Knights Of Mentis

After a festival-packed summer, Knights of Mentis return to one of their favourite local venues for an intimate set of old favourites, brand new original material, a few choice covers, and a few surprises that will put a smile on the stoniest of faces.

Having grown from the fertile grounds of Oxford’s live folk music scene The Knights of Mentis’ released their first full-length album New Pound Coin in winter 2013.

Over the last two and a half years the band have been a firm favourite throughout the festival circuit, playing triumphant sets at Green Man, Wilderness (Folk Guild Stage), Truck, Wychwood and Towersey, and have been chosen by BBC 6 Music’s Steve Lamacq Show as a “highlight of Cornbury Festival” where they performed 4 sets including a slot for Bob Harris’s WBBC filmed session. The acoustic nine-piece have refined their style and songs as much on the stage as in late night jams and open sessions, often inviting other acts to sit in with them. One rare 3am unscheduled opportunity at Cornbury saw The Knights and several members of Squeeze jigging along into the small hours.

The virtuoso line up delivers a distinct and flavoursome brew of Americana, country, folk, and roots music, taking inspiration from artists such as Gillian Welch, Old Crow Medicine Show and The Band; however you can also hear influences from great British bands such as Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin.

“In full flight, KOM are a force of nature; all soaring fiddle, floating harmonica and accordion melodies, punchy guitar, intricate lap steel, and frantic banjo – all overlain with Peter Graham, Keith Birnie and Jed Dale’s three-part vocal harmonies.” - Oxford Times

“Packed to the gills with energy…an exciting and dynamic album” - FATEA

Support from The Loafing Heroes, a constantly evolving international band led by Irish vocalist, guitarist and composer Bartholomew Ryan. The Lisbon-based group represents a cosmopolitan meeting of musical minds: Giulia Gallina (Italy) on concertina, piano and vocals, João Tordo (Portugal) on double bass, Judith Retzlik (Germany) on violin, and Jaime McGill (USA) on bass clarinet.

They released their fifth album “The Baron in the Trees” in May 2016 in Music Box, Lisbon. Their four previous albums (Crossing the Threshold, Planets, Chula, and Unterwegs) are all products of their years in Lisbon and Berlin. Their songs tap into a variety of musical and literary interests in wandering through myriad fractured cities and landscapes filled with elusive wanderers, revolutionaries, ancient books, and lost loved ones.