North and South 2: Peta Webb and Ken Hall + Teddy Cuthbert

Event information

The ever-popular London duo share the evening with a young traditional singer from the Northeast.

Peta’s & Ken’s singing is rooted in the oral tradition, their style absorbed over the years by listening to and singing alongside traditional singers in England and Ireland. They ran the Musical Traditions Club, in Central London for over 25 years, providing a platform for unaccompanied traditional singers. They have a rich, distinctive sound, based on Irish and British traditions of unison singing and the harmonising of American brother duets. The diversity of their material, from England, Ireland and America, celebrates the essential links between these cultures.

A 20-year-old singer of traditional folk songs, Teddy Cuthbert is beguiled by the past as well as stories of timeless human emotion. Singing both unaccompanied and with his baritone ukulele, Teddy has half-accidentally gathered stylistic inspiration from everywhere from Waterson and Carthys to early-20th-century jazz and vaudeville, from Bert Lloyd to Nina Simone, to barely surviving recordings made of barely surviving pitmen and field labourers. Teddy hopes to imbue every song in his repertoire — from this country and abroad — with the dear, textured, rural spirit of his native Northumberland.