James Keelaghan and Jez Lowe

James Keelaghan, too, burrows into that same rich seam with equal ability and comparable conviction. To quote Eric Bibb, the award-winning American acoustic bluesman, after listening to Keelaghan perform: “[You’re] a joy to hear, just beautiful.  Reminded me of the best of the best of another time – Liam Clancy, Tom Paxton etcetera.” Less colourful but more succinct, Dave Marsh, the eminent Rolling Stone critic, simply described Keelaghan as “Canada’s finest songwriter.”

Truly, throughout a career that now spans almost four decades, the Juno and Canadian Folk Music Award winner has created a repertoire of incalculable importance – a unique body of work, either inspired by or drawn from the folk tradition. Ten solo albums flush with enduring lyrical relevance. Take the beautiful but heartbreaking ballad, Jenny Bryce, for example. From any point of view, it’s indistinguishable from the numerous traditional tracks covered on his disc A Few Simple Verses. Jez Lowe is an award-winning songwriter, novelist, and one of the busiest and most admired performers on the UK folk scene, Jez Lowe is celebrating forty five years as a touring singer, songwriter and musician.

You may have heard Jez Lowe’s songs on albums by Fairport Convention, The Dubliners, The Unthanks, Wizz Jones, The Young Uns, The Tannahill Weavers, Megson, Bob Fox, The McCalmans, Liam Clancy, Cherish The Ladies, and many, many more…