Spiers & Boden

‘Spiers and Boden are, probably, the perfect duo to headline Saturday night. Boden is the showman, Spiers the melodeon-wielding wizard; between them they make Saturday night absolutely joyous.’ Review of Bristol Folk Festival 2024: B24/7 

Ever since they bumped into each other in an Oxford pub folk session in 2000, John Spiers and Jon Boden have been taking English traditional folk song and music to new audiences throughout the UK and beyond, through their exuberant live performances and their critically acclaimed recordings. Their debut album in 2001 rocketed them to the forefront of the English folk scene and they have remained there ever since, both as a ground breaking duo and as founder members of folk phenomenon Bellowhead. A total of six studio albums have cemented their reputation as innovative arrangers determined to keep English folk music vibrant, engaging and above all fun. 

Their most recent album Fallow Ground (2021) was described by The Observer as, ‘bursting with ideas’ and as, ‘perfectly balanced’ by The Scotsman. 

Fallow Ground reached number 3 on the UK & Ireland Official Folk Albums chart for September ’21 and is a Mojo magazine top 10 album of 2021. Sold out tour dates and festival appearances have followed and Spiers & Boden are currently putting in dates for tours in 2027 and festivals. 

‘It is an album bursting with ideas as well as a new-found confidence to let the material speak for itself. It’s all exquisitely played – the pair are still the dons.’ The Observer 

‘Boden’s impassioned singing brings fresh life to little-heard songs, along with the perfectly balanced pairing of his fiddle with Spiers’s melodeon.’ 

The Scotsman ***** 

‘This is traditional folk delivered with modern verve.’ 

EDS 

‘Bellowhead’s Sloe Gin Set is one of the great sets of folk tunes and, together, Spiers and Boden show that they don’t need another nine musicians to make it brilliant. They finish, of course, with New York Girls and bring the house down.’ 

B24/7