Debbie Armour/Sandra & Nancy Kerr

Event information

Debbie Armour is a traditional singer and musician. Broadly, her work is motivated by ideas of persistence, resonance and deep cultural roots. In her primary project, Burd Ellen, she uses British and international traditional song as a foundation to build conceptual works and explore tradition in a contemporary setting. She is also a founder member of critically acclaimed contemporary folk acapella group Green Ribbons with Alasdair Roberts and Frankie Armstrong. Burd Ellen has released three albums with the last two featuring in The Guardian's Top Ten of the Year list for Folk, and garnering great reviews from Folk Radio UK, Songlines magazine and elsewhere. Their most recent album entered the UK album charts at number 40 and the Official Folk Chart at 17. She is currently working on an evolving project with award winning visual artist Ruth Ewan, using song to explore the social history of women's labour, and has recently completed residencies and commissions for hcmf//, Bothy Project and Scottish International Storytelling Festival. Her work is multilingual, with releases in English, Scots, Gaelic and Welsh. Debbie has worked with artists such as Rachel Newton and Ian Lynch, and has appeared live in session on BBC Radios 3 and Scotland. She has performed at the Edinburgh International Festival, Celtic Connections, Cafe OTO and ALICE Copenhagen. She is a mother of four, and lives in Nottingham where she runs Mavis Recordings.


Sandra Kerr has had a long and distinguished career in folk music since her days with Ewan MacColl’s Critics Group, has performed all over the world, and recorded numerous albums too. Well known as the co- writer, with John Faulkner, of the music for "Bagpuss", (voted 'best-loved BBC TV children’s programme’ in 1999), she directs folk choirs (including the popular and award-winning Northumbrian Choir Werca’s Folk) and is greatly respected as a tutor of folk arts. She is a multi-instrumentalist, playing guitar, dulcimer, autoharp and the English concertina. She is popular as a tutor on the latter instrument and has taught regularly at concertina gatherings including the ‘Swaledale Squeeze’ and ‘Concertinas At Whitney’, and twice at the National Folk Festival Easter School in Canberra.
Sandra is joined by her daughter Nancy Kerr. Nancy is one of the most celebrated folk musicians of her generation, and has to date won 6 Folk Awards from BBC Radio 2: 2015 FOLK SINGER OF THE YEAR • HORIZON AWARD 2000 • BEST DUO 2003 and again in 2011 with James Fagan • BEST GROUP 2014 with The Full English • BEST ALBUM 2014 with The Full English. Nominated Best Original Song 2011 for Queen of Waters. Winner Best Album (Spiral earth 2011) for Twice Reflected Sun (Navigator041).