Will has recorded on the brand new Martin Simpson "Airs and Graces" CD, alongside the likes of Richard Thompson, Dick Gaughan and Jon Boden. He is also working with Guy Chambers on various recording projects.

Their new album continues to notch up radio plays and has received many four and five star reviews in the music press.

Prepare to be astonished by stunning vocals, frailing banjo wizardry and sounds you didn’t think were possible on harmonica. This duo is destined for great things, with their ability to encompass an amazing array of musical genres with ease, energy and excellence!!!!

'The best banjo player I've seen in Britain.' Don Wayne Reno, Hayseed Dixie,

'Incredibly gifted - if anyone has the opportunity to see them they must.' Janice Long, BBC Radio 2,

"I've traveled to look for work, to mend a broken heart, to be with someone I longed for. I'd travel to visit friends and on the way I'd make new ones, I'd roam because I was curious to see what was around the next corner, sometimes I traveled to follow the warmer weather and migrate... like the birds and the big whales and fishes do". Rory

In 1986, Aly Bain and Phil Cunningham got together to work on a pilot TV show, and a partnership was born. The combination of their unique, exquisite and exciting musical talents has held audiences enthralled for quarter of a century.

Their recipe for success has been their shared love of strong melody. They borrow not only from their native traditions of Shetland and Scotland, but also from Scandinavia, French Canada, Eastern Europe. in fact anywhere that melody shines. Phil and Aly take these tunes and craft them with their respective instrumental skills, playing with soul and passion that is unsurpassed. Phil's self penned airs, now very much a part of the living tradition regularly leave the audience searching for a Kleenex once Aly has coaxed every ounce of emotion from the notes. Their mind boggling dexterity has to be seen to be believed.

Two of Scotland's best loved musicians, still friends after all these years, continue to forge a path for the music they love, individually and collectively gathering accolades along the way, including 10 honorary Doctorates between them, 2 MBEs and a Professorship, countless industry awards but most importantly to them... the love and respect of their peers and their audience.

MSP Mike Russell said, "They are quite simply the best traditional musicians you are ever likely to hear."

Self-taught on guitar and violin, he is a lifelong autodidact -- and his independent streak shines through in his composition and studio work. Always direct and unafraid to speak his mind, his song writing has been praised for its surgical clarity. His work is typified by his trust in the space music can create and a gift for lyrical understatement. He cites his major influence as "Anon".

He has worked with Billy Bragg, Andy Gangadeen, Andy Cutting, Jean François Vrod and Hugh Lupton (Wood and Lupton's "One in a Million" won Best Original Song at the BBC 2 Folk Awards in 2006). Recently he has worked alongside Martin and Eliza Carthy and others in The Imagined Village: "Cold Haily Rainy Night", performed by Wood and Eliza Carthy, took the award for Best Traditional Song at the Folk Awards in 2008.

He set up R.U.F Records in 1992 and this label continues to carry his catalogue. He also founded The English Acoustic Collective, a movable feast of musicians, writers, photographers and choreographers who look to England's indigenous arts as their inspiration. His first solo album, The Lark Descending, was released in 2006 to wide acclaim. “A lyrical, pensive album ... possessed of a timeless quality.” The Observer Music Monthly.

In 2009 his album, Trespasser, took on the idea of enclosure: spiritual, intellectual, cultural and physical. Billy Bragg writing in The Independent said “Come Down Jehovah, is a measured statement of atheism that puts Dawkins to shame!” Wood went on to receive "Album of The Year" and “Singer of the Year” from BBC Radio Two.

He has been more reticent about the genesis of Handmade Life -- but the material clearly stems from a desire to explore a less human-centered world, and a world more engaged with the actual than the virtual.

"It's all the little things are what we find that matter now that the circus has left town".

"Chris Wood has developed into an exceptional songwriter …venturing into areas that few artists would dare tackle." The Guardian ★★★★

"Wood"s tongue is truer than most." The Times

"It really needs to win an award. The band is a marvel and Wood's unpretentious singing carries real weight." The Independent.

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The writer of the classic songs The Slipjigs and Reels, Here’s to Tom Paine and The Naked Highwayman, has turned author. Steve has recently published his first novel – full of colourful characters All for Poor Jack is an historical tale set in Bristol and the “New World”. “The longest song I’ve ever written!” says Steve.

In 2007 Steve was given the boxed-set treatment by Free Reed, the company behind the Richard Thompson anthology; Reaching Back: the Life and Music of Steve Tilston features classic, rare, previously unreleased and new recordings and is a timely celebration of an eventful career; comprising five CDs including tracks contributed by fellow musicians and admirers. In 2009 his early career was hi-lighted in a book Bristol Folk, the story of Bristol’s powerhouse folk & blues scene in the 1960s & 70s.

Born in Liverpool and raised in the Midlands, Steve made his recording debut in 1971 with the classic An Acoustic Confusion and has been turning out quality albums ever since. Life by Misadventure, And So It Goes, Solo Rubato and Such and Such all featuring first-class song-writing, quintessentially English in style and typically Tilston, marking him out as one of this country’s finest writers. Whilst the instrumental Swans at Coole is testament to his guitar virtuosity. Though known as a songwriter, Steve has always had an ear for the tradition and included new interpretations of old favourites on his original recordings. Of Many Hands is his first “all-traditional” album paying homage to his roots, with unique arrangements of timeless classics. He’s also released a “best of” anthology, The Greening Wind and a live album Live Hemistry recorded on tour with Fairport Convention. On his 2008 album Ziggurat he deftly weaves his mastery on original songs of love, loss, war and gold, plus a couple of traditional gems, as only he can. His new album The Reckoning is out now.

He joined an illustrious band of guitarists including Martin Simpson, Michael Messer and Wizz Jones, when he was invited to contribute to the Guitar Maestro series of DVDs; a combination of live studio performance and interviews, revealing the real passion behind these talented musicians…If anyone ever deserved the moniker Guitar Maestro, it’s Steve Tilston!

Best loved as a solo performer, Steve also works with accordionist Chris Parkinson and bassist Dave Bowie. He’s toured with John Renbourn’s Ship of Fools, in a stunning musical partnership with traditional singer Maggie Boyle; making the classic recordings Of Moor and Mesa and All Under the Sun, as guitarist with Ballet Rambert with Maartin Allcock and Pete Zorn in WAZ! and with Brooks Williams in A Transatlantic Song-Swap. He’s also collaborated with his daughter Martha Tilston, in the charming “like father, like daughter…” show.

A celebrated artist in Britain and abroad, winning accolades in Europe, Australia and the USA, his songs have been recorded by Fairport Convention, Dolores Keane, The House Band, Peter Bellamy, North Cregg, Bob Fox and John Wright. Here’s to Tom Paine is the adopted theme song for the Tom Paine Society of America and it’s been rumoured, has featured in Bruce Springsteen’s live set. His music has also featured regularly on radio and TV.

Just announced on the Mike Harding Show – Steve Tilston’s song “The Reckoning” has been nominated in the “Best Original Song” category in the 2012 BBC Folk Awards!

Dave joined the Ian Campbell Folk Group in the early 60s. In 1966 he teamed up with Martin Carthy and this remarkable pairing played an important part in the tremendous shake up given to British folk music in the middle to late 60s. When they parted in 1969 Dave joined Fairport Convention and his contribution to folk and folk/rock music is legendary and well documented.

In 1984 Dave left Fairport and, along with Kevin Dempsey, Chris Leslie and Martin Jenkins, formed Whippersnapper, a group renowned for its drive and acoustic prowess. In 1989 Dave decided to leave to concentrate on solo work and revive his partnership with Martin Carthy.

In the early 90s Dave and Martin were members of the folk "supergroup" Band of Hope along with such luminaries as Roy Bailey, Steafan Hannigan, John Kirkpatrick and Chris Parkinson. The band toured twice and produced one CD, "Rhythm and Reds".

In 1993 Dave moved to Australia where he met and began working with Alistair Hulett on three acclaimed CDs. Dave returned to England in 1996. He and Kevin Dempsey started making music together shortly afterwards. While touring Europe with Kevin in 1999, Dave became seriously ill and for the next six years battled against emphysema. Famously killed off by the Daily Telegraph in 1999, Swarb continues to confound the press and the medical profession. His double lung transplant operation has meant a renewed zest to be playing again. Since then he has traveled with his band, Swarb’s Lazarus, and has been re-united with both Martin Carthy and Alistair Hulett for outstanding duo tours. He has recently returned to solo performances for the first time in a decade with a show that is another memorable and triumphant chapter in his long career.

In 2004 Swarb received a Lifetime Achievement Award in the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards and in 2006 Fairport Convention received an award for "Liege And Lief". In 2007 Swarb received another award at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards, this time for Best Duo (with Martin Carthy) as well as being nominated in the best instrumentalist category. In 2008 he won the Hancock Award for Musician of the Year.

In 2010 Swarb released ‘raison d’être’, his first solo album for nearly 20 years. Backed by a startling array of guest musicians, including Beryl Marriott, Martin Carthy, John Kirkpatrick, Kev Dempsey and a Canadian reggae outfit (The Jason Wilson Band), Swarb produced one of the greatest and most innovative albums of his long career. Reviewed in over 20 publications, it received a four star award in Mojo and was described as "truly stunning" by Living Tradition. FROOTS said, " His fiddle flits and swoops like a swallow in full flight" whilst R2(Rock'n'Reel) praised his "masterclasses in bowing". EFDSS Magazine described it as "the work of a fine fiddler who simply refuses to lie down and rest on his not inconsiderable laurels."

There is no-one who has more successfully combined the diverse elements of British, Afro-American and old-timey music than Simpson. His 15 years living in the US were well spent. In addition his own songwriting has produced some real gems, from the truck-stop epic, “Love Never Dies” to the profoundly moving “Never Any Good” and "One Day".

His career includes collaborations on stage and record with June Tabor, Kelly Joe Phelps, Jackson Browne, Danny Thompson, Danú, Martin Carthy, Cara Dillon, David Lindley, Roy Bailey, Martin Taylor, David Hidalgo, Steve Miller, Dick Gaughan and many more.

Martin has been nominated an astounding 23 times in the eleven years of the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards - more than any other performer - with 9 consecutive years as nominee for Musician of The Year, which he has won twice. 2008 saw an incredible 5 nominations for "Prodigal Son' and 2 wins, whilst in 2010 he had an unprecedented 6 nominations for his CD, "True Stories" and a win for Best Traditional Track, "Sir Patrick Spens".

Whether playing American old-time music, blues, a Dylan song or his own material, Martin Simpson is unpredictable, individual and a guitarist of immense subtlety.

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He has authored a number of books including The Craneskin Bag, a re-telling and re-versifications of Celtic lore and Celtic Bards, Celtic Druids (co-authored with R.J. Stewart).

Robin is Honorary Chief Bard of The Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids.

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