Jez Lowe

Folk and acoustic music is undoubtedly enjoying something of a renaissance at the moment, and County Durham singer-songwriter Jez Lowe is among those enjoying the benefits of this rebirth. He has a new album out, his 15th set of original songs of the North Country, and the BBC's "Radio Ballads" - to which he contributed twenty-odd songs last year - has just won a Sony Radio Academy Award.

For the last twenty years, Jez has toured the world, building up a formidable reputation in the USA, Canada, Australia and Europe, and gaining the respect of his peers and his audience alike. Folk supremo Richard Thompson called him "the best songwriter to emerge from the UK in a long time," and his songs are among the most widely sung by folksingers and bands around the country's clubs and festivals.

His last album, Jack Common's Anthem, was inspired by the cult Geordie novelist of that name, who's work chronicled life in the North East in the early 20th Century. Jez Lowe took up that same torch a hundred years later, in a selection of songs and tunes that reflect the hard times, the good times, the hard work and hard play of the gion where he was born and raised. He has just released Northern Echoes, a live album recorded in Newcastle upon Tyne, which features several new songs as well as some reworked old favourites from his extensive catalogue of songs.

In December 2007 Jez was nominated for the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards 2008 as 'Folksinger of the Year', alongside Martin Simpson, Kate Rusby and Julie Fowlis.

Website: www.jezlowe.com

Tim Readman will perform the opening set, and will probably accompany Jez on a couple of songs later on.