NEXT AT DOWNEND FOLK & ROOTS: BRYONY GRIFFITH & ALICE JONES + HEARTWOOD CHORUS #LIVETOYOURLIVINGROOM
December’s concert is always a special one, and this year looks set to be no different!
After stealing the show and capturing the hearts of the audience during the 10th Anniversary Celebration last Summer, powerhouse Yorkshire folk duo BRYONY GRIFFITH & ALICE JONES are back with their sensational seasonal tour Wesselbobs, in a concert which is certain to sell out. We will be live-streaming in partnership with LIVE TO YOUR LIVING ROOM though, for anyone that misses out or can't get to Downend.
Following the success of their 2023 album of the same name, Bryony and Alice present a unique collection of winter songs and tunes sourced from their beloved native county. Together they have unearthed a treasure trove of traditional gems, featuring uniquely local versions of more classic seasonal songs and showcasing the traditions, tales and winter rituals of the richly diverse musical culture in which they are immersed.
Hailing from West Yorkshire Bryony and Alice are both long-time purveyors of English folk music, united by a fascination with local folk song and tune collections.
In 2019 they came together as a powerful new duo and have taken the folk scene by storm. Featuring fiddle, harmonium, tenor guitar, body percussion and intricate vocals in their distinctive regional accents, they combine their respect and understanding of tradition with their own contemporary style of performance, imparting their extensive knowledge of the material with wit and humour to present a unique repertoire of harmony, heritage and northern banter.
As is now traditional, the evening’s music will begin with a set from HEARTWOOD CHORUS, a folk choir, based in Bristol, who sing original arrangements of songs whose murky origins stretch back centuries and centuries, songs their grannies taught them and future classics from the thriving contemporary folk scene.
Tickets for the concert, which takes place at CHRIST CHURCH DOWNEND on Friday 19 December 2025, are available online HERE and from MELANIE'S KITCHEN in Downend (cash only). They are priced at £14 each in advance or £16 on the door. Doors open at 7.00pm and the music starts around 7.45pm. This event is also included in the Autumn/Winter Season Ticket, if you've bought one already.
There will be a bar, stocking cider, soft drinks, wine, hot drinks and real ale from Bristol’s HOP UNION BREWERY, and, for this month only, mulled wine. Audience members are encouraged to bring their own glass/mug/tankard, as well as reusable bottles for water, as part of the drive to be more environmentally aware; there is a 50p discount for those that do. There will also be sweet treats available at the bar courtesy of Radstock-based THE GREAT CAKE COMPANY, as well as a prize draw, which helps to fund the support artists for each concert.
For those that can’t make it to Downend, or miss out on tickets, this concert will also be live-streamed in partnership with LIVE TO YOUR LIVING ROOM, so you can watch from the comfort of your own sofa! Head to livetoyourlivingroom.com for more information on live-stream tickets.
For further information, please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or find us on FACEBOOK, INSTAGRAM, BLUESKY, YOUTUBE or TIKTOK.
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Over the years some incredible folk musicians have found sanctuary next to the altar in this church on the South Gloucestershire border. Glorious voices, wonderful fiddles and all manner of lovely stringed things have conjured some of the best music you will ever hear.
It comes as no surprise, then, that when two folk legends come to warm up a chilly evening, things get more than a little extraordinary.
To say that Peter Knight (Steeleye Span, Gigspanner) simply plays fiddle somehow feels disingenuous. He makes it sing as though it were lifted from the pages of an enchanted fairytale. John Spiers (Bellowhead, Spiers & Boden) is his perfect foil, a series of melodeons holding the line, stretching the canvas that allows Knight's magical colours free rein.
Starting with Cuckoo Set, three tunes with a cuckoo theme, the fiddle and melodeon build layer upon layer. There's a slow start, a zen-like meditation, Spiers setting up a heartbeat-thrum while Knight trills and chirps. It flows like water, you blink and suddenly you've become entirely immersed, the sound is everywhere, a melodeon drone matching your internal rhythms, fiddle flitting through tree-tops. You realise that if every woodland walk was soundtracked by this you'd probably go down to the woods way more often. Then it changes course again, two morris dance tunes swirl past with stomps and an irrepressible jubilation.
What the duo do to Scarborough Fair would have folk purists clutching their leather tankards in despair. Spiers says that they "play with" the tune rather than just "play" it, and he's not wrong. Knight improvises around the melody; you catch wisps of it every now and again as he chases down increasingly wondrous alleyways. Notes tumble from his violin, they float and soar, they creep and scuttle, they explode and cavort. This goes so far beyond your regular folk fiddler. This is astonishing.
Then it all changes again. A series of French dance tunes are sprightly and fun. Spiers’ melodeon to the fore, pushing toes to tap, feet to pound the floor. Knight starts to twist the tunes in odd directions and Spiers grins while his squeezebox laughs an evil-goblin laugh. There are jaunty hornpipes, 800-year-old dance tunes and foot tappers of all types. Knight and Spiers are in perfect step, in perfect control.
For Knight's From a Lullaby Kiss, he fuses an Eastern European frenzy with classical stylings until his creaking voice adds an unspeakable poignancy; the contrast between the fluidity of the violin playing and the vulnerability of the voice is intense.
In many ways John Spiers seems quite content to allow Peter Knight's dexterity to take centre stage - his shy grin suggests he's loving it as much as we are - but without his melodeon backbone, Knight would have no support. The drones on Bonny at Morn suggest a church organ or the howls of a Northumbrian gale. The relentless rhythm for La Dance de Madam Meymerie is the dancefloor that allows for Knight's mushroom-gathering abandon. It is the melodeon that circles slowly on The Hawsley Schottische while the fiddle peeks its head up, whipping at snatches of the tune.
The highlight of a brilliant set is Easter Thursday, a triple hornpipe from the 1600s. It's just so much fun. The tune cascades from Knight's fiddle, notes bouncing off down the aisle, grinning and stomping. If a hornpipe was something that sailors danced to help with the rhythms of their work, then this ship must have been full sail strung the whole time. It fizzes and leaps, Knight and Spiers putting the whole thing, the whole night, into constant motion.
Before all of this virtuosity, a three-piece from Wiltshire were mighty entertaining. Fly Yeti Fly are a core duo of Lorna Somerville and Darren Fisher, joined tonight by Alex Pearson on double bass. Their 60s flecked dream-folk-pop was beautifully November-scented. Ice cracked on Firewood as Somerville's voice warmed the pews, her mandolin blowing winds in from less bitter places. Fisher's harmonies complement her dreamy vocals on Mermaid Song, the two of them weaving tales as easily as breathing. They wrap us in a crushed velvet cape, one with a paisley lining. Lovely stuff.
That roll-call of brilliant musicians that have made their way to Downend just keeps getting longer. Tonight saw some of the very best.
Words: Gavin McNamara
Photos: Barry Savell
Photos: Barry Savell
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Back in March of 2022, we were due to welcome KNIGHT & SPIERS, but that pesky covid intervened. We’re delighted to say we’ve finally managed to find a date to reschedule, and they’ll be with us to headline our November concert.
Folk 'A-list'-ers, folk 'royalty' and folk 'icons' are terms frequently applied to Peter Knight & John Spiers, but what it means in reality is that they bring the best of traditional music to any stage they play.
The exquisite explorations of the liminal space that exists between traditional and classical music is what makes the music of Peter Knight and John Spiers so compelling and beguiling, ultimately rendering genres irrelevant.
The pairing of violin and melodeon is a classic one, but in the hands of Knight and Spiers, improvisation and invention meet the listener at every turn. Together they have created a musical document that resonates with history, but also something to inspire future generations of musicians to engage with Britain’s folk music heritage.
Opening the evening will be FLY YETI FLY, an alt-folk duo whose enchanting harmonies, warm instrumentation and heartfelt storytelling weave songs about connection and community. Blending folk, roots and Americana influences, their music is both uplifting and deeply moving, with a sound that is reminiscent of the late-’60s folk scene. Now living on their canal boat on the Kennet & Avon, their music is heavily influenced by the ebb and flow of life on the water.
Tickets for the concert, which takes place at CHRIST CHURCH DOWNEND on Friday 21 November 2025, are available online HERE and from MELANIE’S KITCHEN (cash only). They are priced at £14 each in advance or £16 on the door. Doors open at 7.00pm and the music starts around 7.45pm. This event is also included in our AUTUMN/WINTER SEASON TICKET, if you've bought one already.
There will be a bar, stocking cider, soft drinks, wine, hot drinks and real ale from Bristol’s HOP UNION BREWERY. Audience members are encouraged to bring their own glass/mug/tankard, as well as reusable bottles for water, as part of the drive to be more environmentally aware; there is a 50p discount for those that do. There will also be sweet treats available at the bar courtesy of Radstock-based THE GREAT CAKE COMPANY, as well as a prize draw, which helps to fund the opening artists for each concert.
For those that can’t make it to Downend, or miss out on tickets, this concert will also be live-streamed in partnership with LIVE TO YOUR LIVING ROOM, so you can watch from the comfort of your own sofa! Head to livetoyourlivingroom.com for more information on live-stream tickets.
For further information, please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or find us on FACEBOOK, INSTAGRAM, BLUESKY, YOUTUBE or TIKTOK.
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