When: 7.30pm on Sunday 23 May 2010
Where: Trades Club, Holme Street, Hebden Bridge HX7 8EE

When: 7.30pm on Monday 24 May 2010
Where: Band on the Wall, 26 Swan Street, Manchester M4 5JZ

We’re excited to welcome back Jesca Hoop, last seen performing to a sold-out audience at the Deaf Institute!

Hoop was born in Southern California to strict Mormon parents. She grew up singing traditional folk tunes in four-part harmony, but soon broke away from this background, becoming a homesteader in the wilderness areas of Northern California and Wyoming, and worked in the remote mountains of Arizona with a rehabilitation programme for children.

As a nanny for Tom Waits and Kathleen Brennan’s three children, Hoop gained both musical experience and notoriety. Waits said of Hoop, ‘Her music is like going swimming in a lake at night‘. Her contact with Waits led to her initial exposure, through Nic Harcourt at the Southern California radio station KCRW in 2003. Seed of Wonder became a fixture in KCRW’s top five requests for eight weeks straight – a station record.

In 2007, the Los Angeles Times announced Hoop as one of California’s most notable artists. Later the same year, she toured with Polyphonic Spree. In 2008, meanwhile, she supported Mark Knopfler on tour, and in 2009 she shared a bill with Andrew Bird and Elbow – with Guy Garvey also dueting with Hoop on her latest album Hunting My Dress.

‘Hunting My Dress confirms her as one of alternative folk-pop’s most arresting recent arrivals, singing like an outcast angel and writing like a restless explorer’ – The Sunday Times

‘A sensual, eccentric and often frankly odd-sounding record, Hunting My Dress exudes oodles of charisma and originality, thanks mostly to Hoop’s delightfully freaky take on traditional folk convention‘ – BBC Music

‘There’s a thin line between genuine eccentricity and precious affectation of weirdness, but Jesca Hoop walks it well’ – The Guardian

‘No doubt lazy journalists will lump her in with that one who plays the harp, but if you ask me they’re worlds apart, and equally brilliant. If you get the chance to see her live, go’ – Now Then

Support in Manchester comes from the Travelling Band‘s Jo Dudderidge.

Tickets for Hebden Bridge are available from Seetickets.com and on 0115 912 9000. Tickets for Manchester are available from the venue, Piccadilly Records, BandOnTheWall.org, Seetickets.com and on 0161 832 1111.