-speaking area of Inverin in County Galway, Meaití Jo was one of the first broadcasters with the inaugural Irish language radio station, Raidió na Gaeltachta, in 1972. He has since spent much of his time collecting, producing and presenting traditional Irish music and songs from all over Ireland and further afield.

Megson

Three times nominated in the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards and winners of the 2010 Spiral Earth Awards, the husband and wife duo Stu Hanna and Debbie Hanna, who hail from Teesside, draw heavily on this heritage to create their unique brand of folk music.

Melodica Melody and Me

The wonderfully brilliant groovy and iconoclastic MM&M are a rambling troup of 20-somethings immersed in a world of sharengis and melodicas and swinging sounds that capture the sense of urban escape, festival meadows and all things abandon!

Melou

We first met Melou when they rocked up to the Magpie’s Nest and played on our open mic. They had been driving around Europe and all sleeping in a big tour van, and played a lovely set on the open mic. So good we had to invite them back for a featured slot!

Michael Ormiston

Michael specialises in Mongolian Khöömii (overtone) singing, being one of the only non-Mongolians able to sing Khöömii.

Michael Rossiter

Hailing from Leeds, Michael is a singer and guitarist, playing “arcane songs and other relics”. Beautiful guitar work, and contemporary renditions of traditional songs and other self-penned delights.

Michael Wright and the Wright Family

Michael Wright is a leading performer, historian and enthusiast of the Jew’s harp.

Michelle Bloom

At the age of 8 singer-songrite Michelle Bloom climbed into a tree with her first guitar and began what has been a prolific and rewarding career in music.

Mick Sands

I’m a singer/flute-player from a family of singers with Irish roots, bred and buttered in the county of Durham.

Molly Samson

Molly Samson is a Bristol-based singer, guitarist and writer of songs. With a unique voice, and a whimsical guitar, she blends a global range of musical influence.

Mrs Pilgrimm

Cellist, singer, musical manipulator, poet.

Mundo Jazz

What can one say about a band whose songs convey the dangers of environmental degradation, the importance of racial harmony and the inherent evils of capitalism with subtlety and intelligence?

Nancy Kerr and James Fagan

Nancy Kerr and James Fagan are winners of the 2003 BBC Radio 2 Folk Award for Best Duo. This well-loved duo combine highly skilful and innovative performance with accessibility, warmth and stage presence.

Nancy Wallace

Nancy Wallace was born a folk brat, and spent far more of her formative years than is healthy in the back rooms of Suffolk pubs, singing and playing her little heart out. In her teen years – and possibly as a result of a concussion caused by a stray morris stick – she joined an electric barn dance band playing the trombone.

Nathan Ball

Nathan Ball is quite simply an extraordinarily talented songwriter. His beautifully written, self-penned songs reveal the humanity of a man who sings about the world as it is – and how he’d like it to be.

New Deal String Band

The New Deal String Band was formed in 1966 by Tom Paley and Joe Locker, two banjo-and-guitar playing ex New Yorkers living in London.
Tom, who has been playing guitar and banjo since the 1940s, was a founder member of the New Lost City Ramblers. Both Tom and Joe have graced the UK scene with their authentic Old Timey music for many years.

Newrising

Newrising have been featured at many of the UK’s best and biggest festivals including Bestival and Secret Garden Party as well as travelling further afield to play the Virgin Holidays Music Festival in Barbados 2010.

Nick Hart

A young, handsome, tweed clad singer of old songs with a voice that will melt your heart.

Nick Luscombe

“Peelie, Charlie, Gilles, Annie…Nick Luscombe has become one of those radio titans.” (Straight No Chaser) Nick Luscombe, London based broadcaster, producer, DJ and Music Consultant, has been described as a “restless musical soul” constantly searching for that perfect record.

Nick Mulvey

At 26, Nick Mulvey has accomplished more than most musicians will achieve in a lifetime. A key founding member of Portico Quartet, he has toured the world picking up a wealth of international acclaim, including a Mercury Music Prize nomination for the Quartet’s debut album ‘Knee-deep in the North Sea’.

Norma Waterson

Norma Waterson formed The Watersons in the early 60s with her sister Lal, brother Mike and cousin John. They went on to become the most influential vocal harmony group of the times, and achieved near cult status when they stopped touring in the late 60s.

North Sea Radio Orchestra

North Sea Radio Orchestra is a unique chamber group who perform music of beauty and originality that has, at its heart, lyricism and melodic richness.

Norton Money

Norton Money are a London-based country/alt.bluegrass band that play barn-yard hoedown music in a Gram Parsons-Ryan Adams-Neil Young kinda way. Driven by the guitars and warm harmonies of San Francisco ex-pats Dan and Jeremy, the sound is completed by Swedish bassist and banjo player Oscar and London born-and-bred drummer Tim.

Oh My Darling

With a sweet name and even sweeter sound, Oh My Darling conjure up the right mix of emotion and elation with their unique brand of country.

Old Sledge

Old Sledge is a group of young musicians from the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. Blowing the dust off old tunes and songs from the golden era of early country, hillbilly and blues music, Old Sledge represents the best and brightest of the new generation of traditional musicians from the south

Oliver Knight and Marry Waterson

As part of the Waterson Family musical dynasty (being children of the luminous singing talents Lal Waterson and Georgy Knight), the siblings have thrived on communal music making whilst developing highly original and distinctly English performance styles of their own, styles that owe much to the folk tradition, but aren’t beholden to it.

Olivia Chaney

Olivia’s voice is subtle and virtuosic, carrying listeners delicately into powerful emotions. Accompanying herself on guitar, Indian harmonium and piano, Olivia reaches back to British folk songs and forward to her own original songs to make music that’s timeless and immediate.

Ottersgear

Brought to life in the summer of 2008 Ottersgear made its first steps in Quernmore, Lancaster, on the tip of the Trough of Bowland, as a recording project by One Chip Potato frontman Mikey Kenney.

O’Hooley & Tidow

O’Hooley & Tidow: dapper-suited gentlewomen with a wryly observant, melancholic and sometimes uncomfortable take on life. The pair create their own brand of contemporary folk song, with stark and beautiful piano playing that some will recognise from Belinda O’Hooley’s time as pianist with the Unthanks.

Paprika Balkanicus

Described as masters of good atmosphere, Paprika Balkanicus are becoming one of the hottest newcomers in World music. Their electrifying show of fantastic musicianship and witty stage presence has already won them a substantial following in the UK, Europe and Japan.

Paul Wassif

Born in Bristol, England, Paul’s early career in Punk/Rock band The London Cowboys, followed by various stints in NY bands with New York Dolls’ members Jerry Nolan and Sylvain Sylvain, could not be more different in style and substance to the melodic country/blues that now identifies Paul’s music.

PBS6

A group of musicians bound by the desire to create music and tell a story alone. Genre and geography abandoned. Welcome to PBS6, a brand new exciting project from Will Lang, best known for his percussion in folk-fusion group Park Bench Social Club and Mabon.

Peggy Seeger

Peggy Seeger, member of the North American musical Seeger family, is a singer of traditional Anglo-American songs and activist songmaker. She plays six instruments: piano, guitar, 5-string banjo, Appalachian dulcimer, autoharp and English concertina. She has recorded 22 solo albums and participated directly in more than a hundred others.

Pepino

Chamber music for after the bomb. From behind a piano, Blythe Pepino bellows and whispers her story-based songs accompanied by a close-harmony-singing string section, double bass and drums.

Pete Bentham and the Dinner Ladies

Kitchencore from Liverpool! We actually sing about stuff

Pete Coe

If you’re talking about the British folk club scene of the 1970s, then the name of Pete Coe will inevitably loom large. And if you’re talking about the folk club scene of the ’80s it’ll loom even larger. It was also prominent in the ’90s and the way things are shaping up it’s a name that will continue to be synonymous with the grass roots scene through the early 2000s.

Pete Cooper

Born in the Midlands, long based in London, Pete Cooper teaches, plays, composes and writes about fiddle music. He’s also, on a good night, a decent singer. Drawing on a wide knowledge of fiddle playing, gained over years of teaching, study, travel, practice and too many late-night sessions, he brings a relaxed, good-humoured delivery to his workshops, concerts and folk-club shows alike.

Pete David and the Payroll Union

The four men in The Payroll Union are all suited and bearded and, while playing their acoustic murder ballads, could be seen as a bunch of Southern, God-fearin’, gun-totin’ brothers (who brought along their little sister for the ride).

Pete Paphides

The DJ, Journalist and Musical Surrealist who once took a photograph of Philip Schofield just as he was reacting to the news that a second plane had flown into the World Trade Centre.

Pilgrims’ Way

Refreshingly different, reassuringly traditional, Pilgrims’ Way are a 3-piece band with a big personality and big sound.

Pino Forastiere

The music of Italian guitarist Pino Forastiere comes from a solid classical, contemporary and rock background, and it’s hard to define. He has studied composition and chamber music, performed in various ensembles with classical or original repertoire, and collaborated with jazz, experimental, electronic and pop projects.

Plaster of Paris

Plaster of Paris, a London based duo, perform self penned songs song with unique folk stylings – fresh and innovative underground talent from East London.

Poetic Pilgrimage

Poetic Pilgrimage are an exciting female Hip Hop and spoken word duo from the UK who are set to take the world by storm with their unique sound, intelligent lyrics and unparalleled charisma. They are a rare act, being one of the few Muslim female outfits around and are unafraid to express themselves through the art of rhyme.

Princes in the Tower

Medieval folk rock gods, offering indescribably mayhemic and musical bliss. “We’re here to make you happy. We’re here to make you jive. We’ll make your party rock like it’s 1595.” See it to believe it.

Rachael Dadd

Experimental folk multi-instrumentalist Rachael Dadd’s experiences have had a huge influence on her music – songs sparkle with a wide-eyed wonder and exhibit a fascination for the everyday magic of life.

Rachael Dadd

Experimental folk multi-instrumentalist

Rachel Sermanni

19-year-old singer-songwriter Rachel Sermanni, from Carrbridge in the Highlands, is already generating quite a buzz across different areas of the Scottish and UK folk scene. She grew up immersed in traditional music at home, playing fiddle and whistle from an early age, and cites Robert Burns as a key formative influence.

Rattle On The Stovepipe

Rattle On The Stovepipe are Dave Arthur (5-string banjo, melodeon, guitar, vocals), Pete Cooper (fiddle and vocals) and Dan Stewart (5-string banjo, guitar and vocals). They’ve gained an huge following with their mix of traditional songs, ballads and storming dance tunes from the British Isles and the Appalachian Mountains region of America. Shirley Collins is a great fan

Robin Gillan

Robin is back on the London Scene after time out, and aren’t we lucky to have him back. A handsome musician who can play just about any instrument with such feeling and ease, a young master!

Robin Grey

Robin Grey is a writer, performer and promoter of songs living in east London, England.

Rogues Gallery

A ‘not so traditional English Ceilidh/English Country Dance Band’ – an eclectic mix of professional musicians who combine traditional music with modern influences.

Rory McLeod

Rory Mcleod – ex-circus clown and fire eater. A one man soul band, poet and storyteller, singing his own unique upbeat dance stories.

Ross Ainslie and Jarlath Henderson

Ross Ainslie (Scottish bagpipes, whistles) and Jarlath Henderson (uilleann pipes, whistles) first started playing together in 2003 at Armagh’s William Kennedy Piping Festival, and have since joined forces to create a pipe sound that pushes the boundaries of what Irish and Scottish instruments can achieve together.

Roy Bailey

For 50+ years, Roy Bailey has been one of the UK Folk and Acoustic scene’s most loved and admired performers. From his early days performing skiffle in student union bars, to his love of traditional songs and the stories they tell, onto developing a unique repertoire of songs of dissent and hope, he has performed on stages, TV and radio all over the world.

Rozi Plain

Rozi Plain was born Rosalind Leyden, in the leafy-greens of Winchester. Since moving to Bristol she’s been working on the ferries that bob in and out of the city, along the Avon, while creating her own beautifully intimate music that captures life slowly floating by.

Rún

Rún: the Forestbrook Gaelic Choir are five fantastic lassies who perform four-part vocal arrangements of old Gaelic songs that would traditionally be performed sean nós (the old way).

Ruth Theodore

Guitar-slingin’ Southamptonite Theodore has garnered a legion of fans with her witty and fantastical tales of daily observations made magical in her 2008 debut set ‘Worm Food’. A little bit Ani DiFranco, a little bit Tom Waits, with hints of Kate Bush, Theodore’s sweet-voiced, stuffy-nosed delivery and gripping honesty makes her a compelling listen and an even better live pick.

Sam Amidon

“Amidon has one of the most inviting voices around today … In bridging the very old and the very new on a handful of albums and collaborations, he has managed to meld the rural and the urban, the organic and the synthetic, the oral tradition and the written score.” Pitchfork

Sam Beer

Sam Beer is a singer/songwriter who is currently producing his debut album ‘Great Bar Colony’, due for release in 2011. The album deals with ideas of madness and the asylum-like nature of life in a crowded city.

Sam Carter

A startlingly perceptive and self-assured young singer and guitarist from the English midlands, Sam Carter has spent the last few years busily honing his craft both as a writer and performer, studying guitar with Martin Simpson and touring with Bellowhead while holding down his post as Emerging Artist in Residence at London’s Southbank Centre.

Sam Lee

Sam is a singer, promoter, teacher, researcher and confessed die-hard enthusiast of the folk arts. Swapping his many careers to work in folk music, he has become one of the current leading lights of the folk revival taking traditional song into a new direction and onto new platforms.

Sam Lewis

Sam’s music has a unique modern sound; a heady mix of soulful vocals, heartfelt passionate lyrics with tinges of blues, country, folk and soul, all played with a vitality that is fast becoming his trade mark style: truly unique and beautiful.

Sam Sallon

“Brings to mind legendary UK artists such as Nick Drake & John Martyn, as well as more contemporary artists such as Devendra Banhart” – Piccadilly Records

Samson & Delilah

Samson & Delilah are a dynamic 5 piece Australian/British chamber folk group based in Manchester.

Samuel Brookes

2010 was a good year for Sam Brookes. He supported Scott Matthews and Cherry Ghost and went on tour with Ray Davies. He also released his debut album “Breathe Me In In Weeks” for Helium Records.

Sara Grey, Keiron Means and Ben Paley

Mother and son duo Sara and Keiron are two of the greatest singers and musicians of old time American and English Trad music. They capture the grace and soul of the old songs having both been brought up surrounded by the sounds and songs of the land. Sara and Keiron are often joined by the Nest’s favourite, Ben Paley.

Sarah Savoy and the Francadians

Top-drawer Cajun sounds with added rockability swagger.

Scarlett in the Wilderness

Scarlett in the Wilderness are Oxford’s Burlesque-tinged Gypsy Folk band, playing an amalgamation of folk, flamenco, ska and blues, with heavy Eastern European, Balkan and Klezmer influences … and rather divine corsetry.

Scott Hartley

Scott Hartley was brought up in the Lake District and began playing the fiddle at the late age of fifteen with local fiddle group ‘The Lakeland Fiddlers’. During this time he absorbed a core repertoire of tunes unique to his local area in the North West of England.

Seadog

Seadog is the project of Brighton-based musician Mark Nathan Benton and his revolving roster of musical friends. With Mark providing the songwriting nucleus, the rest of the Seadog associates spin the musical ideas into fruition, fusing delicate acoustic lullabies with anthemic electric and acoustic textures.

Serious Sam Barrett

Serious Sam plays raw roots music. Born and raised in Yorkshire, he sings the traditional music of his county and writes songs from the heart. Yorkshirecana is the word everyone is using to describe Sam’s country/roots sound and it suits him down to the ground.

Seth Lakeman

Seth has brought folk music to a new, younger audience, and has been widely credited with breaking down perceptions and barriers often associated with folk music and its acceptance (or lack of it) in the mainstream.

Shadrack Tye

South London based Shadrack Tye are members of the same family, each with many years’ professional experience. Their combined talents produce a vibrant approach, encompassing the band’s eclectic musical tastes.

Sharron Kraus

Sharron Kraus is a singer, musician and songwriter who both defiantly recasts and tenderly cherishes the folk traditions of England and Appalachia.

Sheelanagig

www.myspace.com/sheelanagiguk
Description:
Sheelanagig have been honing their eclectic blend of folk, jazz and world music since early 2005. Equally at home on festival stages, music venues and street corners the band have developed a devoted following with two album releases and a hectic touring schedule.

Shirley Collins

Shirley received a Good Tradition Award at the 2008 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards. It was presented to her by Graham Coxon of Blur. Along with John McCusker on fiddle, Graham sang Shirley’s version of Just As The Tide Was A-Flowin’ in tribute. Congratulations Shirley!

Shzr Ee

Shzr Ee is an active musician with a background in classical piano, tango/Balkan accordion, Chinese and Okinawan lutes (sanxian and sanshin), the Chinese fiddle (erhu) and various East Asian percussion instruments.

Sid Kipper

Sid Kipper is, depending on who you ask, “The folk world’s comic genius”, “Norfolk’s redoubtable folk hero”, and “A visionary/warbler from Trunch”. He is the funniest man in Norfolk and the folk scene’s finest humourist.

SILD

SILD (Estonian for bridge) are the exquisite singer, fiddler and hiiu-kannel player Sille Ilves from Estonia and innovative Welsh guitarist Martin Leamon.

Simon Ritchie

Simon is well known on the traditional music circuit as an exponent of East Anglian music, song and stepdancing. Simon, like most melodeon players, is self taught and learned largely from the traditional players and singers who once frequented many of the country pubs in Suffolk and rural Essex, where he lives.

Simorgh

Simorgh formed out of several UK based Iranian students and recent graduates meeting occasionally to play music. Each member has his own unique musical background, and by combining different genres and playing styles, Simorgh has arrived at a unique style – a blend of traditional Iranian music and electronic atmospheric music, taking motifs and ornamentations from other genres such as rock and urban music.

Sisters of Transistors

The Sisters Of Transistors are a Combo Organ Quartet and Ladies Social Club. They play a selection of fully working exhibition organs with an emphasis on the Italian models from the early 1970s accompanied on drums by museum curator Prof Vernon World.

Skaidi

Norwegians jazz bassist Steinar Raknes and traditional yoiker Inga Juuso have created music that calms the icy plateau wind and makes the dark winter months seem snug and beautiful.

Skinny Lister

Skinny Lister are a family of like-minded musicians who came together in 2009. English to the core and with folk in their hearts, Daniel, Lorna, Max, Sam and Dan are the life, soul and party.

Sleepy Ed Hicks

Surreal and subversive Sleepy Ed Hicks is an itinerant banjo player for the 21st century. Drawing deeply from his knowledge of songs and tradition, he lovingly subverts the traditional into the modern age or strips a contemporary pop song back to imagined roots.

Smith Byrnes O’Sullivan

Smith Byrnes O’Sullivan (SBO Band) is a powerhouse band of London based musicians, based around a trio of fiddle, accordion and guitar. The band takes many forms with different musicians and line ups, but always with the same core mission – to deliver exquisite contemporary Celtic tunes ranging from driving folk-funk with a heavy back beat to beautiful slow melodic tunes.

Solarference

Solarference (Nick Janaway and Sarah Owen) combine traditional English folk song with electronic sound, performing with voices and laptops. Nothing is pre-recorded: Nick and Sarah use their own home-made audio software to transform the live sounds of voices, found objects and instruments into organic, lyrical sonic worlds for the songs to inhabit.

Sophie & Fiachra

Sophie & Fiachra perform a captivating fusion of traditional Irish and Québecoise music, mainly on Uilleann pipes and fiddle. Their music sounds like much more than a two piece band: this energetic music promises to entertain and astonish all audiences.

Southern Tenant Folk Union

Edinburgh based roots collective with a gloriously upbeat and stirringly melancholic mix of bluegrass, gospel, country, folk and pop.

Spiers and Boden

The mighty duo Spiers and Boden, now in their tenth year of fruitful collaboration, have graduated from being the dangerous new kids on the block to being a solid headlining mainstay on the folk scene and pushing outwards into the mainstream.

Spiro

They might bear the tools of the folk musician and be partial to the odd traditional tune, but Spiro claim to have closer affinities to the worlds of contemporary classical and dance music than they do to the folk scene.

Stealing Sheep

Psych-folk darlings Stealing Sheep create lo-fi, DIY pop in the shape of noisily drenched old time vocals, spiraling psychedelic guitars, hypnotic beats and sixties style drone synths.

Stephanie Hladowski

Completely new to the folk arena, this young singer is wowing the critics with her mature and ancient voice that handles the great ballads with ease and grace.

Steve Elston

Steve enjoys playing the guitar to animals, he likes to think they enjoy it too. “Steve plays his acoustic like a man with 20 finely trained fingers, and his soft folk vocal purrs atop it like a cat on your lap” Nick Coquet – Brighton Source Magazine

Steve Tilston

Steve Tilston is one of our most celebrated songsmiths; widely recognised within the world of folk and contemporary music: the words, arrangements and subtle, quite superb guitar playing could be no one else.

Stompin’ Dave

Stompin’ Dave Allen performs American roots music on guitar, five-string banjo, fiddle, piano, harmonica, vocals and tap dancing.

Stuart Ryan

Described as “One of the finest guitarists of his generation” by Martin Taylor MBE, award winning guitarist Stuart Ryan is regarded as one of the UK’s finest exponents of the instrument.

Sudan Dudan

Two well-respected young musicians from Norway, Marit Mattisgard and Anders E. Røine present their voices surrounded by the stark plucked and bowed sounds of guitars, langeleik (Norwegian zither), fiddle, banjo and mandolin.

Super Best Friends Club

“Absolutely amazing” – Tom Robinson, BBC 6Music

“Brilliant” – Neverenoughnotes.co.uk

“An almighty explosion of colour” – elusivelittlecomments

Over-excited psychedelic pop. Dance routines, choral harmonies, nudity and frantic feeling.

Sweet Baboo

Sweet Baboo is Stephen Black, a native of the North Wales countryside and a single-minded, idiosyncratic, contrary singer-songwriter who possesses [...]

Swindlers and Gentry Country Dance Band

Swindlers & Gentry are an energetic electric folk rock band featuring a wide range of stringed instruments, woodwind, accordion/melodeon and drums. They play nationally and internationally for private events and festivals and have acquired a reputation for putting on very memorable events.

Szászcsávás Band

The core of the Szászcsávás Band is the prímás (lead fiddle), played by Jámbor István, whose nickname is Dumnezu, his brother Csányi Mátyás Mutis on bass and their brother-in-law Mezei Ferenc Csángáló playing kontra, who have been playing together for 29 years.

Tailor and the Crow

Having tracked down folk songs that had lyrics that stood out as unique and somehow timeless. They ignored any notation that came with the songs and wrote new melodies and accompaniment

Tank and Trumpet

Steve Chadwick (Bb trumpet and cornet) and Saul Eisenberg (self-built gas tanks) create their music through improvisation. When they have an arrangement, they invite guests to record live in the studio; the piece then develops and takes a new shape. Their approach is part jazz / part narrative / part experimental: each piece is based around the scale of the chosen tank.

Tanya Jackson

Singer, guitarist, arranger and composer whose home is in folk music, where modes reign supreme and centuries-old stories are brought to life by the skill and heart of the interpreter.

Tcha Limberger

Tcha Limberger was born into a musical Belgian Romany family of old, with each member playing musical instruments (his grandfather was the legendary Piotto Limberger). His Manouch tzigane father, Vivi Limberger, and his Flemish-born mother Lut Bruyneel each inducted him into their own culture.

Terence O’Flaherty

Terence O’Flaherty arrived in London from County Clare on the West Coast of Ireland in 1971, aged 16. One of the last batch of Irish immigrants seeking opportunity in London at that time, Terence would stand daily in Camden Town waiting for John Murphy’s lorries to pick him up to do a day’s work on the roads and building sites.Terence’s instrument has always been his own voice.

The Accidental

The Accidental is a pairing of Sam Genders (Tunng) and Stephen Cracknell (The Memory Band, Gorodisch, co-founder of Trunk Records).

The Bavarian Stroller

An established German Oompah Band (Bavarian Band) since 1978, based on a traditional Bavarian band consisting of 2 clarinets, a trumpet, trombone and tuba.

The Belles of London City

The Belles of London City are London’s very own all dancing corseted female Morris troupe, presently taking the folk world by storm.

The Bicycle Thieves

The Bicycle Thieves live in London. They you Love. There you go. They juggle very good fun and ever so cool. How do they do it?

The Boat Band

The Boat Band has been purveying serious goodtime music for twenty years.

The Cedars

The Cedars’ infectious stomping rhythms, slide guitar and banjo coupled with huge mournful vocals conjure up scenes of dusty crossroads and cracked river beds so vivid your throat gets dry just listening to them.

The City Shanty Band

City Shanty Band is a crew of 11 landlocked sailors from London, singing songs of nautical nostalgia and city calamity, inspired by the work songs of the age of sail – and we howl out shanties old and new, borrowed and blue, with an aim to keep alive the tradition of communal singing and storytelling in the blogging generation.

The Coal Porters

The Coal Porters are an exciting and dynamic bluegrass combo with a dynamite live act featuring Carly Frey – fine fiddle and vocals; John Breese – banjo and vocals; Sid Griffin – vocals, mandolin, harmonica and autoharp; Andrew Stafford, doghouse bass & lawsuits; Neil Robert Herd guitar, sporran and vocals.

The Dealers

Announcing their arrival into the genre of Nu-folk acoustic with such unrivalled originality, THE DEALERS perform songs from their first two entirely self penned albums, “LISTEN” (2006) and “TRINE TO THE CHEATS” (2007). Audiences are also indulged with numerous cover,s ranging from Leadbelly to Leonard Cohen, Billie Holiday to Tom Waits and John Prine to the present day.

The Devil’s Interval

The Devil’s Interval combines the individual vocal talents of Lauren McCormick, Jim Causley and Emily Portman.

The Gentle Good

Gareth, a Welsh folk singer and songwriter of note, has formed the popular folk band The Gentle Good. His honest and tender vocals are well matched to an intricate guitar style that owes much to the great guitarists of the 60s’ folk revival.

The Groanbox Boys

We are Seznec and Ward-Bergeman, and play own own unique brand of foot-stompin’, sweat-drippin-from-the-ceiling, old time American blues, folk, rags, and mountain songs on accordion, acoustic guitar, banjo, piano, harmonica, and shackles.

The Hand

Much of The Hand’s music is instrumental, using banjo, kora, ukelele, piano, harmonium, autoharp and clarinet, and when Rachael Dadd and Wig Smith sing, it is usually together and usually in harmony.

The Holloway Jug Band

Formed in 2007 the Holloway Jug Band have already made an impression on the London Rockabilly circuit, playing at ‘Club Orange’, ‘What’s Cookin’(with Peter and the Egg), Bardens Boudoir and ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll Cinema’ at 93ft East.

The Hut People

Taking the audience on a voyage across the globe with their material, The Hut People perform a unique blend of home-grown tunes mixed with British, Nordic and European folk music, perfectly formed and embellished with the driving accordion and a mind-boggling array of exotic percussion.

The Imagined Village

We started this project back in 2004 as a way of exploring our musical roots and identity as English musicians and music makers. Some of our names may be familiar to you whilst some of us swim hidden in the fringes of the big village pond; some of us have backgrounds in traditional music whilst others are as far away from the folk club as you can get.

The London Lasses and Pete Quinn

The London Lasses and Pete Quinn are a stalwart Irish Trad band based in London. They have recorded three acclaimed albums, tour a variety of British and International festivals and the band’s members are responsible for organising the Return to Camden Town Festival – the festival of Irish traditional music in London.

The Long Finger Bandits

A five-strong renegade clan of raggle-taggle suffragette bandit ladies with a penchant for chaos, colours, tea and dancing!

The Long Notes

The Long Notes unite the revered talents of accordionist Colette O’Leary, fiddler Jamie Smith, banjo and mandolin player Brian Kelly and guitarist/fiddler Alex Percy. All four musicians have a wealth of touring experience and came together as a group through north London’s ever-vibrant folk scene.

The Loose Moose String Band

The Loose Moose String Band comprise of a gang of acoustic music loving fools from Liverpool. We play styles including Bluegrass, Old Time, Western Swing, Rock and Roll and even a few 80s’ classics.

The Magic Lantern

Operating in the fertile hinterland between jazz and folk, The Magic Lantern are a quintet completed by percussionist Fred Thomas, bass clarinettist Dave Shulman, electric guitarist Phil Stevenson and cellist Lucy Railton playing the compositions of acoustic guitarist Jamie Doe.

The Mordekkers

The Mordekkers are amoung the most innovative live bands in the UK today. Based in southwest Wales, this unique four piece mix traditional and original folk tunes played on pipes and mandola with fresh, modern drum and bass rhythms

The Moulettes

The Moulettes are an as yet little known folk-stomping barn-storming cider-swilling quintet of exceedingly talented young things

The Old Dance School

The Old Dance School began in 2006 as a gathering of friends in the garden of the old Betty Fox school of ballet in Birmingham, from where they take their name. Among the nettles, each would bring along a tune or a song for the group to experiment with.

The Orchard Family

The Orchards are one of the best known Gypsy families in the West Country. Tom, Jean and Ashley play, sing and stepdance in a style which is true to their Gypsy roots. While their repertoire has been gathered over the years from many sources, much has also been handed down through their family networks.

The Paper Cinema

[paper cinema] The Paper Cinema is an illustrated song, a shadow, a smoke, a mirror, a puppet show, a cinema show, side show, magic show, a show and tale, a show off. It exists in the meeting of live music and moving drawings.

The Ramshackle Union Band

The Ramshackle Union Band peddle a fine line in stomping bluegrass-tinged-folk, playing with big heart and a free-spirited ethos.

The Scoville Units

“A richly fluid fusion of bluegrass and jazz with a healthy sprig of Celtic roots. Riveting stuff.” Uncut Magazine

The SeaZora

From the beauty of fantasy film scores, the heritage of grass roots British ballads, the romance of European waltz, and the legends inspired by the natural world, comes one of London’s most promising contemporary folk bands, The SeaZora.

The Staves

“These girls are surely one of the best undiscovered acts of 2010. They currently have an EP available that is worth a fiver of anyone’s money!” – Battery In Your Leg

The Unthanks

Known for their timeless, unsentimental and quietly subversive tales of loss, fear, booze, brawls, abuse and sorrow, siblings Rachel and Becky Unthank are honest, young storytellers outside of time, forging links between folk worlds old, new and other.

The Wagon Tales

The Wagon Tales – a hot picking UK based Bluegrass and Americana band – with a cast of musicians that reads more like a Jules Holland show than an Old Opry! But boy, these guys can pick and sing!

The Water Tower Bucket Boys

The Water Tower Bucket Boys, traditional musicians from Portland, Oregon, render a fusion of bluegrass, old time, and country music in an honest and authentic style.

The Wikets

The Wikets play rock and flamenco. Their sound and dark humour are like stories from film westerns, in a ‘Soulful junkyard of early rock n roll ghosts’.

The Worm

Wrigglin’ all over the common ground between live music, lyricism African Music and Dance Music. The Worm are Festival, with a capital F, distilled …

Theo Bard

Ominous, deep, brooding songs poured straight from a dark heart. Old folk hits a new groove, with a rare power.

This Is The Kit

This Is The Kit is a Bristol and Paris based band formed by Kate Stables and Jesse Vernon.

Thomas McCarthy

Thomas McCarthy is a man steeped in the tradition of Irish song, intoxicated by the music and passionate in his sensitivity towards them.

Three Cane Whale

Bristol Experimental Folk pioneers Three Cane Whale from the Spiro dynasty, eccentric and spacious sounds drawing on multiplicity of influences from across the world.

THREE CANE WHALE

Three Cane Whale, are a multi-instrumental trio playing their beautifully eccentric and spacious vignettes of sound, drawing on a multiplicity of influences from across the world. Delicate yet robust, tiny yet enormous and completely unique!

Tim Edey

Rated by many as one of the hottest melodeon and guitar players on the acoustic celtic music scene worldwide fusing incredible technical abilities with soul and rhythm.

Tim Eriksen

He combines hair-raising vocals with savvy arrangements for fiddle, banjo, guitar and bajo sexto, transforming American tradition with a “northern roots” Americana sound that embraces old New England murder ballads, “shape-note” gospel and haunted originals alongside Southern Appalachian and Irish songs.

Timothy Victor’s Folk Orchestra

This odd hybrid of sounds, best described as Country & Eastern, fits Timothy’s bawdy Essex songwriting like an oil slick fits a penguin – it ain’t necessarily the way nature intended but it works surprisingly well.

Tofu Love Frogs

Often imitated but never quite equalled, The Tofu Love Frogs took the Celtic punk of the Pogues, dipped it in Special Brew, dusted it with speed, smothered it in mud and took the festival scene by storm.

Tom Paley

Tom Paley is an American guitarist, banjo-player and fiddle player. An American traditional musician.

Tom Robinson

Tom Robinson was a choirboy who was inspired by John Peel and became a songwriter and recording artist. Tom has a fresh perspective on pop and is also a well known BBC presenter.

Troubadour Rose

Mighty Blight Folk pop, unhinged and gleaming for all who find them.

Twelfth Day

At the forefront of innovative, modern British folk music.

Tyde Folk

Dynamic, fresh and quite brilliantly played, Tyde’s music draws on influences from every corner of the British Isles and beyond.

Uiscedwr

Phenomenal folk trio Uiscedwr is one of Britain’s most exciting contemporary bands. Some of the most thrilling modern folk music you’re ever likely to hear.

Urban Folk Quartet

Four highly accomplished musicians, a dozen instruments and four voices coming together to put on a high energy show of grooving, globally – influenced folk music that will take your breath away.

Urban Folk Quartet

Joe Broughton, Paloma Trigas, Frank Moon and Tom Chapman are The Urban Folk Quartet. Four highly accomplished musicians, a dozen instruments and four voices coming together to put on a high energy show of grooving, globally – influenced folk music that will take your breath away.

Urusen

Urusen combine the best of the current British indie folk scene and great contemporary American bands. An eclectic array of instruments woven underneath rousing harmonies and modern folk rock-tinged pop arrangements.

Van Eyken

Outstanding sparse and elegant folk. Songs that speak for themselves, and have plenty to say.

Victor Menace

Sporting an undeniable all-star cast, led by fiddle and soprano sax, and backed by guitars, bass and drums – it’s chair smashing, pint glass throwing, tipsy gyspy mayhem of the highest order.

Voice

Voice are a London-based, female a-cappella trio performing secular and non-secular music, from the medieval chant of Hildegard of Bingen to twenty-first-century commissions and folk songs from around the world.

Walking With Ghosts

Walking With Ghosts is made up of Simon Emmerson plus various musicians drawn from The Imagined Village and further afield, including Richard Evans, Simon Richmond, Martin Carthy, Kate Garrett, Andy Gangadeen, Ali Friend, John Metcalfe, Rose Doonan, Barney Morse-Brown, Eliza Carthy,Ben Murray, Show Of Hands and John Jones, and others.

Walsh and Pound

Will Pound and Dan Walsh are two of the most exciting and unique young musicians on today’s music scene, labelled respectively as ‘one of the most original harmonica players in Britain’ and ‘the UK’s top Clawhammer banjoist’.

WE WERE EVERGREEN

Having graced the Nest’s stages twice this summer and causing a sensation with their inimitable dance savy style we thought as they are appearing at the Halloween show this October they ought to be hailed as our featured artist. So who are they? Well….We Were Evergreen are an alternative indie-electro-folk-pop band from France

We Were Evergreen

Having graced the Nest’s stages twice this summer and causing a sensation with their inimitable dance savy style we thought as they are appearing at the Halloween show this October they ought to be hailed as our featured artist. So who are they? Well….We Were Evergreen are an alternative indie-electro-folk-pop band from France

Will Kevans

Described as a straight talking acoustic troubadour and as suburban country, Will Kevans is a UK-based singer-songwriter and master of the catchy pop tune and lyric.

Witches of Elswick

Chance – or maybe destiny – lured Fay Hield, Bryony Griffith, Becky Stockwell and Gillian Tolfrey from the corners (and middle) of the country to a small flat in Elswick, and the Witches were spawned. They sing a cappella harmony, and base their material on the traditional songs of these islands.

Yellowbelly

Yellowbelly are a Leicester based 5 piece band producing original country pop with a refreshing twist, headed up by Gaz Birtles, vocals, sax and Cajon, Dave Walton on guitar and vocals and James Lynch, keyboards and vocals.

You Are Wolf

You Are Wolf peddles experimental folk and leftfield originals through looped vocals, melodica, bass and whatever else she can lay her hands on.

Young Coppers

The Young Copper are the seventh generation of a family of harmony singers from Rottingdean, Sussex. The Copper Family have been singing their songs for generations, lovingly preserving them for the future.

Zong Zing All Stars

Zong Zing are a 9 piece band playing uplifting dance music called ‘Cavacha’, the core rhythm of Central African music that has given rise to ‘Soukous’ in the Democratic Republic of Congo, ‘Makosa’ in Cameroon and ‘Coupez Decallez’ in the Ivory Coast.