Arts & Culture
Rachel Newton, BBC Radio Folk Award Winner 'Musician of the Year' 2017, to perform at Reading's South Street Arts Centre in June

Award winning folk artist Rachel Newton will be performing at the South Street Arts Centre in Reading on June 8 as part of a five date UK tour.

Since the release of her album Here’s My Heart Come Take It in April 2016, singer and harpist Rachel Newton has been awarded both the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards Musician of the Year and the Scots Trad Music Awards Instrumentalist of the Year.

The album has gained praise from the likes of the Observer who described it as ‘a beauty’, fRoots where it was a 5* Album Choice and it has also received airplay from BBC Radio 6 Music and BBC Radio 2.

In June, Rachel is bringing the music from Here’s My Heart Come Take It to life with her band of fantastic musicians. In her trio is fiddler Lauren MacColl (Rant, Salt House) and drummer Mattie Foulds, who also recorded and co-produced the album.

They will be joined for some performances by Sarah Hayes (Admiral Fallow) on keys and Michael Owers (SNJO) on trombone to really capture the sound created on the record.

This is the first tour with this line-up after a premiere performance at Celtic Connections in January and ahead of their main stage performance in the summer at Cambridge Folk Festival.

Rachel Newton specialises in interpreting traditional folk songs in Scottish Gaelic and English as well as writing and arranging her own music. A skilled collaborator and one of the folk scene’s busiest and most in demand musicians, Rachel is also a founding member of The Shee and BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards Best Group 2017 The Furrow Collective.