Jon Boden and The Remnant Kings to celebrate Parlour Ballads at Nettlebed Folk Club

Nettlebed Folk Club returns to the village early next month with a performance from Jon Boden and The Remnant Kings.

Organisers say that Jon Boden, the lead singer of Bellowhead, is returning to Nettlebed to celebrate the release of The Remnant Kings’ latest album, Parlour Ballads. It has been released by Hudson Records, and this show is an opportunity to celebrate the group’ unique brand of post-apocalyptic folk. They play in a traditional style versus traditional folk played with post-apocalyptic swagger.

Parlour Ballads is a piano-led record of ballads that ties together parlour music and folk song.

It seeks to awaken the sound of the old, well-loved, slightly out-of-tune domestic piano and to reunite it with (or introduce it to) songs that might feel glad of the acquaintance.

Parlour Music had its heyday in the Victorian era when many middle-class houses had pianos and children could sight-read piano scores to a high level, as musical literacy was highly prized. Parlour songs were composed and disseminated through sheet music, to be performed in private and public houses alike, but with an air of respectability not found in the music hall repertoire.

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This practice continued well into the 20th century until technological advances supplanted the printed sheet as the primary means of musical transmission.

“My great-great-grandfather Alphonse Cary (1848-1922) ran a music shop in Newbury and would, for a fee, perform the latest parlour songs, recording himself (accompanied on piano by a colleague) onto wax cylinder there and then for the customer to take away. Sadly, I have yet to find any surviving cylinders of his voice,” says Jon Boden.

The Guardian has described Jon Boden and The Remnant Kings’ music as “Ambitious, genre-busting folk”.

For their set at Nettlebed Folk Club, Jon Boden and The Remnant Kings’ Waitsian parlour ballads and Napoleonic power-pop will be performed alongside the band’s 15-year back-catalogue of traditional and original songs and tunes.

The band combines a deep understanding of traditional music with musical audacity and theatrical brio, and features the talents of Sam Sweeney (Bellowhead), Rob Harbron (Leveret), Ben Nicholls (Seth Lakeman Band), Sally Hawkins (Bellowhead) and the vocals and pedal-steel guitar of cult singer-songwriter M.G. Boulter.

Who is Jon Boden from Jon Boden and The Remnant Kings?

Jon Boden is an artist whose repertoire extends far beyond the boundaries of the genre.

Most recognisably, he is the lead singer of the multi-award-winning folk juggernaut Bellowhead, headlining shows at the Royal Albert Hall and selling hundreds of thousands of records.

Jon also performs in his duo Spiers and Boden with John Spiers and has most recently toured the Wassail seasonal tour with Eliza Carthy.

Alongside his solo work and shows with the Remnant Kings, he has been commissioned to compose and arrange for the likes of the Royal Shakespeare Company.

When and where will Jon Boden and The Remnant Kings appear at Nettlebed Folk Club, and how can we get tickets?

Jon Boden and The Remnant Kings will form the next Nettlebed Folk Evening on Monday, June 2, at 7.30pm.

The show will be at The Village Club, High Street, Nettlebed, near Henley-on-Thames. The postcode for sat navs is RG9 5DD.

Tickets cost £22 in advance.

For more information or to book, log on to: www.nettlebedfolkclub.co.uk or call the box office on 01628 636620. Calls are only taken between 10am and 8pm.

For more on Jon Boden and The Remnant Kings, log on to: https://www.jonboden.com/home

Nettlebed Folk Club has more gigs planned, including an appearance by Breabach on Monday, June 23, and a 50^th birthday concert on Monday, July 21, where The Gigspanner Big Band will be performing.