Sons of Town Hall

Event information

A Sons of Town Hall show is more than a concert, it's an immersive experience unlike any other. American songwriter/author David Berkeley and British songwriter/producer Ben Parker are the men beneath the hats in the transatlantic folk duo. They're also the stars of the hilarious radio-theatre podcast series Madmen Cross the Water.

Sons of Town Hall is creating an entirely new performance genre: Part live concept album, part performance art, the pair conjures their timeless mythic universe under the aliases Josiah Chester Jones and George Ulysses Brown, 19th-century vagabonds who travel the world in a hand-built boat to escape troubled pasts and search for adventure and love.

The Sons weave wild stories between their heartbreaking and rousing songs, taking audiences on a deeply imaginative trip every show. For fans of Simon and Garfunkel, Tom Waits, and Monty Python alike, concertgoers are uplifted and inspired, transfixed and transformed, in awe of Sons of Town Hall’s harmonies, and drunk on adventure and the tragic beauty of the human condition.

"Seamless vocal harmonies...stories of sea voyages, betrayal and desolation... a more coherent concept you’ll be pushed to find" (The Observer).

"Amazing...Equal parts care and craftsmanship, joy and sorrow, it is a splendour to behold....They simply exist on a different plane than everyone else, as does their album" (Folk Radio UK).

"A study in beautiful storytelling through song" (RNR Magazine).

"It’s part balladry, part performance art, and totally cool. … Think Simon & Garfunkel lost at sea, and you get a sense of the mythic world at play here." (Philadelphia Inquirer).

“Nothing short of stunning” (Lisa Schwartz, Director Philadelphia Folk Festival).