Presenting England's traditional songs with a bold and fresh approach, The Dovetail Trio explores familiar narratives with infectious energy and a passion for musical heritage. This collaboration effortlessly combines the distinctive voices and acclaimed instrumental talents of BBC Radio 2 Folk Award nominee Jamie Roberts, BBC Performing Arts Award winner Rosie Hood, and Newcastle Folk Degree alumnus Matt Quinn. Barnsley's Jamie Roberts is renowned for his narrative singing and driving guitar rhythms. In 2007 he joined folk quartet Kerfuffle with Hannah James and Sam Sweeney, and in both 2013 and 2016 was a BBC Radio 2 Folk Award nominee with duo Gilmore and Roberts. Rosie Hood's pure voice and engaging performances are garnering widespread acclaim. With a keen eye on the history of the songs she sings, particularly those of her native Wiltshire, she has performed at a number of the country's leading festivals and folk clubs, and opened for the Cecil Sharp Project. Rosie is, for 2015, a BBC Performing Arts Fellow with EFDSS. Multi-instrumentalist Matt Quinn has been playing the melodeon, mandolin and fiddle, and singing his way around the English folk scene for the last seven years in various bands including Dogan and the Boombox Karavan, The Mighty Quinns and the Eliza Carthy Ceilidh Band.

Jimmy Aldridge and Sid Goldsmith are one of the finest duos to have emerged onto the British folk and acoustic scene in recent years. Their combination of outstanding vocal work, sensitive instrumentation, and a powerful social conscience has brought them widespread critical acclaim. The songs themselves are always given centre stage but they are brought to life with stunning musical arrangements and vocals. There is an integrity that shines through their performances and a common thread of political struggle, resistance, and justice. Their critically acclaimed second album 'Night Hours' was released in December 2016 on Fellside Recordings. Described as 'exhilaratingly diverse and full of impeccably crafted songs', it has cemented the duo’s reputation as two of the most exciting musicians and social commentators on the scene. In September 2018 Jimmy Aldridge and Sid Goldsmith will release their third album with a major UK tour. The album will be a further development of the duo's songwriting and the contemporary sound that attracted such critical acclaim on their second release, Night Hours.

Lucy Ward is an award winning singer-songwriter from Derby. She plays guitar, ukulele and concertina but considers her voice to be her first instrument. After getting her first guitar at the age of 14, Lucy ventured into acoustic clubs, it was there that she first heard the traditional music that she now loves. Captured by the lyrics and stories of traditional song Lucy delved further into the world of folk music, visiting clubs and sessions up and down the country before getting booked to play gigs in her own right. In 2009 Lucy reached the final of the BBC Young Folk Award and she hasn’t looked back since!

The Shackleton Trio (formerly The Georgia Shackleton Trio) features fiddle player Georgia Shackleton alongside guitarist Aaren Bennett and mandolinist Nic Zuppardi. Together they play an exciting blend of folk, Americana, and self-penned material instrumentally influenced by British, American and Scandinavian folk traditions, with a regional twist from their native East Anglia. Following the success of their debut album ‘The Dog Who Would Not Be Washed’, they are excited to be heading back out on the road with a brand new release ‘Fen, Farm, and Deadly Water’. The group have toured the UK, Belgium, and the Netherlands, with appearances including Rotterdam Bluegrass Festival, main stage at Cambridge Folk Festival, Towersey Festival, Broadstairs Folk Week, Folk East, and concert halls and folk clubs across the UK.

Vicki Swan & Jonny Dyer effortlessly blend traditional material with contemporary sounds. Their performances showcase new interpretations of old songs alongside original self penned tunes and new contemporary songs that are entirely at home in the tradition. They have developed a sound that is both familiar and fresh. Strong believers in letting the music tradition live and breathe through sensitive interpretation, Vicki and Jonny allow the melody to sing without any constraints. Be entranced by the haunting nyckelharpa, amazed at the cow horn (one of the world's earliest communication devices) and meet some of the bagpipes that didn't come from Scotland. Vicki Swan (Scottish smallpipes, Swedish nyckelharpa and oktavharpa, flute, English border pipes, Swedish bagpipes, double bass). Following in her father's footsteps, Vicki is a second generation piper. Having begun the music ladder at the age of five, Vicki went on to study the double bass at the Royal College of Music, becoming the principal double bass and winning the solo double bass competition. Vicki has now returned to her Swedish roots with the addition of the Swedish nyckelharpa, Swedish bagpipes and translating Swedish ballads. Jonny Dyer (Vocals, Guitars, Accordion), composer and competition- winning guitar player; Jonny's outstanding technical ability, coupled with a wide-ranging musical taste has made him a tireless and forceful musical innovator. Jonny has been singing choral music and playing soul, jazz and folk for as long as he can remember.

Luke is a Singer-Songwriter from Canterbury, Kent, who in 2013 was nominated in the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards for both the Horizon Award for Best Emerging Talent and The Young Folk Category. He was also winner of Fatea’s “Male Artist of the Year 2014” and 2016. Over the past few years he has steadily been developing a reputation for himself in the Folk & Roots circuits either through his solo shows, many festival appearances or when opening for such luminaries as Fairport Convention, Show of Hands, Steve Knightley, Martyn Joseph, Seth Lakeman, Karine Polwart, Oysterband, Paul Brady, Glen Tilbrook and Sarah Jarosz.

Kirsty Merryn is one of the most arresting and unconventional new young singer songwriters on the UK folk roots scene, with a style uniquely her own. London-based, New Forest-born Kirsty launched her debut album She and I at London’s Union Chapel on November 9 whilst supporting Show of Hands on their extensive UK Cathedrals tour. Kirsty has been championed by Show of Hands’ frontman Steve Knightley after he met her while teaching at an EFDSS songwriting retreat for upcoming folk singer songwriters and she went on to open for Show of Hands at their headline appearance at Sidmouth Folk Week in 2016, and supported them over the 22 nights of their Cathedral’s tour of the UK, at the end of 2017, performing to around 14,000 people along the way. Beguiling and mercurial, Kirsty’s music is heavily anchored in the folk tradition with jazz and classical backwaters. But it has a much wider reach, with her influences ranging from Cara Dillon to Joni Mitchell and Kate Bush - emphatic piano-based songs with sharply observed lyrics, packaged with panache in elegant, beautifully balanced settings and delivered in crystal clear, assured vocals.

Ninebarrow are a multi-award-winning folk duo, who are impressing audiences across the country with their innovative and captivating take on the folk tradition. Described by Mark Radcliffe as sounding like ‘two halves of one voice’ by Seth Lakeman as 'a fantastic duo' and by Kate Rusby as ‘absolutely amazing’, Jon Whitley and Jay LaBouchardiere combine breathtaking vocal harmonies and melodies, delivering songs that are inspired and rooted in the landscape and history of the British Isles. Most recently, the duo were nominated in the 2017 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards in the ‘Horizon’ category for Best Emerging Artist; their latest album, ‘The Waters and the Wild’ (released in April 2018) was awarded 5-stars in both The Morning Star and the English Folk Dance and Song Society’s EDS Magazine, and has received airplay on BBC Radios 2, 3, 6 Music, Wales and Scotland. Folk luminary, Mike Harding, has hailed it as ‘absolutely monumental’.

Best known for work with BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Award nominees Granny’s Attic, Cohen is a singer and instrumentalist with a love of English music. Cohen plays melodeons and anglo concertina as well as being a well-respected singer; in 2014 he won the Bromyard Folk Festival future of young folk award for singing. Expect traditional English folk songs and tunes along with a few original numbers.

A transatlantic duo inspired by the traditions of America and Britain. Hickman’s emotive, soaring vocals and driving guitar is complemented by Cassidy’s ingenious and virtuosic fiddling. Their sound flows from the connection between British and American folk and is bursting with all the humour, heartbreak and excitement of these genres. The lively English wit of Hickman is set against Cassidy’s bone-dry irony and American drawl as they take audiences on a dynamic and unforgettable transatlantic journey.