Karine Polwart with special guest Kitty Macfarlane

This event has been rescheduled from Friday 16 June.

Doors: 7pm

An evening of song inspired by the natural world.

Karine Polwart and Kitty Macfarlane write with an eco-eye, drawing from the same deep well of greater-than-human life as inspiration for many of their songs. Karine wonders if the annual migration of pink-footed geese from Iceland to her neighbouring peatbog in south-east Scotland can teach us humans about cooperation, whilst Kitty marvels at the epic oceanic journey of the eel. And where Kitty finds human connection in those gathered to witness a starling murmuration on the Somerset Levels, Karine explores the notion of resilience by celebrating the tiny, tenacious sea-pink.

Birds flit in and out of view, via cuttlefish bones and ammonites.  Trees and rocks speak. But neither writer is sentimental. Both nod to the complexities of human interventions in our landscapes and the changing face of the natural world. Sure to be a thought-provoking delight for music-lovers and nature-lovers alike.

Karine is a multiple winner at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards and most recently appeared at St George’s in collaboration with pianist, Dave Milligan. As a member of Spell Songs, she has collaborated with writer, Robert McFarlane and visual artist, Jackie Morris on two albums of nature-inspired songs. She is a former Artist in Residence at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. “One of the finest singer-songwriters in Britain” (The Guardian ★★★★★)

Kitty was nominated in the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards 2019, for the Horizon award, and voted FATEA Female Artist of the Year. Carried by a clear voice ‘controlled yet wild’ (Folk Radio), her lyrics touch on intervention and rewilding, climate change and migration, woman’s age-old relationship with textiles and the land, and the changing face of the natural world. Away from the stage she has written and presented programmes for BBC Radio 3 (The Essay) and Radio 4.