Nottingham’s The Squire Performing Arts Centre announces this season's line up, with folk music and comedy leading the way

This season will see the launch of Squire PAC’s folk music offer, as well as continuing with its programming of comedy and special guests, creating a balance with both professional and community work.

Anita Bush, The Squire centre manager, said: “We are excited to host, what is, for us, a new genre of music which builds on our repertoire.

“Our welcoming front-of-house team are looking forward to greeting new audience members.

“This season sees a range of talent, including Leveret, a trio of England’s finest folk musicians, Lady Maisery, featuring songs from their new album, Mishra, featuring Deppa Nair Rasiya, with their intricate, Indian-influenced original music. The season also sees very personal performances of life experiences in two great acts.

We are What We Overcome, written and performed by Matt McGuinness, combines music with a heartfelt personal focus on mental health, along with Patrick Monahan’s sharp comedy Classy. What’s wrong with being a misfit?”

Season Highlights

Leveret: Friday, March 24Leveret is a unique collaboration between three of England's finest folk musicians. Andy Cutting (button accordion), Sam Sweeney (fiddle) and Rob Harbron (concertina) are each regarded as exceptional performers and masters of their instruments. Together their performances combine consummate musicianship, compelling delivery and captivating spontaneity. Leveret’s music is not arranged in the conventional sense and the trio rely on mutual trust and musical interaction to create new settings of their repertoire in the moment, with no two performances alike. Their playing is relaxed and natural, drawing audiences in and inviting them to share in music making that is truly spontaneous and yet deeply timeless.

Fiddler Sam Sweeney was the 2015 BBC Folk Awards Musician of the Year and the inaugural Artistic Director of the National Youth Folk Ensemble. He is known for his work in Bellowhead and The Full English, and his solo recordings including 2022’s Escape That. Box player Andy Cutting, a three-time BBC Folk Awards Musician of the year, is a compelling solo performer and works with Blowzabella, Topette, Anne Niepold, and Roger Daltrey. Concertina wizard Rob Harbron leads the English Acoustic Collective Summer School, released his own solo album Meanders in 2019, and is known for his work with Emily Portman, The Full English and Emma Reid.Leveret will celebrate 10 years on the road in 2023 with Forms, a new album featuring new and traditional tunes played with the band’s trademark interaction and inventiveness. Leveret's music is firmly rooted in the English tradition but sounds fresh and new and over the years their intimate presentation style has charmed countless audiences, helping the trio build a loyal following and demonstrating the enduring appeal and endless potential of the folk tune. Listeners new and old can expect incredible musicianship and compelling presentation from a band at the top of their game.

Mishra, Thursday, April 13Mishra are a global folk collective with strong roots in UK folk.They weave a tight web of intricate, Indian-influenced original music that defies definition and has brought them awards including the Christian Raphael Prize and Celtic Connection’s Danny Kyle Award.Kate Griffin on vocals, banjo, and dobro (The Magpies) and Ford Collier on low whistle, calabash/percussion, and guitar (BBC R2 Folk Award-nominated The Drystones) are the song-writing partnership behind Mishra, drawing on their unique base of influences that encompasses folk music of the UK and America, Indian classical music, and soul to create a surprisingly accessible sound that audiences instantly connect to. Mishra are pleased to present their exciting new collaboration with the formidable vocalist and composer Deepa Nair Rasiya.

We Are What We Overcome, Sunday, April 16Combining upbeat music with thought provoking comedy and stories, We Are What We Overcome is one man’s journey to good mental health via a very bad idea. Matt delivers personal, difficult, and eclectic stories interjected with original songs performed by alive band. The show moves fluidly thorough a mix of heart felt stories, self-deprecating humour and original songs.Age 14+

Patrick Monahan, Classy, Friday, May 12

In a world of groups, hierarchies and class systems, everyone’s trying so hard to fit in. What’s wrong with being a misfit? Be you, be proud! From the caravan to the middle-class neighbourhood, it’s taken Monahan four decades to realise this. Enjoy Monahan’s stand-up observations on living his contemporary life alongside stories of his upbringing. As seen recently on BBC One’s The One Show, Loose Women ITV), Asian Network (BBC).

Lady Maisery, Sunday, May 28Uniquely captivating band Lady Maisery return with their first studio album in six years. The combined vocal and multi-instrumental talents of Hazel Askew, Hannah James and Rowan Rheingans (individually three of the most accomplished and adventurous artists in modern folk) transmute to form a unified voice, carrying stories of sisterhood, human struggle, the joy of living and the vitality of music.

Their new album, Tender – due for release this November – comprises original songs written by Lady Maisery, as well as contemplative and personal interpretations of work by Björk, Tracy Chapman and the late Lal Waterson. An arresting record that explores the power in vulnerability and the strength in kindness, these are songs which acknowledge our collective wounds while striving forward with a visceral hope for the future.Frequent festival headliners, Lady Maisery have for over a decade enraptured audiences throughout the UK and Europe. Their return to the live stage has been eagerly awaited.

To find out more about The Squire Performing Arts Centre and its programme of work, see squirepac.co.uk