John Kirkpatrick: he’s in a class of his own for the life he instils into whatever issues from his squeezeboxes”. (Folk Roots).

From the late 1960s, John has been at the very forefront of innovative folk in Britain, and has played with, among others, the ALBION BAND, the ALBION COUNTRY BAND, STEEELEYE SPAN, the RICHARD THOMPSON BAND, BRASS MONKEY, and BAND OF HOPE, as well as establishing himself as a brilliant solo act. It is a pedigree second to none.

John Kirkpatrick presents a programme of traditional songs to take us through a year in the countryside, reflecting the highs and lows of each season, and giving an authentic voice to the old way of life. Although agricultural working conditions in the later nineteenth century were as bad as any in the country, the songs that have been handed down from this time choose to embody hope and optimism, and a great delight in the processes of nature - songs designed to keep the spirits high and buoyant, rather than dwell on the gloomier side of a life that most of us today would find quite impossible.

 So here we have The Victorian Farmer’s Year In Song – songs about farmers, and songs sung by farmers; songs about the work on the farm, and songs to make that work easier; songs celebrating particular days in the country calendar, and songs celebrating the daily miracle of life, death, and renewal. And the world we are shown here is not a romantic pastoral idyll viewed through rose-tinted spectacles – this is a world full of sweat and muck, a world with dirt under the finger nails, a world full of snorting, and grunting, and heaving.

And then there’s the animals………………