Honey & The Bear – new album and tour dates

Honey & The Bear

Fast-rising East Anglian duo Honey & The Bear (aka Lucy and Jon Hart) are heading out on the road this November/December, showcasing their warm and spellbinding new album in seven counties.

The Suffolk-based husband-and-wife will release third album Away Beyond the Fret on November 3, officially launching it in an already sold out performance at the prestigious Snape Maltings in their home county the next night. The tour will then move on to Surrey, Gloucestershire, Cambridgeshire, Yorkshire, Lincolnshire and Norfolk.

The duo fuse fine vocals and play a plethora of stringed instruments. They both play double bass, bouzouki and acoustic guitar while Lucy also plays ukulele and Jon provides effortless electric guitar. Adding their talents to the line-up will be members of Sam Kelly’s The Lost Boys band, who also guest on the album – varying combinations of Toby Shaer on whistle, flute, harmonium, viola and fiddle, Evan Carson on bodhran, drums and percussion and Archie Churchill-Moss on diatonic accordion.

Honey & The Bear have long excelled at creating songs that are ‘close to home’. But this album is certainly their most personal and resonant yet Like their two previous acclaimed albums, Made in the Aker (2019) and Journey Through The Roke (2021) it is steeped in Suffolk – the landscape, the people, the past and modern day heroes and heroines, the rich folklore and the restless sea.

Yorkshire-born Jon and Suffolk-born Lucy have always had the knack of writing innovative, sensitive songs with savvy lyrics and a strong sense of place Now they have a strong sense of family too, following the arrival of their daughter, Gracie, another key inspiration for their beautifully crafted 13-track album.

Away Beyond the Fret unwraps like the last part of a trilogy; another atmospheric smorgasbord of songs, from the delicate to the driven – a crisp and classy genre-hopping mix rooted in folk but flirting with Americana, country, rock and the mainstream.

Audiences at the tour gigs will be the first to hear a live performance of the entire new album – a magical fusion of songs of diverse moods and tempos wrapped up in a captivating set.

Artists’ website: honeyandthebear.co.uk

‘Do You Keep It Underneath’ – live with Kelly Bayfield:

TOUR DATES

November 4     Snape Maltings – Suffolk – ALBUM LAUNCH SOLD OUT

November 11 : Grayshott Village Hall, Surrey, 7.30pm (with Evan Carson & Archie Churchill-Moss. A Grayshott Folk Club gig. Tickets: 01428 607096 or online
https://tickets.ents24.com/event/tickets/eventid/2705629?inf=92262feff9b90ed5

November 12  Tetbury Goods Shed – Gloucestershire, 6pm (with Evan Carson & Archie Churchill-Moss) https://shed-arts.co.uk/event/honey-and-the-bear-2/

November 15  Cambridge Junction J2, Cambridgeshire, 8pm (with Toby Shaer, Evan Carson & Archie Churchill-Moss) Tickets: 01223 511511
https://www.junction.co.uk/events/honey-the-bear/

November 17  The Live Room – Saltaire, West Yorkshire, 8pm (with Toby Shaer & Evan Carson) https://theliveroom.info/show/honey-the-bear-eng/

November 19  Nettleham Village Hall  – Lincolnshire (with Toby Shaer & Evan Carson) Tickets: 01522 536770 or email watkins.folk@gmail.com