We are so happy to announce that Front Room Songs will be back programming and running London Bridge City Summer By The River in 2022.

The festival will take place from Monday 31 May every single day right through until Friday 2 September.

We cannot wait to share details of the line up. Follow us @frontroomsongs, or @ldnbridgecity on Instagram for news and updates.

Full listings will be published on the London Bridge City website.

Front Room Songs returns to London Bridge City Summer By The River for a second year. London’s largest outdoor free festival takes place daily in The Scoop and Hay’s Galleria from Thursday 30 May until Sunday 1 September. Front Room Songs will provide a packed schedule of music, comedy, theatre, family entertainment, workshops and fitness sessions. Line up and schedule coming soon.

“A shimmering collection … that does full justice to the poet’s humane vision” The Times

Front Room Songs proudly presents the acclaimed Band of Burns, a stunning collaboration between twelve artists from the top echelons of the folk scene, coming together to perform truly breathtaking performances. Featuring the mesmerising vocals of Ríoghnach Connolly (Afro Celt Sound System) and award-winning Scottish folk rabble-rousers The Langan Band, the show includes new versions of classic Burns songs, original compositions and instrumental sets, all celebrating the life, works and philosophies of Robert Burns.

Bringing elements of the musical traditions of their homelands; Scotland, Ireland, England, Wales, and Turkey, the band originally formed for two shows in January 2017. As well as a love of Burns’s writings, all share a belief in the values he championed – equality, social justice and the power of love – and in their pressing relevance amid today’s troubled times. The band released their debut album, recorded at live at their sell-out show at London’s Union Chapel in January 2018, followed by a nationwide tour, to standing ovations at every show.

“Nourishing stuff beyond its times, another warm, welcoming stew to feed the bones” The Guardian

Tickets available from the Harlequin Theatre website

Irish duo The Silken Same make their UK touring debut in May.

They might be new to the UK, but in Ireland (under singer Mossy Nolan’s name) they’ve supported the likes of LAU, This is the Kit, Seamus Fogarty among many others.

The duo made their UK debut at Wilderness Festival in 2017, and are undertaking their first UK tour in May. They will record a new album in France in March with Tinariwen’s producer, and will be presenting their new songs on this tour. Beautifully deft musicianship and rip-roaring vocals.

Tour dates:

15 April: Harrison All Day Folk Festival
18 May: Grayshott Folk Club, Surrey
19 May: Front Room Songs, Redhill
20 May: The Stag, Hastings
22 May: The Harrison, London
23 May: Kingkerswell Parish Church, Newton Abbott
24 May: B-Bar, Plymouth
25 May: Kingsdown Wine Vaults, Bristol
26 May: Hawthorns Hotel, Glastonbury
27 May: Prince Albert Stroud
28 May: The Bell Inn, Bath
29 May: Canteen, Bristol
30 May: Rough Trade, Nottingham
1-3 June: Fire in the Mountain Festival, nr Aberystwyth
4 June: Devizes Folk Club

For more information, contact Front Room Songs

Front Room Songs is back in the Travelling Barn at Wilderness Festival for a fourth year with another epic line.

International collective, Kefaya are an eclectic group of immigrants, travellers and international artists, seeking to find the common ground between folk traditions of the world with a cutting-edge sound rooted firmly in the 21st century.

David Keenan, young Irish songwriter with an obsession with words and melody borne of a lifetime of exposure to the writings of Behan, Yeats and Wilde with the soundtrack of Dylan, Buckley and The Dubliners.

Gloriously eccentric gypsy folk stories from Mobius Loop, who fuse world music and conscious rap with eruptions of free-form dance charged with an intimately powerful and intense energetic live performance. Mobius Loop are on a mission to raise positive vibrations.

Tommy Hare, masters the great American musical traditions of blues, rock & roll, country and soul with a voice that will stop you dead in your tracks.

More announcements coming soon.

More information and tickets from Wilderness Festival

Front Room Songs artist, songwriter and double-bassist Nina Harries, has been awarded funding by PRS Women Make Music to record and produce her debut album.

Nina’s ground-breaking music unapologetically sets to task dismantling pre-conceived wisdoms about the double bass both as a masculine instrument and a basic harmonic tool. Words like virtuosic and innovative are too easily bandied about, but in Nina’s case, her extensive technical and musical ability on the instrument, combined with a powerful emotional connection with an instrument that rarely takes the spotlight, marks her out as an artist to watch.

Using her original compositions and drawing on the influences of Bjork, Mogwai, Gyorgy Ligeti, Andrew Bird, Joanna Newsom, Nina will create a groundbreaking work that emphasises the double bass alongside other instruments and electronics to enrich and develop the texture of the music itself.

She will work with producer Peter Miles, (Lionhead, We Are The Ocean, Dry The River), using the unlimited potential of the studio to fully explore the recording potential of her material and the double bass itself.

Funding will allow her to develop the music in a studio setting, where she will have the chance to work with an experienced producer and professional musicians, pushing Nina and her music beyond the one-woman performer style that the current live show consists of.

The world of the double bass and classical music inherits an ancient stigma against women. This album will challenge that bias, pushing the boundaries of the instrument and allowing Nina to claim her rightful place in the world of the double bass and as a contemporary artist.

For more information contact us

Front Room Songs will be at English Folk Expo from 19th-21st October. We’ll be presenting five acts from our roster (Nina Harries, Young Waters, Mikey Kenney, The Nightjar and Silken Same. Four of our acts will be showcasing at Manchester Folk Festival over the course of the Expo.

We will also be representing acts from The Local’s roster, including This Is How We Fly, RM Hubbert and Jack Cheshire.

Showcase times as follows:

THURSDAY 19th OCTOBER
7.00pm – Nina Harries (supporting John Smith) – Gorilla (tickets)

FRIDAY 20th OCTOBER
7.50pm – The Nightjar (supporting Afro Celt Sound System) – Ritz (tickets)
12.00am – Mikey Kenny – late night bar (delegates only)

SATURDAY 21st OCTOBER
2.05pm – Young Waters (supporting Kathryn Tickell) – Theatre 1, Home (tickets)

If you are attending English Folk Expo as a delegate, you can find us on Stand 29 on Saturday 21st October.

Two exciting new artists join the Front Room Songs roster this month.

Mikey Kenney, majestic singer, poetic songwriter and traditional fiddle player and multi-instrumentalist who could’ve been born any time in the past 500 years. A veritable magician of such substantive law, Kenney’s music is a subtly powerful homage to the earth and hearts of humankind, and it succeeds from the bawdy level of spit and sawdust barroom sing-alongs to the lofty heights of the soul set free. Once heard, never forgotten. With two acclaimed albums already under his belt, he is one of the most noteworthy artists to emerge on the UK folk scene.

Mikey will be touring the UK in Spring 2018 and recording a new album for release later in the year. He will showcase at the English Folk Expo on Friday 20th October 2017.

‘As adventurous as it is accessible … a splendidly idiosyncratic record from a original talent’ 5/5 fRoots

The Silken Same are Galway duo Mossy Nolan Colm McGowan. With rip-roaring and delicately played compositions taking inspiration from all over Europe, they artfully combine the bygone and the new, creating a sound that is wholly their own. Having supported a formidable roll call of artists in their native Ireland (This is the Kit, LAU, Luka Bloom, Seamus Fogarty) they are preparing to make their UK debut in 2018 with a UK tour in May and June.

‘If we’re talking about being firmly rooted between the traditional and the modern, then no-one embodies that more perfectly …. sparkles with vigour’ Nialler9

Front Room Songs has teamed up with legendary East London music promoter Woodburner for a blistering summer season of live music at London’s hottest new destination, Flat Iron Square.

Woodburner promotes groundbreaking live music events in alternative spaces, with alumni including Nick Mulvey, Johnny Flynn, Cosmo Sheldrake and The Turbans.

The free entry night takes place in the garden at Flat Iron Square every Wednesday throughout the summer. Line up includes luminaries of the world and folk scene Jally Kebba Susso, The Turbans and The Langan Band among others. Expect full on festival vibes.

Full details and line up here here

Front Room Songs is back at Wilderness Festival for a third year, providing music and good vibes in the Travelling Folk Barn alongside Woodburner, Two for Joy and The Local.

Headlining on the Thursday night is The Breath, the new project from former Cinematic Orchestra’s  Stuart McCallum and Irish singer Rioghnach Connolly (Afro Celt Sound System and Honeyfeet). Also playing is singer songwriter Nina Harries and her double bass Nancy; The Relatives (turning everyday London life into folk legend); Anglo-American folk quartet Assembly Lane and Oliver Hoare and the Late Great.

Wilderness Festival runs from Thursday 3rd to Sunday 6th August 2017. Full line up and details at www.wildernessfestival.com