Further dates announced to join Blackbeard’s Tea Party for folk fun

Playing together since the summer of 2009, Blackbeard’s Tea Party have become firm favourites on the English folk scene. An independent band with three albums to their name, Blackbeard’s Tea Party have also completed a number of successful UK headline tours.

‘Reprobates’ was produced by Dave Boothroyd at Reel Recording Studios. Barn-storming folk tunes rub shoulders with narrative folk songs, telling dark tales of wicked and nefarious characters. The album shows off the band’s imaginative arrangements, accomplished musicianship and dark sense of humour.

‘Reprobates’ follows the 2009 mini-album ‘Heavens to Betsy’; the band’s first full-length album, 2011’s ‘Tomorrow We’ll Be Sober’; and 2013’s ‘Whip Jamboree’ which R2 magazine called “the best party going on five inches of plastic.”

The title ‘Reprobates’ doesn’t just give the album its theme. It’s also a nod to the band’s reputation for musical mischief, frequently breaking folk-rock’s conventions. Blackbeard’s Tea Party combine fiddle, melodeon and voice with the interlocking grooves of two hand percussionists, a distorted electric guitar, and funk-inflected bass patterns. Though their music often takes traditional tunes and songs as the starting point, it’s clear that Blackbeard’s Tea Party is not for folk purists.

Theirs is a gutsy take on folk which aims to renounce the trendy twee of bands like Mumford and Sons in favour of folk’s darker and more primitive origins, all by way of classic rock, funk and dance music. The resulting arrangements are often quirky and boisterous. This playfulness – along with their anarchic and ebullient stage show – has won Blackbeard’s Tea Party a small legion of fans.

Reception for the band has been phenomenal over the last two years: the Huffington Post called Blackbeard’s Tea Party the ‘THE band to see at Glastonbury 2014’ and, after they played to their biggest ever crowd at Fairport’s Cropredy Convention, they were overwhelmingly voted the best band of the festival by Fairport Convention fans. Below are further dates announced to see the tea party live.

April 2016

Fri 1. The Duchess, Stonebow House, The Stonebow, York, North Yorkshire YO1 7NP

Sat 2. The Platform Old Station Buildings, Marine Rd W, Morecambe, Lancsashire LA4 4DB

Fri 22. Cabaret Voltaire 36-38 Blair St, Edinburgh, Scotland EH1 1QR

Sat 23. The Greystones Greystones Rd, Sheffield, Sth. Yorkshire S11 7BS

May 2016

Fri 6. New Mills Town Hall Springbank, New Mills, High Peak, Derbyshire SK22 4AT

Sat 7. Poppleton Live The Poppleton Centre, Main Street, Upper Poppleton, York YO26 6JT

Sun 29. Chester Folk Festival, Kelsall Village, Chester CH1 9RQ

June 2016

Sat 4. Asparafest Ashdown Farm, Badsey, Nr Evesham, Worcestershire WR11 7PA

July 2016

Fri 8th. Ely Folk Festival, 38 Lynn Road, Ely, Cambridgeshire CB6 1DA

Fri 29th. Sidmouth Folk Week The Bulverton Marquee Sidmouth, Devon EX10 8RP

August 2016

Sat 6. Belladrum Tartan Heart Festival By Beauly, Inverness, Scotland IV4 7BA

Thurs 11 & Fri 12. Broadstairs Folk Week, Pierremont Hall, Broadstairs, Kent CT10 1JX

Fri 19. Moira Furnace Folk Festival, Furnace Lane, Moira, Swadlincote, Leicestershire DE12 6AT