Thursday 27th March
CHRIS BRAIN + special guest Natalie Wildgoose
£9 | £11 [+10% booking fee]
Doors open 7.30pm – limited tickets on the door
Seated 14+ show | U16s must be accompanied by a responsible adult
Yorkshire’s Chris Brain has carved his place firmly into the contemporary folk scene following his highly-regarded first two albums, Bound to Rise (2022) and Steady Away (2023).
Garnering acclaim from the likes of Cerys Matthews (BBC 6 Music) and Mark Radcliffe (BBC Radio 2), he has since shared the stage with iconic acts like Robert Plant, Jacqui McShee and Martin Simpson.
With the release of his third much-anticipated album, New Light, in Spring 2025, he will be embarking on a UK/Ireland solo tour. New Light brings a refreshingly contemporary sound as Chris contemplates transformation, nostalgia and tenderness in times of vulnerability – all woven around his familiar gestures towards the natural world.
From sublimely deployed strings and dappling piano to rhythmic percussion, the album’s arrangements are perfectly wrapped around Brain’s honeyed vocals, anchoring fingerpicked guitar and persuasive melodies.
Recorded in various locations, from his allotment shed to The Nave Studios, New Light embodies the expanded parameters that his sound has reached. Both intimate and expansive, New Light expresses a surety of Chris Brain’s song-writing abilities with the album’s imagery and melodies dwelling long after the music ends.
‘There are shades of the master Ralph Mctell here and I can think of no greater compliment than that…Love it!’ Mark Radcliffe , BBC 2 Folk Show
Recalling the spectral crackles of Molly Drake, or the heart-wrenching intimacies of Josephine Foster, Natalie Wildgoose’s ghostly take on folk tradition carries the powerful, rarefied qualities of an unearthed archive recording, so much so that you can almost blow the the dust from it.
Writing and recording on various pianos across the Yorkshire Dales using her grandfather’s old reel-to-reel tape recorder, Natalie’s EP Come Into The Garden seeks to uncover the past; to reconnect with and capture the environments of the places and people that hold her.
Following on from last year’s debut EP ‘First Birdsongs’, which brought Natalie radio attention from BBC Radio 1, BBC 6Music (Introducing Mixtape), BBC Introducing and NTS, CLASH and IDLER.
Nominated for last year’s Green Man Rising, Natalie has also played at Wilderness, How The Light Gets In, Roundhouse Rising festivals, performing at The Royal Albert Hall, The Royal Academy of Arts, and at Abbey Road Studios for BBC Introducing Live.
‘Dreamy’ Tom Robinson, BBC Radio 6Music
Bookings are not currently available for this event.