Blair Dunlop (with support from Liz Stringer)

Blair Dunlop plays Exeter Phoenix on Sunday 22 November, with support from Liz Stringer. It's a singer-songwriter night in Studio 1, and the timing puts it just a few weeks after Dunlop's latest record comes out.

Dunlop has been around a long time. He released two EPs in his teens and became a regular on the folk festival circuit in Britain and abroad before his debut album, Blight & Blossom, arrived in 2012. That one picked up the Horizon Award at the 2013 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards, and the 2014 follow-up, House of Jacks, helped establish him as one of the country's more promising folk talents. He's kept the momentum going since then: 2016 brought Gilded, released on his own Gilded Wings label, with the singles 'The Egoist' and '356' making the BBC Radio 2 playlist; 2018 saw Notes From An Island, a heartbreak record that drew parallels between personal solitude and national isolationism.

In 2024 he put out his fifth album, Out of the Rain, which went down well with the critics, and his sixth is due out in October 2026. This gig falls shortly after that release, so it's a good chance to hear the new material live. Songwriting Magazine has called him one of Britain's most compelling contemporary artists, and with six albums now under his belt, there's plenty to draw from across the set.

Liz Stringer opens the night. It's a standing show in Studio 1 at Exeter Phoenix on Gandy Street, starting at 7:30pm. Tickets are £17.50, plus a £1.50 ticketing system charge.