James Blackshaw, The Gentle Good, Toby Hay

We feel privileged to welcome a simply stunning lineup of outstanding talent to Attic Folk Sessions in June, with the captivating, arresting melodic, longform, 12 string folk talent of James Blackshaw headlining. Starting out with earlier, long works that feel measured and intensely thought out but deeply felt across their modal arpeggios, he developed an utterly unique and recognisable kind of epic style that turns folk into something closely feeling like intricately picked post-rock at points - recalling the fingerstyle of artists like Jack Rose & John Fahey.

Broadening his instrumental palette over time, his works have become expansive and expressive and included more playful works on recently album Summoning Suns, but never foregoing the mix of experimental and carefully cultivated skill that’ve been there since the start.

To add to that, we are just as lucky to welcome the well travelled, gorgeous instrumentation, poignant melodies and culturally rich Folk of The Gentle Good. Weaving dark stories and enchanting tragic folk songs, he is one of Cardiff’s most outstanding and respected musicians. That Gareth, lead songwriter and singer took up a 6 week residency in Chengdu, China in 2011 to explore Chinese Folk music & literature, should be testament to his artistic curiosity - adding to folk forms skillfully as he plays.
Alongside them, we also welcome the “wonderful, majestic guitar compositions” of Toby Hay.