_x0018_ Some of the greatest contemporary English folk songs since early Richard Thompson are coming from the pen of Jez Lowe_x0019_ Boston Globe _x0018_ The best songwriter to come out of England in a long time_x0019_ Richard Thompson For the last thirty years, singer and songwriter Jez Lowe has taken his songs of life in his native North East England to audiences across the world, sometimes solo, sometimes with his band The Bad Pennies, and sometimes in a variety of collaborative and commissioned musical enterprises, all of which have made him one of the most hard-working and popular acoustic/folk artists of the present day. His latest album, his fifteenth, entitled _x001C_ Wotcheor!_x001D_ , has once more thrust him into the spotlight, with a successful series of stage shows, and a fistful of outstanding reviews, and a renewed interest in his brand of pointed, poignant and powerful musical epistles from the North, that have brought him a nomination for Folksinger of the Year in the BBC Folk Awards, an _x001C_ album of the year_x001D_ award in the US-based Inde-Acoustic Awards, and a Sony Radio Award for his contribution to the prestigious Radio Ballads series for the BBC, over the last five years alone. As well as his own performances and tours around the globe, featuring Jez accompanying himself on guitar, cittern, mandolin and harmonica, Jez_x0019_ s songs also travel independently, thanks to cover versions by the likes of Fairport Convention, The Dubliners, Cherish The Ladies, The Tannahill Weavers, The McCalmans, Bob Fox, The Black Family, The Clancys and scores more folk acts around the world. Kate Bramley is a fine singer and instrumentalist, best known as fiddler and vocalist for the North-east_x0019_ s _x0018_ Jez Lowe and the Bad Pennies_x0019_ and the American band _x0018_ Sweetgrass_x0019_ . In the late 19902 s Kate was the fiddle player and harmony vocalist for the Yorkshire based band _x0018_ Freewheelin_x0019_ , with songwriter Jacquie Hanham and guitarist Pete Dean. Later as a duo with Jacquie Hanham the pair played around the North-east and Scotland until Jacquie returned to her native New Zealand. It was around this time that Kate collaborated with Jez Lowe for the first time on a millenium commission _x0018_ Sea of Light_x0019_ . Jez had been asked to compose a _x0018_ folk concerto_x0019_ for a son e lumiere display to mark the Millenium on the sea coast of County Durham, and Kate leant a hand with fiddle parts and backing vocals. In 2000 Kate joined Jez Lowe and the Bad Pennies and has toured almost exclusively with the band since that time.
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