“‘One of the best of the New Wave of Folk Blokes,’ said fRoots Mag, adding, ‘As a guitar player and arranger of traditional songs, Jon Wilks already deserves speaking of in the same breath as your Simpsons and your Morays.’”
Jon Wilks is an acclaimed ngerpicking guitarist and singer of traditional folk songs and broadside ballads from the English repertoire. His background as a journalist (a former editor of Time Out magazine and contributor to Dazed & Confused, The Guardian and other publications) means that he has a great eye/ear for a story, and this shows in his live shows – an amusing mix of folk song performance and storytelling.He throws in weird and wonderful tidbits about the original singers and collectors that he has unearthedduring his substantial writing and podcasting research on traditional folk music in the UK, and his performance is often described as both entertaining and informative. To date, Jon has recorded three full-length folk albums and one EP. He has also released three albums and one EP with his duo, The Grizzly Folk, and an album and EP with Japan-based indie band, Cut Flowers (in a former life). He has also co-arranged and performed tracks on Jackie Oates’s Gracious Wings album, and was a key part of Slow Jane, the quartet (including Katherine Priddy, Lukas Drinkwater and Jon Nice) that created videos of Nick Drake songs during lockdown.As well as gigging whenever he can, Jon is the founder/editor of the tradfolk.co website, presenter of The Old Songs Podcast, and he co-runs Whitchurch Folk Club in Hampshire.
DOORS 7pm, MUSIC STARTS 7.30pm