Thursday 8th Jan     8pm      Studio Theatre, The Courtyard, Hereford
Nightjar Folk Club     £6, £5
Les Barker
Les Barker writes strange poems and comes originally from Manchester, but he's now Welsh. He was an accountant before he became a professional idiot. His poems have spawned a number of folk heroes: Jason and the Arguments, Cosmo the Fairly Accurate Knife Thrower, Captain Indecisive and Spot of the Antarctic. His audiences are prone to weeping, splitting their sides and falling off chairs.
Les began his career as assistant to Mrs Ackroyd, a small hairy mongrel who lay around in folk clubs, bit people, became famous and was the only dog ever to own her own record label. Since her sad demise, Les is mainly a solo performer, though he has taken to working with humans from time to time.

Friday 16th Jan     8pm    Main House, The Courtyard, Hereford
The Lark Rise Band                £12, £10, under 18s £7
The recent BBC episodes of Lark Rise to Candleford, featuringthe stories, characters and music of rural England in the late C19th, have again captured people’s imaginations. The original book by Flora Thompson was turned into 2 stage plays and an album, with music by Ashley Hutchings and the Albion Band – here’s the latest version of that band, celebrating the gorgeous tunes, songs and dances of the time, effortlessly leading audiences down those long-lost village lanes with squeezebox and fiddles, guitar and drums – and Ashley’s faultless bass.

Saturday 24th Jan      7.30pm      Kimbolton Village Hall, Herefordshire
The Téa Hodzic Trio            
Tickets: John Moreton - 01568 610772    £7.50, £5
Téa Hodžic's startling and evocative voice has enchanted audiences from Womad to the South Bank to Sarajevo. In this trio Téa explores the songs of her homeland, the former Yugoslavia, and its bordering countries. Building on the success of the Balkan super-group Szapora, the trio create music that is intimate, passionate and irresistible. With virtuoso musicians Oliver Wilson-Dickson on violin and Luke Carver Goss on accordion, both experienced musicians with a solid grasp of the region’s music and a thoughtful, cleanly played approach to it, a few instrumental fireworks are inevitable!

Thursday 5th Feb   8pm   Studio Theatre, The Courtyard, Hereford
Nightjar Folk Club                  £7, £5
Emma and the Professor
Emma & the Professor and Jonathon Draper are an extraordinary mix of Celtic and Oriental influences. Delivered with fine acoustic instrumentation –guitar, bodhran and cello - and haunting vocals from Emma Heath, they captivate audiences with their powerful and daring arrangements of traditional songs, with transitions from subtle and sublime to driving and bluesy within a single song. Coupled with friendly and engaging banter, Emma and The Professor, firmly rooted in the Marches, have been making lots of friends at festivals and gigs all over the country. “The musical stew they cook up is uniquely theirs. The boundaries get pushed and the rules broken and all in the name of finding new life in old songs.” The Living Tradition

Wednesday 25th Feb   8pm    Main House, The Courtyard, Hereford
The Ian McMillan Orchestra              £12, £10, under 18s, £7
Like nothing you ever heard before…Yorkshire words, European music, comedy & impro. As featured at The Barbican, BBC Proms, The Sage Gateshead and The South Bank Show. Poet, broadcaster & comedian Ian McMillan joins with composer & accordionist Luke Carver Goss of Szapora  -  'Truly refreshing' Danny Thompson  -  and a body of top musicians in this sizzling wok of words and music. Powerful, echoing tales of milkmen, mining, heatwaves, dads, voices found, death by shanty, industrial manoeuvres, 9/11 and the late great Ronnie Barker. Improvised and constructed  -  for audiences, 7 to 107.
“One of my all-time heroes  -  he’s such a talented bloke, I could kill him” Mike Harding
“A definite success” fROOTS

Thursday 5th March     8pm     Studio Theatre, The Courtyard, Hereford
Nightjar Folk Club                   £6, £5
Tom McConville
The best way to describe Newcastle fiddler and singer Tom McConville is to hear what other fiddlers and singers think of him: Seth Lakeman: “He was my biggest influence. He showed me all the tricks – bowing, decoration, playing drones… Things you have to see and can’t just learn from books.” Kate Rusby “When my schoolmates had boy bands on their Walkmans, I was listening to Tom McConville". Dave Swarbrick: "Tom is a great player, and a terrific singer; he happens to be a number one bloke too. Tom plays as Tom is, with honesty and passion, and an obvious love for the fiddle and traditional music."

Saturday 7th March     8pm                                   Hereford
The Wild Hare Club
Nick Harper
Widely admired for his fine and maverick guitar style, displaying constant melodic and sonic ingenuity which earned him the title “the acoustic Hendrix”, Nick Harper’s lyrics are what fascinate many, with his soaring vocal range and passion for epic song. His acclaimed recent album Miracles for Beginners has introduced a new audience to his magical, challenging, musical and poetic world.

Thursday 12th March   8pm     Main House, The Courtyard, Hereford
The New Rope String Band                 £10, £8, under 18s £5
The Old Rope String Band (what is left of them: Pete Challoner and Tim Dalling) have joined forces with two amazing musicians (Jock Tyldesley and Vera van Heeringen) and as a four piece they have taken off from where the Old Ropes sadly stopped. They play a big assortment of things and all sorts of hoedown pan-celtic old-timey up-beat down-home music. All this is combined with bizarre physical nonsense and clowning about. And singing and dancing. The sheer visualosity and laughableness of the New Rope String Band, plus the amount of interesting things they do will bring pleasure to absolutely almost everyone: boundless energy, exuberant spectacles and beautiful music executed with kindness.

Wednesday 25th March     7.30pm        Eardisley Village Hall, Herefordshire
Ro:Toro 
Tickets: Don & Avril Killick    £8, £6      01544 327844                           
Sandra and Catlin play searing and melodic Estonian bagpipe tunes, together with their own compositions; Marko Mägi is a gifted and very contemporary improvising jazz saxophonist with a passion for the tradition as well, Silver Sepp plays a weird range of percussion including drums made out of water, and Karl is a jazz-rock guitarist. Together, their extraordinary performances have proved a huge hit on the European festival circuit, the modern joyously and energetically blending with the ancient.