When: 7.30pm on Thursday 21 May 2026
Where: Hallé St Peter’s, 40 Blossom Street, Ancoats, Manchester, M4 6BF

We’re excited to be working with Jerron Paxton again!

Growing up in Los Angeles, Jerron Paxton would sit with an ear by the radio, eagerly absorbing the nuances and history of Black American traditional music that connect him to his ancestral roots in the South.

A songwriter, inheritor of tradition, and a walking, talking jukebox, Paxton approaches his craft with equal part wit and reverence, with a knack for leg-pulling and cracking wise. Things Done Changed (Smithsonian Folkways) is an album of original songs that sound beamed in from nearly a century ago, when jazz and blues were performed as a means of both personal and cultural survival.

Lick by lick, Paxton builds a bridge between generations gone and generations to come, singing the heartaches and joys of the past and present.

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

This is an unreserved seating show.

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When: 7pm on Friday 22 May 2026
Where: Low Four Studio, Deansgate Mews, Great Northern, Manchester M3 4EN

We’re excited to present a free entry show at Low Four featuring Tulpa and more!

Tulpa are an indie rock band from Leeds. Their sound contrasts detuned and lo-fi guitar textures with hyper-melodic vocals, creating songs with emotional warmth and sonic intrigue. The group consists of Josie Kirk, Daniel Hyndman, Myles Kirk and Mike Ainsley. They have recently supported Throwing Muses, Pale Blue Eyes and The Bug Club and have recorded a live session for Marc Riley and Gideon Coe on BBC 6 Music.

In the creative hotbeds of the UK’s DIY festivals and indie venues Tulpa have already gathered a loyal following. Live, their songs lean into texture and tone, creating a dreamy atmosphere and distortion that feels like a big hug. The songs meander from catchy hooks into tangents of musical experimentation and guitar wizardry. The lyrics are sometimes abstract, sometimes mysterious, but always direct and powerful expressions of universal human emotion.

Tulpa’s debut album Monster of the Week was be released by Skep Wax Records in November. It was recorded by Jamie Lockhart (The Cribs, Mush, Drahla). The record is the first ever album to be produced at Jamie’s new studio at Lamigo Bay, a picturesque and remote region of the Highlands.

FFO: Breeders, Pavement, Yo La Tengo etc.

Joining Tulpa is new band Scania, who blend digital with analogue; samples with live instruments; New Wave with electronica and Transpenine travel.

And opening the show are DDHP – four people from Manchester who own many cats and who all believe Matt was the most important member of Weezer. FFO: The Replacements, Pixies and The Rentals.

This free entry show is part of Mews Fest 2026 – no need to book in advance, just turn up on the night!

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

Attend on: Facebook

When: 7pm on Sunday 24 May 2026
Where: Carlton Club, Rowan Lodge, 113 Carlton Road, Whalley Range, Manchester M16 8BE

We’re delighted to be promoting the Manchester leg of Anna McLuckie’s ‘The Little Winters Tour’ – at the Carlton Club!

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 at the start of 2026.

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

‘A voice like birdsong’ – Bella Caledonia

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

Special guest is Ellen Beth Abdi. Mancunian music-maker Ellen Beth Abdi crafts wonky, soul-infused pop with live loops, pokey drums and quietly subversive lyrics. A rising force in Manchester’s scene, she’s supported The Stone Roses, performed with New Order and A Certain Ratio, and shared stages with Olivia Dean, Hollie Cook and Angélique Kidjo. Her debut album dropped in May 2025 via her own label, Sweet Twenty-Three Records.

Book tickets now.

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When: 7pm on Monday 25 May 2026
Where: YES Basement, 38 Charles Street, Manchester, M1 7DB

We’re excited to welcome Charlie Parr back – this time, to YES.

In the music of Charlie Parr, there is a sincere conviction and earnest drive to create. The Minnesota-born guitarist, songwriter, and interpreter of traditional music has released 19 albums over two decades and has been known to perform up to 275 shows a year. Parr is a folk troubadour in the truest sense: taking to the road between shows, writing and rewriting songs as he plays, fueled by a belief that music is eternal and cannot be claimed or adequately explained. The bluesman poet pulls closely from the sights and sounds around him, his lyrical craftsmanship built by his influences. The sounds from his working-class upbringing—including Folkways legends such as Lead Belly and Woody Guthrie—imbue Parr’s music with stylistic echoes of blues and folk icons of decades past. Parr sees himself merely as a continuer of a folk tradition: “I feel like I stand on a lot of big shoulders,” he said in an interview. “I hope that I’ve brought a little bit of myself to the music.”

With a discography simultaneously transcendental in nature and grounded in roots music, Charlie Parr is the humble master of the 21st century folk tradition. Parr started recording in Duluth in 2002, where he lives today. Life in the port town on Lake Superior has a way of bleeding into his work the same way his childhood in Austin, Minnesota does. Parr self-released his debut album, Criminals and Sinners, and did the same for his sophomore album 1922 (2002). With growing popularity abroad, Parr signed with Red House Records in 2015, where he recorded break-out albums Stumpjumper (2015) and Dog (2017). Parr’s music has an overwhelming sense of being present and mindful, and his sound is timeless.

Parr’s mastery of his craft is only more apparent when contextualised within the history of folk tradition of which Parr has dedicated his practice The land and lives around and intersecting with Parr have always influenced him, from the hills and valleys of Hollandale, Minnesota to the Depression-era stories from his father. Parr strives to listen to everything: “I don’t see that I’d ever be capable of creating anything if it weren’t for these inspirations and influences, books and music as well as the weather and random interactions with strangers and animals. So, the well never runs dry as long as my eyes and ears are open,” Parr said in a 2020 interview. Before he was even 10 years old Parr was rummaging through his father’s record collection—sometimes drawing dinosaurs on the vinyl sleeves—and listening to country, folk, and blues legends, many of whom are staples in the Folkways catalog. When Parr sings and plays his resonator or 12-string, you can hear influences like Mance Lipscomb, Charley Patton, Spider John Koerner, Rev. Gary Davis, and Dock Boggs. This is especially true in his playing, when, after a diagnosis of focal dystonia, Parr turned to greats like Davis, Doc Watson, and Booker White for two-finger picking inspiration. Gifted a 1965 Gibson B-45 12-string by his father, Parr has never had a formal lesson and learned by listening to records and watching musicians he admired.

Parr’s first album with Smithsonian Folkways, Last of Better Days Head (2021), foregrounded his lyrical craftsmanship and sophisticated bluesman confidence, with spare production highlighting Parr’s mastery of guitar and elevating his poetry. Last of Better Days Ahead is a portrait of how Parr saw the world in that moment, reflecting on time and memories that have passed while holding an enduring desire to be present. In his 2024 release, Little Sun, Parr weaves together stories celebrating music, community, and communing with nature. Putting forth an ambitious and raw album that exemplifies the best of Parr’s sound: a blend of the blues and folk traditions he continues to carry with him and the steadfast originality of a poet.

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: 7pm on Thursday 28 May 2026
Where: Low Four Studio, Deansgate Mews, Great Northern, Manchester M3 4EN

We’re delighted to welcome Carla J Easton to Low Four Studio!

Following her 2023 album Sugar Honey, Scottish songwriter, producer and now filmmaker Carla J Easton (Teen Canteen, Poster Paints, The Vaselines) made an award-winning documentary called Since Yesterday, about the history of pioneering Scottish girl groups. Often a collection of women who hardscrabbled their way through the industry with little more than, as the cliche goes, three chords and the truth, their stories inspired Easton to take a new approach to her fifth album I Think That I Might Love You. She picked up the guitar and learned it for the first time, pushing her keyboard sound to the fringes on an album that’s a celebration of guitar-led music – pop, indie and power. The single Oh Yeah, out 11 February, is the first track and mission statement of this sound.

The single, like the rest of the album, was recorded off the floor at the fabled Chem 19 studio and is an example of the collaborative nature of I Think That I Might Love You. Co-written with Simon Liddell (Poster Paints, Frightened Rabbit) – the rest of the album features collaborations with MALKA (Hen Hoose), Man of the Minch, Stevie Jackson (Belle and Sebastian), Johnny Scott (Chvrches) and outsider indie legend Darren Hayman of Hefner – Oh Yeah was written after Easton and Liddell had gone to see a Teenage Fanclub show.

‘Oh Yeah is the sound of loving someone who doesn’t quite love you back, but giving that love anyway,’ explains Easton. ‘Knowing the cost and paying the price with a defiant smile; beauty with a bruise underneath. It’s a song about reaching outward, leaning forward, heart wide open, and hoping to be caught.’

‘It’s not bitter – I think it’s brave to let yourself glow for someone even if they are half a step away. Musically, there are big Teenage Fanclub guitars, huge strings, and harmonies stacked like confessions you never quite say out loud. It’s the sound of standing in your bedroom, heart pounding, replaying voice notes that don’t say what you hope they will, and still pressing play again. The reckless, gorgeous place where you still believe love might turn around and choose you.

‘It was brilliant to work with Simon again on some new songs!’

Done in under two minutes, Oh Yeah is a Jenga tower of harmonies, 4/4 drums, riffs, melodies that almost threatens to collapse under the weight of its sheer joy but comes out the other side as a celebration of love, friendship and community.

Oh Yeah and I Think That I Might Love You are both produced by Howard Bilerman (Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Wolf Parade, U.S. Girls, The Weather Station).

The album was made with support from Creative Scotland.

Main support comes from Creepy Crawly. Creepy Crawly is the project of Bristol-born and Manchester-based musician Rachel Cawley, weaving bittersweet narratives through shimmering, multilayered songwriting. Her distinctive crystalline vocals guide listeners through ethereal dreamscapes, moments of eerie unease, and the satisfying crunch of ’90s alt-rock melancholy. Growing up in the rural West of England, her music is, in part, inspired by a childhood soundtracked by folk revival artists and traditional British folk music. But the pull of the city was huge and, aged 18, she moved to London and submerged herself in the many worlds of music available to her there – working at venues, writing for music magazines, temping at record labels – and going to a lot of gigs. But, as it so often does, London spat her back out.

And so, during a period of self-reckoning with the question of ‘how the hell did I get here?’, living a life that seemed frighteningly ordinary, she returned to writing songs – tracing out the path of how she found herself in a place she didn’t want to be – and armed with newfound hope and resilience, plotting a route back out of it. The result of this reflective work is her debut album Like a Real Thing, which will be self-released on 30 May 2025 and draws from a diverse palette of influences including Scott Walker, Big Thief, Laura Marling, Anne Briggs, Cat Power, Breeders and Heatmiser.

Opening the show is Broken Chanter. Broken Chanter is the stage name of Glaswegian songwriter David MacGregor. Broken Chanter can be MacGregor on his own or, more often than not, with an array of extremely talented musicians joining him. His latest album, Chorus Of Doubt, (‘Agit-pop with heart, 8/10’ – UNCUT) was released by Chemikal Underground in April 2024 and was on the longlist of 20 for the 2024 Scottish Album of the Year (SAY) Award. Prior to this incendiary new gem of an LP, MacGregor has released two critically acclaimed albums as Broken Chanter – 2019’s eponymous introduction to his new guise (‘A stunning, stately debut’ – The Skinny) and 2021’s Catastrophe Hits (‘Muscular, fast-moving indie-pop’ – The Scotsman).

He spent 2007-2017 as the principal songwriter of Scottish alt-pop darlings Kid Canaveral – a band that could get you to dance, laugh, and weep all in the space of the same set. Their debut LP Shouting at Wildlife was described by The Herald as ‘a Scottish pop classic that should be mandatory in every record collection in the country’, and saw the band perform across a large chunk of the western hemisphere, with the similarly well-received follow-up Now That You Are a Dancer being longlisted for the SAY Award in 2014.

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

This show is a co-promotion with Please Please You and the Brudenell.

Book tickets now.

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When: 7.30pm on Thursday 28 May 2026
Where: YES Pink Room, 38 Charles Street, Manchester, M1 7DB

We’re excited to be working with Nora Brown and Stephanie Coleman for the first time!

Nora Brown is the ‘brightest young star in old-time music’ (Songlines), playing traditional music focused on southern Appalachian banjo and guitar, with her singing revealing her ‘thirst for storytelling’ (NPR). She digs deep: ‘A reverent nod to deeply-rooted ole-time traditions, and an exhibit of sonic heirlooms carefully amended to meet a modern moment with vintage elegance,’ according to American Songwriter. The New Yorker called her most recent solo record Long Time To Be Gone ‘a disarming collection of traditional laments and exquisite banjo instrumentals’.

Nora will perform in a duo with award-winning fiddler Stephanie Coleman. First brought together by Brooklyn’s tight-knit old-time music community, Nora Brown and Stephanie Coleman share a rich musical partnership that belies their 20 year age difference. Stephanie is a master old-time fiddler, having recorded with and toured internationally over the last two decades with celebrated artists including trailblazing all-women string band Uncle Earl.

Beginning at age six, under the tutelage of the late musician and scholar Shlomo Pestcoe, Brown also counts Alice Gerrard, George Gibson and the late John Cohen, Lee Sexton and John Haywood among her teachers and mentors. Just 19 years old, Brown has released three albums, a single, and an EP on Jalopy Records – all of which have charted on the Billboard Bluegrass Charts during the first week of release. Across each haunting collection of traditional music, Brown’s playing is lucid, confident, and full of grace.

She has toured across the US, Europe, and Japan, playing renowned festivals including the Newport Folk Festival, Cambridge Folk Festival, Roskilde Festival in Denmark, Winnipeg Folk Festival, and Live Magic! in Tokyo. She has performed on NPR’s Tiny Desk twice, TED Salon, WNYC’s Dolly Parton’s America and an official showcase at the 2022 Americana Fest in Nashville.

‘A disarming collection of traditional laments and exquisite banjo instrumentals’ –  The New Yorker

Local support comes from Séamus Óg. Séamus Óg is a boundary-pushing Irish musician from Carrickfergus whose roots in traditional music, storytelling, and island life shape a sound both timeless and strikingly original. Bursting onto the Manchester folk scene with his albums Best Masala Tea and Terry’s Síbín, Séamus has gone on to share stages with the likes of Brìghde Chaimbeul, Chris Brain, Ríoghnach Connolly, and Mikey Kenney.

His most recent release, Haul The Pots (out May 2025), has already earned multiple features and critical acclaim, further cementing his reputation as a distinctive new voice in contemporary folk. A key part of that voice is his rare and self-adapted instrument, the cittern, with shimmering tones, lend his music a hypnotic, otherworldly quality. Supported by BBC, RTÉ, Celtic FM, and Radio Fáilte, Séamus crafts rich, harmony-laden songs that draw listeners into a dreamlike world — where tales of land, love, and longing unfold with quiet power and poetic charm.

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When: 7pm on Saturday 30 May 2026
Where: The Stoller Hall, Hunts Bank, Manchester M3 1DA

We’re delighted to welcome The Handsome Family back to the Stoller Hall!

The Handsome Family today announce a UK and Irish tour to mark the re-release of their classic album Singing Bones. The album was the sixth album from the husband and wife outfit of Brett and Rennie Sparks and was the first record from the band since moving away from the midwestern alternative country scene of Chicago, Illinois to the desert southwest of Albuquerque, New Mexico. Here their songs became infused with the desert sun and crawling reptiles. Mariachi and Morricone – Western Gothic, if you will. The record was released in 2003.

Ten years later, the desert mystery Far From Any Road was used as the theme for HBO’S True Detective. The song became a worldwide hit. Now for the first time, it will be released on vinyl and deluxe CD, with bonus material.

Rennie Sparks says of that time:

‘It was a hot July afternoon in 2001 when the fire ants attacked me. I walked right over an anthill on my way to trim the cacti. The ants quickly swarmed my leg and began biting viciously again and again. I spent the rest of the day on the couch moaning in pain. Deep within the agony I heard a high pitched sound. I heard the ant queen calling to me from out beneath the driveway. I got up and wrote the lyrics to Far From Any Road. The ant queen’s magic is in every word of every song on this record. She is the hole, the ghost, the wild wind and the fallen peaches. How else can I explain that Singing Bones is still alive and well at 23.’

Since its release, Far From Any Road has accumulated more than 45 million YouTube views and 153 million Spotify streams – a clear testimony to its huge cultural reach and lasting impact.

‘Faulkneresque gothic from the haunting but charming Brett & Rennie Sparks’ – the Guardian

‘Singing Bones is a masterpiece of modern American Gothic’ – The Independent

Tour support comes from Danny George Wilson. Danny George Wilson’s formidable credentials go back to his days in seminal UK roots rock band Grand Drive with brother Julian, a solo album released on Paris-based tastemaker label Fargo Records and six albums of consistently high calibre output on Loose Music with the revolving cast of his Danny & The Champions of the World incarnation. In 2016 the Champs swept the boards at the inaugural UK Americana Awards, winning with Album, Artist and Song of the Year. Alongside Robin Bennett (The Dreaming Spires, Goldrush, Saint Etienne) and Tony Poole (Starry Eyed and Laughing) he released an eponymous album as Bennett Wilson Poole in 2018 (“instant classics… hints of Willie and Levon” Bud Scoppa, Uncut) – bagging another UK Americana Awards ‘Artist of the Year’ alongside being voted Americana UK’s ‘Band of the Year’. Danny’s new album Arcade is due 20 March 2026 on the Loose label.

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When: 7.30pm on Tuesday 2 June 2026
Where: Gullivers, 109 Oldham Street, Manchester, M4 1LW

We’re excited to be working with Case Oats for the first time – plus Wyatt!

Baseball caps and horsetails, porch swings and ‘all else that fails’—these are the lyrical stomping grounds of Case Oats, the group led by Casey Walker and Spencer Tweedy. Transplanted from Missouri to Chicago, Walker has a knack for getting to the ‘gooey heart’ of relationships and experience, of bringing a city-dwelling life back down to earth. With an unadorned delivery and an unflinching eye, Walker relates songs about moving on, about growing up in the Midwest, and about loyalty to desperately flawed people and gratitude for pain, for the way things end up.

Case Oats’ yet-to-be-announced debut album is a well-defined, inviting labour of love. Light on pastiche and heavy on intention, their arrangements, backed by a group of longtime collaborators, put Case Oats on a continuum of porch-sitting, familiar songwriters.

Local support comes from Wyatt. Manchester-based alt-country rock quartet Wyatt have quickly become a staple in the city’s blossoming music scene. Forming in September 2024 by brothers Harvey and Evan O’Toole, and later joined by drummer Joe and trumpeter Emily, their raw, driving rhythms and honest heartfelt lyrics have earned the band a reputation as being one of the UK’s most authentic and exciting hidden gems. Wyatt are carving out their own path with a distinctive and timeless sound that is turning heads north once more.

‘Jeff Tweedy and Conor Oberst passing their respective sad white man torches on to these guys. Amazing use of the trumpet as well’ – Westside Cowboy via Alternative Press

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When: 7.30pm on Thursday 4 June 2026
Where: The White Hotel, Dickinson Street, Salford M3 7LW

We’re excited to welcome Jenny Hval back – this time, to The White Hotel!

Iris Silver Mist is the latest album by Norwegian musician, writer and artist Jenny Hval. Named after the fragrance by Serge Lutens with the same name, the album too moves like a perfume – between flower and smoke, ghostly yet alive.

The album didn’t start with music, but with its absence. When live music disappeared during the pandemic, Jenny Hval was left with a void that was hard to pinpoint until she found herself drawn to perfume. Smelling and collecting, reading and writing: she put away the music, and surrounded herself with the notes and accords of fragrances instead. It was only later that she understood why: she was searching for another way to sense presence, to fill the emptiness music had left behind. When she eventually returned to making music, each song was infused with smells.

On the album’s first single, To Be a Rose, Jenny’s words linger somewhere between speech and song. ‘A rose is a rose is a rose is a cigarette,’ she sings, speaks, to the beat of a drum machine. The rose grows taller with each chorus as the chords change, to the rhythm of the smoke from her mother’s cigarette dancing through the air. Smoke and flowers intertwine throughout the album, so does the parallel between Jenny and her mother. ‘I was singing in my room, she smoked on the balcony/Long inhales and long exhales performed in choreography.’

Many of the songs on Iris Silver Mist were created as a mixtape, as one continuous flow of ideas. Before the songs were recorded, they were performed like this, as long, shapeshifting pieces, as part of the interdisciplinary piece I want to be a Machine. The album has kept this feeling of one song seeping into the next. Field recordings blur the line between music and the world around it, too. In Heiner Müller, we hear the sound of the artist singing to herself while walking her dog in the rain. Spirit Mist includes the hum of the Oslo subway. ‘It is about moving,’ Jenny says about the album, but she means it in a more symbiotic way. Moving into the sound, as one song turns into the next, as she turns into the music, and her perfume does so, too.

Iris Silver Mist is a record about the stage, the music and how it can change us. About the things that touch us, change us, and settle on or under our skin.

This show is a co-promotion with Grey Lantern.

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When: 7.30pm on Friday 5 June 2026
Where: Manchester Academy 3, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PR

We’re delighted to be working with Ye Vagabonds once again!

Ye Vagabonds, aka the Mac Gloinn brothers – Brian and Diarmuid – first performed in the streets together as buskers and have since evolved into a robust collective – a sonically unique ensemble featuring layered acoustic and electric guitars, trumpet, upright bass, Moog synthesizer, harmonium, bouzouki, fiddle, and the blood harmony of the siblings’ distinctive, multi-hued voices.

Having been described as ‘being at the fore of a new wave of Irish folk’, they have won Best Track, Best Album and Best Folk Group at RTE Radio 1 Folk Awards.

Their forthcoming and much anticipated new studio album, All Tied Together, was recorded mostly live in an old Galway house, with acclaimed producer Phil Weinrobe (Big Thief, Adrienne Lenker) at the helm and is released in January 2026 via Rough Trade/River Lea.

Tour support comes from Finnegan Tui.

This show is a co-promotion with Please Please You and the Brudenell.

Under 16s must be accompanied by an adult (18+).

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Attend on: Facebook