THE Sheffield-based Rheingans Sisters come to Bridport Arts Centre on Friday 19th September, with their golden voices and inventive soundworlds. In their live shows and recordings, Rowan and Anna Rheingans create an immersive and uplifting musical journey which is both steeped in tradition and fresh and contemporary.

Exploring evocative influences from across Europe, the sisters’ performances take in baroque fiddle tunes and trance beats, metal-inspired arrangements of traditional ballads and improvisations. Their unmistakable brand of avant-garde and tradition blends ancient song and universal stories with future imaginings, dystopias and dreams.

Previous winners of BBC Radio 2 Folk Award for Best Original Track and nominees for Best Band, with their uniquely blended sound of fiddles, voices, feet, banjos, electric guitar, synths and the powerful bass drones of the medieval tambourin à cordes, the Rheingans Sisters are one of the most visionary acts on the British folk scene. Their latest album, Start Close In, was released in September 2024 to critical acclaim and was one of the Guardian’s Top 10 Albums of 2024.

Earlier in the month, on Saturday 6th September, a group with an authentic sound from a distinct musical period, The Jake Leg Jug Band Bring the music of 1920s and 30s America – jazz, blues, ragtime and gospel – with a side order of murder, betrayal, liquor and redemption!

Evoking a bygone age with both their sound and look, the band – Duncan Wilcox on vocals and double bass, Warren James on vocals, guitar and banjo and Liam Ward on vocals, harmonica, jug, washboard, saw and kazoo – is popular at jazz festivals and clubs across the UK. Their latest album, Live at Green Note (their tenth in 13 years), was released in March this year.

Expect to hear long-forgotten songs played on a range of vintage instruments including washboard, harmonica, comb and paper, musical saw, bones and, of course, the humble jug!