The London Folk & Roots Festival presents:

The London Folk & Roots Festival * Blair Dunlop + Rory Butler

The Lexington, London, GB

£14 Adv
Entry Requirements: 18+
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Blair released his celebrated album ‘House Of Jacks’ in mid-2014. His second full length record lived up to the promise of his 2012 debut (the quality of which contributed to his winning the BBC Radio 2 Horizon Award) and cemented his place as one of Britain’s most exciting talents to come from the folk scene. The Guardian stated that the ‘House Of Jacks’ proves Blair is ‘an increasingly adventurous songwriter’, Uncut reviewed it as ‘thoughtful and exploratory’, The Independent on Sunday described it as ‘fluent, lamentory and accomplished’ while Q Magazine wrote that House of Jacks is ‘an exciting glimpse of where traditional folk might go’.

"I’m really excited for the new record" said Blair, "and I can’t wait to tour it. The songs are the usual narrative on society and the sound is more cohesive. The tour will bring new songs and old favourites together at some of my favourite venues. I can’t wait to see the reaction"

The album has been recorded at Blueprint Studios in Manchester (home of Elbow) and Blair has continued to consolidate his sound with regular band members Jacob Stoney and Fred Claridge. Blair has now teamed up with Absolute Label Services to release his new album on his own record label. These are exciting times for Blair as he explains:

“The new album is a work I am already incredibly proud of...I feel like I have finally understood my many influences and started to define my own sound and style. The songs all have my familiar narrative and, having teamed up with Absolute, it’s an amazing feeling to have my own label to release on."

Every acoustic singer-songwriter will claim they were born with music in their blood, but few were born with music in their basement. Rory Butler’s childhood home was built on music; his father ran a recording studio in the cellar. It’s unsurprising then, that music became Rory’s world. Encouraged by his parents and their love of Woody Guthrie, Joni Mitchell, Tim Buckley and early John Martyn, Rory’s childhood was spent recording whole albums of “very strange material” in the basement studio with his brother, the experimental post-rock foil to his budding acoustic artistry. When he came of age and moved to Glasgow to study English at university, he shunned the rock community to play solo acoustic shows at local pub open mic nights, where he gradually developed his endearingly open onstage persona, unpicking the stories behind his songs with a dry, self-deprecating charm. Rory is just back from a full UK and European tour supporting Matthew and the Atlas and is now working on his next release which is expected in Spring 2018.

Line Up

The London Folk & Roots Festival * Blair Dunlop + Rory Butler