HepworthLIVE new season starts October 2023. We will continue to bring you the best in live folk and roots music to Hepworth Village Hall.
Tickets are only available from WeGotTickets.
Saturday 2nd December -
Bryony Griffiths & Alice Jones
Doors 7:30 Start 8:00pm
Come and celebrate the release of ‘Wesselbobs’, Bryony and Alice’s brand new album of Yorkshire winter songs and tunes.
Hailing from West Yorkshire, Bryony & Alice are both long-time purveyors of English folk music, united by a fascination with local folk song and tune collections.
In 2019 they came together as a powerful new duo and have taken the folk scene by storm. Featuring fiddle, harmonium, tenor guitar, body percussion and intricate vocals in their distinctive regional accents, they combine their respect and understanding of tradition with their own contemporary style of performance, imparting their extensive knowledge of the material with wit and humour to present a unique repertoire of harmony, heritage and northern banter.
Their debut duo album, ‘A Year Too Late and a Month Too Soon’, researched and recorded in and out of lockdowns and released in 2022, showcased their fresh and masterful interpretations of these treasured old songs, garnering 5 star reviews, global radio play and live radio performances including Radio 2’s Folk Show with Mark Radcliffe and Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour.
The new album, ‘Wesselbobs’ is a collection of winter songs and tunes associated with Yorkshire and includes unearthed traditional gems and unique local versions of better-known seasonal songs.
Wessel-bobs, Wassail-bobs or Wesley-bobs were a kind of decorated, evergreen bough built around a spherical frame, carried by Wassailers or carol singers in the 18 and 1900s, mostly in West Yorkshire.
‘Wesselbobs’ is available to pre-order at bryonyandalice.com and will be officially released on November 1st 2023.
"Straight up, beautiful and bold folk singing" Mark Radcliffe - BBC Radio 2
"a sparkling tribute to Yorkshire's folk heritage" Rachel Cunniffe - Songlines
“Well-known on the grassroots scene for multifarious adventures with different outfits, this pair pitch together their fiddle and guitar and passionate vocals with winning vitality on a vividly enticing bunch of traditional music from their home county of Yorkshire. No fancy frills here – we get songs of fratricide, coalmining, betrayal, cockfighting and drinking, delivered in all their raw glory. Honest, wholesome and thoroughly enjoyable.” Colin Irwin - Mojo
Saturday 20th January - While, Matthews & While
Doors 7:30 Start 8:00pm
Chris While and Julie Matthews are two of the best and most hard working musicians on the world folk roots scene, both are highly regarded producers and they record everything that they are involved in at their own studio in a small Pennine town far from the Londoncentric music industry. They truly are inspirational women.
Chris While (vocals, guitar, banjo, dulcimer, bodhran and percussion.
Julie Matthews (vocals, piano, guitar, mandolin and bouzouki) are renowned for their seamless harmonies and affinity for each other on stage, they are stunning singers, songwriters, musicians and performers whose energy and commitment to their craft and their audience is boundless.
Chris and Julie have been nominated ten times in the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards in the 'Best Song, Best Duo, Best Live Act' categories, winning Best Duo but it is their longstanding and devoted growing fans that they care most about.
At Hepworth they will be featuring Chris' daughter Kellie While which adds a whole new level to their brilliant harmonies.
Friday 16th February - Gnoss
Doors 7:30 Start 8:00pm
Triple BBC Scots Trad Music Awards nominees, Scottish four-piece Gnoss have built an invested following through their forward-thinking take on traditional music and unique warmth to their live shows – as shown through three consecutive sellout appearances at Glasgow’s world-famous Celtic Connections festival.
Gnoss combines the talents of Aidan Moodie (Guitar/Vocals) Graham Rorie(Fiddle/Mandolin/Electric Tenor Guitar), Connor Sinclair (Flute/Whistles/Vocals) Craig Baxter (Bodhran/Percussion). Their signature sound is a rich tapestry of acoustic layers; outstanding musicianship, deep traditional roots and contemporary compositional flair combine to create songs and tunes brimming with character. Their 2019 release, Draw From Deep Water was met with widespread praise (“a refreshing blast” – RnR) for its exemplary interplay, nakedly emotional playing, and well-chosen material. The album brought Gnoss to entranced audiences across Frace, Italy and Denmark, not to mention the length and breadth of the UK.
Their follow up, The Light of The Moon continued to demonstrate Gnoss’ dedication to their craft that places them firmly at the fore of what’s happening in Scottish folk, earning a nomination for Album of the Year at the Scots Trad Music Awards. Described as “an invigorating new direction for the Gnoss boys” by Songlines, this album took Gnoss’ online fanbase by storm, gaining over one million streams in 2022.
With the release of their third album, 2023’s Stretching Skyward, Gnoss reignite their collaboration with producer and engineer, Scott Wood (Skerryvore), further exploring their acoustic roots whilst incorporating new electronic elements.
Friday 29th March - Reg Meuross
Doors 7:30 Start 8:00pm
We are delighted to welcome Reg back to Hepworth 13 years after he first played for us. In the years since Reg has developed a number of brilliant projects including 12 Silk Handkerchiefs, a song cycle marking the Hull Triple Trawler Disaster of 1968 and celebrating fish wife Lillian Bilocca’s fight for better safety on the trawlers. More recently he has been touring his album Stolen from God, unpicking the history of slavery and featuring a new collaboration for Reg for Reg, with kora master Jali Fily Cissokho alongside acclaimed concertina virtuoso Cohen Braithwaite-Kilcoyne. The album brings a global musical palette with Meuross’s striking lyrics sitting alongside his signature guitar/banjo, enhanced with Cohen-Braithwaite’s punchy playing and Cissokho’s sparkling contribution.
Reg’s clever and imaginative lyrics have earned him the title of “Master Storyteller” (PennyBlack Music) and led Mike Harding (Mike Harding Folk Show) to introduce him onto the stage of The Royal Albert Hall as “one of the finest singer-songwriters this country has produced”. Whether it’s a village hall or the Albert Hall, Reg brings to the stage a collection of extremely beautiful songs, performed with humour and depth, and sung with the voice of an angel. Reg has that rare gift of being able to touch people, through his songs and performance, on a really human level. His words and music paint pictures that remain with the listener long after the song has been sung.
Saturday 20th April -
Hannah Sanders & Ben Savage
Doors 7:30 Start 8:00pm
Since emerging in 2016, Hannah Sanders & Ben Savage have been defying all conventions of style, genre and compartmentalisation. A touch of ‘Americana’, yet quintessentially English. Traditional, yet contemporary, with their individual writing style. Playful and instinctive, they constantly do the unexpected; yet they do it with such panache and natural chemistry it makes perfect sense.
Hannah Sanders has an alluring mystique and a voice of disarming purity that massages your senses. Ben Savage is a bubbling ferment of energy and infectious enthusiasm, seemingly able to play any instrument you put in front of him with grace and favour.
They have recorded two studio albums to date, Before the Sun (2016) and Awake (2018) and have captivated audiences at shows and on festival stages alongside Americana and folk luminaries such as Sarah Jarosz, Martin Simpson, Seth Lakeman and Oh Susanna.
They are true originals, that’s all there is to it. Distinctive. Innovative. Ground-breaking. Unique.
Hannah & Ben release a new album Ink of the Rosy Morning on Topic Records in early 2022.
“Passion, precision and unbridled intimacy...An exquisite soundscape” - RnR
“Spellbinding... Hannah & Ben were born to play and sing together” - fRoots
“Flawless’ Folk Picks of the Month” - The Guardian
“Beautiful songs... haunting dreamlike folk music” - Songlines