Jackie Oates & John Spiers

Jackie Oates and John Spiers play the Music Room at the Liverpool Philharmonic on Tuesday 15 December, part of their annual Christmas tour. It's a folk duo that brings together English carols, wassails and festive songs from across the British Isles, so it's a night that sits right in the heart of the winter season.

Both are well-known names on the British folk scene. Jackie Oates is a two-time BBC Radio 2 Folk Award winner and five-time nominee, an expressive singer, fiddler and composer. John Spiers has played with Bellowhead and in the duo Spiers & Boden; he's a leading British squeezebox player and composer who blends traditional styles with contemporary dance music. Together they work through English carols, wassails and other historical traditions, alongside festive songs and tunes from the British Isles and beyond. They perform on fiddle, melodeon, percussion, recorders and stomp box, so the sound comes from a fair few instruments across the set.

The Liverpool date is one stop on their annual Christmas tour, and critics have described the duo as being 'at the peak of their unadulterated skills'. It's a small-scale, traditional folk evening rather than a big Christmas revue, with the focus on the carols and wassails that have been part of the British winter for generations.

It's on Tuesday 15 December, starting at 20:00 in the Music Room at the Liverpool Philharmonic.