IN 2017 former Bellowhead frontman and multiple BBC Folk Award winner Jon Boden introduced the new big band Jon Boden and The Remnant Kings, supported by the release of the album Afterglow.

With their music described as ambitious, genre-busting folk, they played at major venues across the UK with material from the album interspersed with songs and tunes from across Jon’s career.

Fast forward to spring 2019, and Jon is touring the Afterglow experience into small theatres that would be unable to host the 11-piece band, with a line-up featuring Jon and the Remnant Kings string section, under the banner of Jon Boden and The Remnant Strings.

The pared back outfit includes Jon Boden on fiddle, guitars, concertina and stomp-box; viola player Helen Bell; violinist, Morven Bryce, and Lucy Revis on cello.

Jon is thrilled about the tour and is calling in at Kendal’s Brewery Arts Centre tomorrow night.

As a fiddle player, he finds it exhilarating to be immersed in the sound of string arrangements. In the mix of the big band, the strings can get a little lost, so with a stripped back string band it’s a great way to be playing the songs.

During the show, Jon will regale the audience with tales of the album Afterglow, which is about a post-oil world, following the course of two lovers over the night of a city carnival. The big band was a big spectacle, and Jon finds it exciting to be able to play a more intimate acoustic version of the material.

Though widely respected as an interpreter and champion of traditional song, his album, Afterglow, proves that his repertoire extends far beyond the boundaries of the folk traditional genre.

Jon was brought up in Winchester and says he got into music through exploring his parents extensive record collection: “I studied classical guitar at school from a young age. I then played in rock bands. Finding pleasure in folk music, this became my passion.”

The Brewery gig should be a top evening of music from one of the most talented singer and songwriters around today, whose work, according to The Observer, “recalls the Gabriel-era Genesis with a dash of Bush and Bowie.”

Brewery box office 01539-725133.