Gigs – Tour News – Special Events

folking_com new 2016 site logo

Welcome to the folking.com Gigs, Tour News and Special Events section…news section.

All the events listed below are taken from the latest “Hot Off The Press” gigs, tour news and special events that the folking news desk have hand-picked for you.

Harbottle & Jonas have been Saving The Good Stuff for a while

 Saving The Good Stuff Vol.1 is the ninth offering from the hardworking Harbottle & Jonas, with each release they continue to build and cement their reputation. Following on from the release of The Beacon in 2021 they have continued to maintain a high level of output with the albums Live ...

From Pub To Pulpit concerts continue pilgrimages to cathedrals through 2023

Thousands of voices will raise roofs of Cathedrals and Churches around the country this year as a cappella group Broomdasher and multi-instrumental trio Coracle continue their From Pub to Pulpit tour. Nine dates are currently confirmed for the concert, whose rousing climax has the whole audience, the organ and Choir ...

Sean Taylor Band announces new live album and tour dates

2023 will see the first ever Sean Taylor Band album release, a live album, featuring multi-instrumentalist Mike Seal on double bass and the Thompson Twins percussionist Paulina Szczepaniak. This album almost never happened, unbeknown to Sean the sound engineer at one of his band gigs in 2022 recorded the whole ...

Skerryvore: new album and tour dates

Skerryvore have reinvented and reignited Scottish roots music with a modern alt-pop flavour that has connected with an ever-expanding multicultural global audience. But as the pandemic broke, the octet’s international touring immediately ceased. Yet from challenge came opportunity. Vocalist/guitarist Alec Dalglish had the time to develop his initial song ideas in more depth, while ...

Daoiri Farrell announces new album and spring tour dates

At the forefront of the current Irish music scene – armed with a strong belief and passion for authenticity, The Wedding Above In Glencree, is the much anticipated fourth solo album from Dublin’s own Daoiri Farrell – recorded & engineered by Trevor Hutchinson (Lunasa / Waterboys) – with guest appearance ...

Unthank : Smith announce debut album and tour dates

Today, two former Mercury Music Prize nominees Rachel Unthank (The Unthanks) and Paul Smith (Maxïmo Park) announce Nowhere And Everywhere, their debut album as Unthank : Smith. Two new songs, ‘The Natural Urge’ and ‘Seven Tears’ are available to hear now. Watch the videos for both songs below. With Nowhere ...

Kate Rusby announces Christmas tour

Kate Rusby, hailed as the ‘First Lady of Folk’ and a Mercury Music accolade to her name, has forged an impressive 30-year, headlining career. A folk singer at heart, she’s taken the genre to new heights appealing way beyond the folk scene and her Yorkshire roots, headlining in the UK ...

Holy Moly & The Crackers announce new album and tour

For a band that have from the outset been pegged as ‘folk-rock’, Newcastle’s Holy Moly & The Crackers sure have come a long way in their sound and their approach. They’ve been a fierce live proposition for a decade now and released three studio albums that have seen their songs ...

Chris Newman and Máire Ní Chathasaigh announce tour dates including Christmas shows

This celebrated partnership of “one of the UK’s most staggering and influential acoustic guitarists” (fROOTS) with “the doyenne of Irish harpers” (Scotland On Sunday) has presented its unique musical vision in twenty-two countries on five continents to venues ranging from the tiniest of village halls to palaces in Kyoto and ...

Simon Mayor and Hilary James – tour and workshop dates

Virtuoso mandolin, sensational songs, hot swing fiddle and huge lashings of fun from Britain’s leading ‘hot-fingered mandolin virtuoso’ Simon Mayor, and silver-voiced songstress Hilary James. It’s probably the diversity of their repertoire that surprises people most: from folk songs to Berlioz, blues, classical mandolin show-stoppers, swing fiddle, and maybe a ...

Vieux Farka Touré to play London concert

Malian guitarist Vieux Farka Touré, who released his critically-acclaimed new album Les Racines via World Circuit earlier this year, will perform at Islington Assembly Hall on Saturday 5th November. Vieux recently shared an acoustic video for 'Gabou Nu Tie', a song about the importance of respecting and preserving customary values, in order to fulfil ...

Native Harrow – new album and in-store tour

Native Harrow have today released their critically acclaimed new album Old Kind Of Magic on Loose Music. The duo of married couple Stephen Harms and Devin Tuel are launching the album with an instore tour, including an acoustic performance and signing, starting tonight at Rough Trade West at 6pm, tickets ...

The Little Unsaid announce their latest album

Fable is the mesmerising and powerful third album from South London based four-piece The Little Unsaid, introduced via its first single ‘Vibrant Life’, an intense stream of consciousness reminding us not to lose momentum, imagination, and curiosity in these dark times. The Little Unsaid are John Elliott (composer, songwriter & producer), ...

Squeeze support the Trussell Trust with EP and tour

As they prepare to embark on their Food For Thought 25 date UK tour, British music legends Squeeze announce the release of a new six track EP on November 4th 2022. The title track, ‘Food For Thought’, is a brand new song written by Chris Difford and Glenn Tilbrook, that ...

Jesse Terry and Emma Stevens – live at The Bedford, Balham Tues 25th Oct

Coming up on Tuesday 25th we are pleased to be hosting this outstanding singer songwriter double bill in the iconic settings of The Bedford, Balham, London - tickets available via wegottickets.com Whatever magic potion the troubadours in Laurel Canyon were sipping on in 1971, Jesse Terry has managed to track ...

Native Harrow announce their new album and record shop tour

Arriving  on October 28 via Loose Music, Old Kind of Magic is the fifth long-player from Native Harrow - Stephen Harms and Devin Tuel - and arrives two years after they left Pennsylvania for a new life in Sussex. It is in this new place that the duo self-produced a ...

Beans On Toast presents The Fascinating Adventures Of Little Bee

With a little help from some new friends, including the animated hero ‘Little Bee’, the songwriter and festival legend, Beans On Toast, is very pleased to unveil a brand new series of children's books and an accompanying album: THE FASCINATING ADVENTURES OF LITTLE BEE Released on 1st December 2022, The ...

Brooks Williams and Dan Walsh announce debut duo album

Fortune By Design is the debut album from Brooks Williams and Dan Walsh, admired by both listeners and fellow musicians alike, here they combine their talents for an extraordinary collaboration of British and Americana roots music. Each is a leading light on their respective instruments and they both bring buckets ...

Martyn Joseph announces 40th anniversary tour

Martyn Joseph is a completely unique and mind-blowing artist. Take everything you think you know about singer songwriters and rip it up. For one man and a guitar he creates a performance with a huge far-reaching sound that is energetic, compelling, and passionate.  Be it to two hundred people or ...

Irish Music and Dance In London announce this year’s Return To London Town Festival

IMDL are delighted to announce the full programme of events for this year’s Return to London Town Festival - Friday 28th to Monday 31st October 2022!  For this 24th edition of the festival a wonderfully impressive array of brilliant musicians and singers from Ireland, alongside a large number of London-based artists, will be involved ...

Eddi Reader announces new album and tour dates

Light Is In The Horizon is a new album of previously unreleased recordings from one of Scotland’s greatest voices, Eddi Reader. The twelve songs were left behind from the sessions of her acclaimed Vagabond and Cavalier albums but sit together now as fresh body of work featuring many of Eddi’s ...

Robb Johnson plays Dorking

In the now established tradition of @StMarysSessions, our October show brings you yet another slice of something distinctly different.  Expect the poetic, the passionate, the provocative, some politics of the people and playfulness. Some punchy picking too, he has a guitar and he knows how to use it! Robb Johnson ...

LIzzy Hardingham announces new album and tour dates

How Did We Get Here? is Lizzy Hardingham's brand new studio album which explores the relationship between music and mental health. This Help Musicians UK funded album combines eight deftly crafted songs (recorded at Sheffield's Yellow Arch Studios) and thought-provoking audio clips from interviews with musicians, mental health charities, music ...

The Outside Track announce September tour

Winner of 'Best Group' in both the Live Ireland awards and the Tradition In Review awards, The Outside Track are one of the top Celtic acts in the world. They were 'Best Live Act' nominees in the MG Alba Scots Traditional Music Awards, and won the German Radio Critics Prize, ...

Robert Lane – new album and live dates

Robert Lane is a musician, songwriter and actor based in the UK. He has toured extensively and released three albums. As an actor he works in theatre and film and is a founding member of short form comedy improvisation group Improv Wolves. 

Robert is also the host of The Robert ...

Jackie Oates Trio launches Gracious Wings

On Sunday 18th September The Jackie Oates Trio return to Water Rats, Kings Cross, London as part of their album launch tour, tickets and full details via folkandroots.co.uk September 2022 sees the launch of Gracious Wings, the 8th solo studio album by Jackie Oates. Jackie has once again been working ...

Bonfire Radicals announce new album and tour

The Space Between is the long awaited second album from Birmingham's fiery (un)traditional folk band Bonfire Radicals. This new release captures the adventurous breadth of their musical imaginations, revels in enthusiasm for folk traditions from around the globe and delivers it with the effortless dynamism that permeates their live shows ...

Man The Lifeboats – single, album and tour

Taken from their upcoming second album (out 14th October via Wood Head Records), the collective’s new single blazes bright with its incendiary violins, glowing accordions and profound lyricism that will warm even the coldest of souls. Piratical by sound, political in its nature, ‘The Fires of England’ takes the listener ...

Eliza Carthy announces second EP from her forthcoming album

Eliza Carthy, leading light of England's folk scene releases Stumbling On, the second EP of four tracks taken from her forthcoming album, Queen Of The Whirl - a celebration of Eliza’s 30 years as a professional musician. Featuring newly recorded versions of songs from her illustrious career as chosen by her ...

Luke Concannon (Nizlopi) announces September tour

Luke Concannon has early memories of listening to live music, dancing, singing, and putting on plays, at his Irish family’s parties in Warwickshire England. He’s been making music in community ever since. Aged 26 he topped the UK and Irish charts with his duo Nizlopi’s ‘The JCB Song’ about singing ...

Martha Tilston to play The Minack Theatre

From the folk songs she has known since childhood to piano ballads and the odd cheeky bit of trip-hop, Martha Tilston has never been afraid to experiment with her writing and musical parameters. Her songs flow with the journey of her life and creativity, inspired by our interconnectedness with nature ...

Topic announce Sea Song Sessions

Sea Song Sessions is a collection of British maritime folk songs and sea shanties, performed by a collective of some of British folk music’s leading lights: Jon Boden, Seth Lakeman, Ben Nicholls, Emily Portman & Jack Rutter. The concept for the album came to them in 2021, when they were ...

Gretchen Peters – UK tour dates and new live album

2022 marks the 25th year since Gretchen Peters first set foot on a UK stage. And in honour of the occasion, the Nashville-via-New-York star will be heading back to these shores. Planning a series of special appearances later this year, Peters will be touring along with longtime musical partner and special ...

Beans On Toast announces 2023 tour dates

Following the runaway success of his extended UK tour earlier this year, the cult hero Beans On Toast has already plotted his return with a “mahoosive ramble” for 2023. One man and his guitar with songs to sing and stories to tell, UK fans will be able to catch him ...

The Magpie Arc headline indoor festival of folk at Cecil Sharp House

The Indoor Festival of Folk is a collaboration between folk/rock band The Magpie Arc and the English Folk Dance and Song Society and features a stellar line up of award-winning UK folk artists performing at Cecil Sharp House, Camden, London on Saturday the 3rd of September 2022. Appearing on the ...

Foy Vance: new album and UK and Irish tour dates

Foy Vance will embark on an extensive European tour later this summer, with the UK dates commencing on August 30 at York Barbican and culminating September 9 at Belfast SSE Arena, Vance’s first Arena show in his native Northern Ireland. The tour follows the 2021 release of Vance’s fourth studio ...

Charm Of Finches return for more UK tour dates

The Australian indie-folk sister duo, Charm Of Finches are back in the UK for 10 more dates in JULY- and just last week released a brand-new EP Bluest Colour - lush 3-track EP of acoustic versions of songs from their album Wonderful Oblivion, after already touring the UK in April/May ...

Levellers announce 2023 acoustic tour

Five years after they set out on their hugely acclaimed 2018 Acoustic Tour, and released its companion album We The Collective, The Levellers will embark upon a brand new Acoustic Tour in 2023 which will be accompanied by a new album of acoustic reworkings of some of their finest compositions, ...

Fèis Rois Ceilidh Trail is back on the road

Two groups of talented young musicians will take to the road once again this summer for three weeks of musical performances the length and breadth of Scotland as part of a pioneering traditional music programme established by a Ross-shire based arts organisation. For the first time since 2019, the Fèis ...

Le Vent Du Nord announce July tour dates

The award-winning and highly acclaimed Le Vent du Nord is a leading force in Québec’s progressive francophone folk movement.  The group’s vast repertoire draws from both traditional sources and original compositions while enhancing its hard-driving soulful music with a broad range of global influences. Since its inception in August 2002, ...

Jesse Terry announces UK tour

Making up for the last two years, Stonington, Connecticut based artist Jesse Terry is excited to announce his first international dates in support of his most recent album When We Wander (Wander Recordings), the first he wrote since becoming a parent. Shows start in Ireland in late September and will ...

Suzanne Vega announces 2023 UK tour

Renowned for her erudite and entertaining shows, ahead of her early 2023 tour Suzanne Vega will be headlining at Glastonbury (Acoustic Stage), Cambridge Folk Festival and Underneath The Stars Festival this summer. Widely regarded as one of the foremost songwriters of her generation, Vega emerged as a leading figure of ...

Ray Cooper – UK tour dates

Ray Cooper returns to the UK in July for a short tour in support of his most recent album Land Of Heroes. Ray Cooper is an acoustic singer songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, he accompanies his songs with a cello, mandolin, guitar and piano, each song comes with a story, and Ray ...

Mavis Staples begins UK tour this week

Mavis Staples and Levon Helm mutual love and admiration is on full display on Carry Me Home, the new album which features a mix of Staples’ and Helm’s bands operating at the peak of their powers as they work their way through an eclectic setlist of tunes made famous by ...

Spooky Men’s Chorale announce UK tour

Many things were missing from the Great British Summer last year - not least there was an unnervingly spooky silence in place of an anticipated antipodean friendly invasion. But fear not, Australia’s weird and wonderfully hirsute, black-clad, wackily-hatted choristers are limbering up for another biennial blast round Britain – their ...

Mark Harrison announces live dates

A common thing said to me at the end of shows is 'I don't know why I hadn't come across you before but I'm really glad I did'. The world is full of information getting in your face, hard to filter the unnecessary out. But coming to our shows is ...

The Chapin Sisters announce UK tour dates

The Chapin Sisters, Lily and Abigail Chapin, are set to return to the UK and win over many a new fan this July with their Appalachian, folk and country rock inspired music as they head across the ocean to tour the UK for the first time in a decade. Growing ...

Slambovian Circus Of Dreams announce new album and tour dates

Formed in Sleepy Hollow, New York, in 1998, The Slambovian Circus Of Dreams have played major festivals and venues throughout the US, UK and Canada. Their mix of folk, rock, psychedelia and touch of hillbilly has won them legions of followers through their hectic touring and 6 studio albums. The ...

Before Breakfast announce debut album and tour dates

Before Breakfast, Gina Walters and Lucy Revis, fuse their classical knowledge and rich arrangements with raw expression and layer this with personal storytelling that explores feminist themes. The result is I Could Be Asleep If It Weren’t For You, a spell-binding collection of songs knitting together Lucy’s intricate cello with ...

A Celebration of the Life of Julie Felix

Tuesday 14th June 2022   Doors Open 7:00pm The Water Rats, 328 Grays Inn Road, Kings Cross, London, WC1X 8BZ A Celebration of the Life of Julie Felix will be taking place at The Water Rats, London on Tuesday 14th June with performances from the award winning folk singer/songwriters Linda Moylan ...

Anna Tam announces her second album

Singer and multi-instrumentalist Anna Tam gives traditional British songs her own loving personal twist. She sings with a clear bright voice and accompanies herself on a selection of traditional and historical string instruments including the nyckelharpa, viola da gamba, hurdy gurdy, cello, piano and whatever else she can find. Her ...

Amelia White announces UK tour

If there were an East Nashville music hall of fame, Amelia White would already be in it. The now-famous scene was in its formative days when White arrived from Boston in the early 2000s and became a fixture at the family wash. She’s been a leading light in America’s most ...

Katherine Priddy – vinyl release and tour dates

As Katherine Priddy hits the road on her headline UK tour, she has announced the vinyl release of her widely acclaimed debut album The Eternal Rocks Beneath (Navigator Records) on August 26th 2022. Released to glowing reviews and extensive radio airplay on CD and digital in 2021, the 10-track album ...

Grace Petrie – UK and Irish tour dates

More than a decade after first emerging, Grace Petrie stands out as one the most important songwriters working in the UK today. After the release of her album Connectivity in 2021, which reached 37 in The Official UK Album Chart and topped the UK download chart week of release, Grace ...

Irish Music & Dance in London: A Tribute to Joe Burke

With Anne Conroy-Burke, Eileen O’Brien, Mary Conroy, Deirdre McSherry, John Bowe, Mick O´Connor, Andy Martyn and Seánín McDonagh (accordion) & James Carty (fiddle) with accompaniment by Kevin Boyle. IMDL is proud to present a concert to celebrate the life and legacy of one of the most influential musicians in the ...

Bella Gaffney/Painted Sky spring tour

Magpies members Bella Gaffney and Holly Brandon are playing a short tour together in late April, Bella solo and Holly in her side project Painted Sky with her brother George. Bella Gaffney Celtic Connections' Danny Kyle Award winner Bella Gaffney hails from Bradford. She writes folk inspired songs which she ...

Boo Hewerdine announces new album and tour dates

Understudy, released on May 27th by Reveal Records, finds acclaimed songwriter Boo Hewerdine in reflective mood with a fatalistic yet joyful narrative running throughout the lyrics. Twelve new songs about these times (individually and globally) written at home in Glasgow and recorded in East Anglia with long term producer Chris ...

Conservatoire Folk Ensemble – anniversary tour and album

Joe Broughton’s Conservatoire Folk Ensemble - 25th Anniversary Tour and album, Not Leaving Quietly It’s no exaggeration to call the Conservatoire Folk Ensemble the UK’s biggest folk band. With a stage-challenging 50 members in its touring lineup, and nearly twice that rehearsing each week, the most immediate distinguishing feature of ...

Chris Cleverley – tour dates and news of new album

Award-winning Altfolk songwriter and fingerstyle guitarist Chris Cleverley unveils glimpses of his first new material in nearly three years, throughout eight performances on his tour of England this May and June. “I had lost my way with song writing for a long time; unable to connect deeply with what I ...

Gigspanner Big Band and Raynor Winn

One of folk ‘s most inventive line-ups is to join forces with best-selling author Raynor Winn this summer for a tour which mines traditional songs and tunes from the West Country and new words inspired by the region. Gigspanner Big Band is a sensational sextet led by Peter Knight whose ...