When: 7.30pm on Thursday 19 June 2025
Where: YES Basement, 38 Charles Street, Manchester, M1 7DB

We’re delighted to be working with Basia Bulat for the first time – plus special guest Bryde!

Basia Bulat is a singer-songwriter living in Montreal, Canada. She offers both a distinctive voice and artistry that pulls as much from gospel and soul as it does from classic folk. In addition to her skills as a powerhouse vocalist, Bulat is an accomplished multi-instrumentalist, recording and performing on electric guitar, piano, autoharp, ukulele, bass and charango.

Her new album Basia’s Palace, mixed by Tucker Martine (Beth Orton, Neko Case, The National) and with string arrangements by Grammy-nominated composer Drew Jurecka (Dua Lipa, Metric, Alvvays), is set to be released on 21 February 2025.

Basia’s Palace got its start in 2022. A new home, a new family, a pause: the singer was finally finding time to hear her own thoughts, to think about old stories, to boot up her Nintendo to play Dragon Warrior 4. It brought to mind anecdotes Bulat had heard about Leonard Cohen – how he used to do his best writing at three or four a.m., before his kids woke up, when he’d sit and toy with his Casio’s presets. Now it was Bulat sneaking down to play RPGs or to make music on her MacBook, listening for the spirit-world at a time when the veil felt thinnest. The songs she was creating didn’t feel like anything she had recorded before – MIDI soundscapes that floated and gleamed, like hidden levels above (or below) the action.

The album that emerged from all this – that started in dawn-kissed synth instrumentals, lyrics scribbled down in a Hayao Miyazaki notebook – is the softest and most searching of her career. Basia’s Palace is like a time-travel score, with Bulat akin to Chrono Trigger’s intrepid adventurer, going back into the past to shape the events of the future. Throughout, Bulat pays tribute to the magic of creation and the spellwork of performance. This is the truest location of Basia’s Palace: not just the Mile End jam-space where she recorded much of this LP; not just her home, her family, or her searching spirit. But the moment itself – the one that happens on-stage, or in the instant of creation – when a song leaves Basia’s heart and leaps onto her lips.

Basia’s talent has also been recognised at scale: her songs have been adapted for major performances with symphony orchestras, and she has been invited to perform at prestigious tributes to Leonard Cohen, Daniel Lanois, Nick Cave and The Band. Since releasing her debut, she has shared the stage with artists like St Vincent, Sufjan Stevens, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, The National, Michael Kiwanuka, Daniel Lanois, Beirut, Destroyer, US Girls, Jim James and more. She’s been featured on NPR’s Tiny Desk Concerts, performed #LateShowMeMusic Series on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert, and on Later with Jools Holland, and received support from The Needle Drop, The New York Times and more. Bulat is a three-time Polaris Music Prize finalist and has been nominated for five JUNO Awards.

Special guest is Bryde. Bryde, aka Sarah Howells, is a woman and an electric guitar, playing fierce and fragile songs. Swaying from vulnerable to uncompromising within one verse and chorus, Bryde’s music is honest and furiously authentic. Fans have compared the music to acts as varied as Stevie Nicks, The Cranberries, Jeff Buckley, Lucy Dacus and even Taylor Swift.

Intrigued by psychology and the inner workings of relationships, Bryde’s songs hold close a defiant and life-affirming quality. Described as being about ‘entangling and unravelling’ they move from tender and delicate, to tough and unforgiving. Bryde established her ethereal indie-rock sound early on, working with producers such as Jolyon Thomas (Royal Blood) and Bill Ryder-Jones (Saint Saviour). Over the course of three albums Bryde has opened for Rufus Wainwright, played Green Man and Latitude festivals, sold-out several London headliners, and toured Europe and the US.

Bryde’s third album Still, released in July 2021, was nominated for the Welsh Music Prize. Since then Bryde has released a steady stream of songs from covers of the Tori Amos classic Silent All These Years and The National’s Brainy to recent release, Change Your Mind EP.

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When: 7.30pm on Thursday 19 June 2025
Where: Gullivers, 109 Oldham Street, Manchester, M4 1LW

We’re delighted to welcome AVAWAVES back to Manchester!

A transportive and euphoric meeting of violin, piano, and synth, AVAWAVES embrace a fusion of modern composition, ambient, and electronic styles while incorporating the pair’s acclaimed soundtrack work.

The international, contemporary virtuoso duo comprising Anna Phoebe and Aisling Brouwer, are celebrating the release of their third studio album, Heartbeat, which represents strength, resolve, and moving forward.

Special guest is Wyldest – composer of ambient, dreamy guitar music.

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When: 7pm on Friday 4 July 2025
Where: The Strines Nightingale, 105 Strines Rd, Strines, Marple, Stockport SK6 7GE

PLEASE NOTE: We have sold out – again! If there are any more tickets, they will be released during the week leading up to the shows, so please check back.

We’re excited to welcome Beans on Toast back to the woodland stage at the Strines Nightingale!

Beans on Toast is coming to town!

To celebrate the release of his new book Wild Folk People, Beans on Toast is throwing a summer party at our venue, and you’re all invited.

A legend of the folk and festival scene, Beans’ new book is a heartwarming, rebellious, and deeply human collection of tales about the extraordinary characters who’ve inspired his songs.

Expect a night of music, stories, drinking and dancing, with support from special guest musicians and DJs (to be announced soon).

Each venue has been handpicked for its unique charm and character, just like the stories in the book. This promises to be a unique evening from the one-of-a-kind songwriter, storyteller, and performer.

Here’s a message from Beans himself:

‘Heading back to The Strines Nightingale this July for a gig in their beautiful woodland beer garden. This is a very special boozer on the edge of the Peak District. I played here last year, it was an absolutely banging night and quite the inspiring experience.

‘It’s now home to The Glastonbury Oak [pictured above] – a story you’ll hear about very soon in the form of a song.

‘On sale now, limited numbers, so don’t mess about.

‘Beans xxx’

Support comes from Leo Baby (‘alternative folk/indie soul music’), while DJ Tails will be spinning some bouncy beats after the show.

The Strines Nightingale is a lovely country pub, formerly called the Sportsman, which re-opened in autumn 2022. Strines is on the Piccadilly-Sheffield train line, and on the 358 bus route from Stockport to Hayfield. This show, which will take place on the woodland stage (pictured above) will run until 10pm at the latest.

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When: 7pm on Saturday 5 July 2025
Where: Low Four Studio, Deansgate Mews, Great Northern, Manchester M3 4EN

Gratis – our series of free entry shows – returns, with Later Youth’s debut album launch!

Since fronting Manchester indie-folk favourites The Travelling Band, Jo Dudderidge has built a reputation as a sought-after producer, songwriter and session musician, working with an impressive roster of artists including Victoria Canal, Chloe Foy, Rose Gray, Stephen Fretwell, Human Interest, Joyeria, Bette Smith, and longtime collaborator Lissie.

With debut album Living History released on 4th July, Dudderidge steps back into the spotlight as Later Youth, his unmistakable voice and signature Wurlitzer electric piano taking centre stage, blending raw, heart-on-sleeve lyricism with fresh, idiosyncratic takes on classic rock, soul, blues, and alt-country.

This free entry show is the hometown celebration of Later Youth’s long-awaited debut album.

The show takes place at Low Four – a recording studio situated on Deansgate Mews in the Great Northern warehouse. This intimate venue features a Cloudwater bar.

This is a 14+ show. Under 16s must be accompanied by an adult.

This is a free entry show! Click here to reserve your place.

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When: 8pm on Thursday 10 July 2025
Where: Night & Day Cafe, 26 Oldham St, Manchester, M1 1JN

PLEASE NOTE: Due to exceptional demand, this show has been upgraded to Night & Day Cafe. Original tickets are valid and all other details remain the same (except doors are now at 8pm). Additional tickets are now available.

We’re delighted to working with Nick Shoulders for the first time!

All Bad, the latest album from Nick Shoulders, released via Gar Hole Records (a label founded and co-owned by Shoulders), ultimately encapsulates everything that makes Shoulders’ inimitable form of country music so vital: a heady balance of dazzling musicianship and punk defiance, coupled with gritty eccentricity and a generational connection to the roots of the genre.

With a singing style inherited from his family’s vocal lineage, Nick’s songs achieve the rare feat of imparting difficult truths while inciting a certain joyful abandon, balancing a sound forged by years of hard travel with a heartfelt reverence for the origins of country music. In the spirit of Hazel Dickens and Jimmy Driftwood, the incisive yet wildly jubilant All Bad vocally objects to the reckless destruction of the natural landscape and development run rampant, while still offering plenty of joy and dance-ready rhythms. Spanning a variety of early country styles, the album’s infectious harmonies shine alongside everything from jangling cajun waltzes to surf-rock infused bluesy ballads – all tied together by a voice seemingly out of place in this century, yet ever ready to speak up about its problems.

Surrounded by a singing style passed down from a time before microphones, Nick’s childhood of bird call whistles and an over-exposure to southern gospel music eventually steered him toward an adolescence drumming for metal and punk bands, and subsequent years as an active illustrator and member of Arkansas’s heavy music scene. After numerous personal calamities and a growing obsession with the rural musical traditions of his lifelong home, Shoulders left the Ozarks and lived out of his van, singing on the street corners of the west while slowly being drawn to the vibrance of the New Orleans dance and busking world.

Following the release of Rather Low by the popular YouTube channel Western AF, which catapulted Nick’s songs to a vastly wider audience right as Covid-19 and lockdowns ensued, he’s seen rapid ascension into the world of touring music, playing alongside the likes of Sierra Ferrell and at major festivals. With the hard rhythms and heavenly melodies of the newest release, All Bad, Shoulders manages to concoct a body of work that is at turns sublimely freewheeling and profoundly illuminating, yet primed to permanently warp the listener’s perspective to glorious effect.

Special guest is Gravedancer – an Arkansan living in Scotland. His new album Doghouse Flowers is out now on all streaming platforms.

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When: 7.30pm on Wednesday 16 July 2025
Where: Gullivers, 109 Oldham Street, Manchester, M4 1LW

We’re delighted to welcome Will Stratton and Trippers & Askers to Gullivers!

Points of Origin is Will Stratton’s eighth LP, and his third for Bella Union. His previous two albums, 2021’s The Changing Wilderness and 2017’s Rosewood Almanac, attracted positive recognition from the likes of Elton John, Alexis Petridis at the Guardian, Tom Doyle at Mojo, and Saby Reyes-Kulkarni at Pitchfork.

Will was born in Woodland, California in 1987, spent his formative years all over the greater Pacific Northwest and mid-Atlantic United States, and has lived and worked in the Hudson Valley town of Beacon, New York for the better part of the last decade.

‘Rich, filmic folk-country… a vivid, endlessly beguiling listen’ – Uncut, 8/10 (Americana Album of the Month)

‘Outstanding… Points of Origin is a rare gem of an album. It’s music bursting with poetry, narrative, filmic suggestions, and of course, life’ Americana UK, 9/10

Tour support comes from Trippers & Askers. Trippers & Askers is the folk/spiritual jazz project of musician, sound artist, educator and researcher Jay Hammond. The group’s latest album Acorn takes inspiration from Octavia Butler’s immersive and frighteningly prescient novel Parable of the Sower. As an intertextual work, Acorn brings together a wide array of collaborators that include members of Wye Oak, Califone, former Sun Ra member Ken Moshesh and comic artist John Jennings to explore the book’s narrative as it pertains to the very real political and emotional challenges of the present. The album was called ‘a shimmering homage to nature’ by the Guardian.

Local support comes from Jon Coley. Jon Coley is an acclaimed folk singer songwriter. He plays an eclectic mix of Blues, soul and folk, mixed with fresh original songwriting. He is renowned for his unique guitar playing passionate vocal performances, reminiscent of Van Morrison and Amos Lee. Jon is influenced by performers such as Nick Drake, Neil Young, James Taylor, Jackson Browne, Sam Cooke, Bert Jansch, Wizz Jones, classic blues and especially the music of John Martyn. He has quickly become a legendary figure in his present home of Manchester, and his family’s native Liverpool, where his grandfather worked to book bands for the Cavern Club alongside Bobby Wooler and owner Ray McFall. After years of live touring, Jon released his Mercury nominated album If All I Ever Wanted Was All I Ever Needed to critical acclaim in 2021.

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When: 7.30pm on Thursday 24 July 2025
Where: The Strines Nightingale, 105 Strines Rd, Strines, Marple, Stockport SK6 7GE

PLEASE NOTE: This show has now sold out! 

We’re excited to welcoming Joshua Burnside to the Strines Nightingale for an intimate show!

Joshua Burnside is an experimental folk songwriter, singer and producer. He takes influence from alternative electronica and Irish folk, chopping and blending them with a mixture of found sounds, world music and unorthodox production methods.

Following an award-winning debut album and an acclaimed follow-up released during the height of the global pandemic, his music lives against the grain, in both style and spirit. Raised in the north of Ireland between the lush drumlins and hills of Strangford Lough, and the narrow entries and alleyways of East Belfast, Joshua’s music has defined and defied the post-conflict society of his home.

Taking in the economics of existence, family, trauma and renewal, while set against a backdrop of tense electronica and lush Irish folk and traditional songwriting, Joshua has entrenched himself within the fabric of the modern folk canon, alongside the likes of Bon Iver, Ben Howard and Sufjan Stevens.

While his award-winning first album Ephrata took in lush landscapes, technological horrors, night terrors and wistful Columbian vistas (set against a bed of Irish folk, cumbia rhythms, and electronica), his critically acclaimed second Into The Depths Of Hell, took a far darker approach. Melding swirls of clanging metallic found sounds, alt-rock, and Irish songwriting traditions were supported by UK and US national radio and international tastemakers NPR, Guitar Magazine, CLASH, The Guardian, The Times and more.

His third album, Teeth Of Time, sits comfortably and confrontationally between the alt-folk realms of Bon Iver and Sufjan Stevens while retaining the indie singer-songwriter and traditional folk elements of Josh’s signature songwriting.

Special guest is Myles McCormack. Whether as a solo artist, or through his vital presence in Belfast’s world-beating trad scene, Myles McCormack is a master of his quietly emphatic craft. Recent collaborations with the likes of Réalta and Cathy Jordan have doubled down on the strengths of his solo work. The follow-up to 2019’s Real Talk, Myles’ second solo LP, To Better All Things, doubled down on the promise of something special back in January. On highlights and Every Time, and One Day the Belfast multi-instrumentalist paired sublime harmonies and fingerpicking finesse to wonderful effect.

This show takes place at the Strines Nightingale – a lovely country pub, formerly called the Sportsman, which re-opened in autumn 2022. Strines is on the Piccadilly-Sheffield train line, and on the 358 bus route from Stockport to Hayfield. This show will run until 10.30pm at the latest.

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When: 7.30pm on Friday 25 July 2025
Where: Gullivers, 109 Oldham Street, Manchester, M4 1LW

We’re delighted to welcome Lightheaded and Jeanines back to Manchester!

Jeanines and Lightheaded, two of the brightest American indiepop bands, have new albums coming out in June. Skep Wax Records (UK and Europe) are delighted to be co-releasing them alongside Slumberland Records (US).

Jeanines’ third album How Long Can It Last sees the New York band in total control of their songcraft, with thirteen miniature pop gems. Jeanines can fit in more melody and more breathtaking choruses in two minutes than most pop bands manage across an entire album. First single On And On demonstrates this perfectly. How can such a brief pop song be so overwhelming?

Lightheaded, from New Jersey, are one of the most exciting new US pop bands, and this album combines a brand new set of songs with five tracks from their delightful Good Good Great EP, a cassette-only release on Slumberland, now available on vinyl for the first time. Lightheaded bring together the songwriting discipline of Nancy and Lee with a modern appetite for noise and reverb. It’s possible to get utterly lost and absorbed in this album. The songs echo classics of the past but also feel like they’ve arrived from the distant future. It’s quite disorienting, but very exciting. The first single, Same Drop, is no exception to this rule.

A local opener will be announced closer to the show date.

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When: 7.30pm on Friday 8 August 2025
Where: The Castle Hotel, 66 Oldham Street, Manchester M4 1LE

We’re delighted to be helping Anna McLuckie launch her new single!

Anna McLuckie is a Scottish singer, songwriter and Clàrsach player. Raised on classical and traditional music, Anna’s writing draws on her musical beginnings and also takes influence from her love of popular music and more experimental sounds. Her music sits in a world of contemporary folklore; her songs layered with interweaving harmonies, story led lyricism and free form structures.

Based in London, she has performed in places around the world from Rockwood Music Hall NYC, to a concert series in Russia, to house shows and folk sessions. She’s appeared at festivals across the UK and supported the likes of Jake Xerxes Fussell, Rozi Plain and Richard Hawley.

In 2024 Anna took part in the Making Tracks residency and toured the UK with renowned global roots musicians. She is currently being mentored by English Folk Expo (Soundroots UK) and Kick Arts UK.

Her first full length album The Little Winters is set to be released in the back end of 2025.

‘Lush indie-folk at its finest, with Anna backing her dexterous picking with some equally sublime vocals’ – Klof Magazine

‘A haunting collection of nu-folk poetry set to music’ – Only A Northern One

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Photo by Andrea Terzuoli

When: 7.30pm on Monday 1 September 2025
Where: Gullivers, 109 Oldham Street, Manchester, M4 1LW

We’re delighted to be working with Lily Seabird for the first time!

Since 2023, Lily Seabird’s life has been in perpetual motion, spending nearly half of that time on the road performing her own music and as a touring bassist. While she thrives in transit, back home she is anchored by ‘Trash Mountain’, a pink house surrounded by other artists situated on a decommissioned landfill site at the back of Burlington’s Old North End. Here, Seabird has found belonging, friendship, and inspiration. It’s a place that hosts artists, puts on shows, and has been passed along in her friend group for the better part of the decade. It’s a symbol of transition and stability: something always evolving and growing but never losing its soul. It’s only fitting that Seabird named her new album Trash Mountain, as it also contains its namesake’s qualities. Over nine delicate but sturdy tracks of intimate folk rock, she pares her songwriting down to its most resonant essentials. It’s an album of unwelcome exits and uncertain futures, but there’s resiliency and hope at its core.

Where Seabird’s previous records – 2024’s Alas, and 2021’s Beside Myself – were written over the course of a year, Trash Mountain practically poured out of Seabird: three months of songwriting in spring 2024, followed by four days of tracking with Kevin Copeland (Hannah Frances, Lightning Bug, Allegra Krieger) in his Southern Vermont studio in the summer. While the grief that enveloped Alas,, which dealt with her best friend’s suicide, still lingers, it’s settled into healing and reflection on Trash Mountain. On It was like you were coming to wake us back up, Seabird vividly paints a brief moment of seeing a person outside her house who bears an uncanny resemblance to her dearly deceased. Rather than mourning, she finds comfort and healing in the vision. ‘In the past, I used to come to songwriting when I was in crisis,’ admits Seabird. ‘Only recently have I come to songwriting when I am feeling other things beyond emergency and disruption.’

The album’s arrangements are markedly sparse and intentional, a shift from the layered Alas, and Beside Myself, allowing Seabird’s writing to soar and stand starkly centred. Only three songs feature her longtime touring band in guitarist Greg Freeman, bassist Nina Cates (Robber Robber), and drummer Zack James (Dari Bay, Robber Robber). On the stunning How far away, she’s backed only by a piano played by Sam Atallah which makes for elegiac catharsis. ‘I’ve finally accepted that I’m a singer-songwriter,’ she says with a shrug. ‘Not everything has to be some big rock song.’ Seabird cites Elliott Smith, Neil Young and Leonard Cohen as influences on Trash Mountain, and much like the latter, her evocative, emotionally potent lyrics find her looking for cracks in the darkness where light comes in.

‘Vermont singer-songwriter Lily Seabird is one of SXSW 2025’s most compelling new voices… crushingly honest songs, and her weathered voice gives them a spellbinding quality… Seabird gave the performance that everyone would be talking about on their walks or rides home’ – Rolling Stone

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