Owen Spafford & Louis Campbell

Owen Spafford and Louis Campbell are the reason Folk Inspiration was created. After their breath-taking performance in a double-header with Andy Cutting for our first concert at the Boileroom last year, their return to Guildford was inevitable! This time, we have paired Owen and Louis with London-based folk singer Amy Hollinrake in the support slot. We can’t wait to hear Amy’s striking vocals and Spafford Campbell’s “beautiful, swirling, modern English folk music” in the wonderful acoustics of St Mary’s Church.

What to expect: This will be an acoustic, candle-lit concert. Owen (fiddle) and Louis (acoustic guitar) play with subtlety, intimacy and a real sense of maturity, producing a sound far beyond their years. Their love of The Gloaming, Lau, Nic Jones and Andy Cutting is expressed to the listener right alongside their love of Arooj Aftab, Big Thief, Bill Frisell and Sigur Ros. Improvisation, humour and musicality make each live performance unique. YouTube: Adson's - Live from the Cowshed.

OWEN SPAFFORD AND LOUIS CAMPBELL

Owen Spafford (The Weaving) and Louis Campbell (Sam Sweeney) met as teenagers, as part of the first cohort of the National Youth Folk Ensemble. Since forming their duo in 2018, they have been nominated for the BBC Young Folk Award and received play on BBC Radio 2,3 and RTE1. A shared musical ‘true north’ and lasting friendship enable the duo to make two instruments seemingly sound as one; creating subtle and emotive textures that re-calibrate the fiddle and guitar duo idiom.

Their critically acclaimed debut album, ‘You, Golden’ (04/11/22) was self-produced and recorded live in just two and a half days with engineer Joe Garcia (Idles, Blowzabella). It features a mixture of traditional and self-penned material, though the line is intentionally blurred to unite the two - leaving listeners questioning which is which.

Owen has performed for the leaders of the commonwealth states and has received a scholarship to study composition at the Royal Academy of Music.

Louis joined Sam Sweeney’s band at 19 while at the Royal Northern College of Music where he studied under Martin Simpson, Stuart McCallum and Craig Ogden.

“Beautiful, swirling, modern English folk music” - Mark Radcliffe, BBC Radio 2

AMY HOLLINRAKE

Amy Hollinrake’s upcoming EP ‘sad lady songs vol. 1’ is set to release this October. Watch the video of her latest single Milk Jug. Her work draws on women’s stories within folklore and mythology and fuses them with a contemporary sound placing her at the forefront of the new era of feminist neo-folk, with musical touchstones in Joanna Newsom, Sandy Denny and This is the Kit with touches of the emotional directness of Paris Paloma. She also plays the Appalachian Dulcimer and has a passion for drones. YouTube: Amy Hollinrake - It Draws the Same.

Amy has performed at Cambridge Folk Festival, Cambridge Junction, Green Note, Kings Place, and Royal Albert Hall. Her music has garnered attention from the likes of BBC 6 Music’s Marc Riley and Tom Robinson, BBC Introducing and BBC Radio 4 Woman’s Hour.

She is a former awardee of EFDSS and the Bert Jansch Foundation for her work.

'a pastoral soundscape to immerse yourself in'

Tom Robinson, BBC Radio 6 Music Introducing

'Absolutely haunting'

Emma Barnett, BBC Radio 4 Woman's Hour