IT'S been a musically-driven learning curve for folk trio The Georgie Shackleton Trio... culminating next week with a performance on home soil.

Featuring past students of the critically-acclaimed Newcastle Folk degree, the trio combines guitar, fiddle, mandolin and three part harmonies, playing a blend of quirky original songs and tunes, as well as innovative arrangements of traditional material.

With an emphasis on Georgia’s penchant for ‘wordy songs about other people’, the group are strongly influenced by American, Irish, Scottish and Scandinavian traditions.

The band’s 2016 debut album The Dog Who Would Not Be Washed showcases these eclectic influences, whilst remaining firmly rooted in East Anglia. It features songs and tunes about the dangers of the Fenland roads, a murder ballad collected in Suffolk, self-penned tunes, as well as a nod to Georgia’s family history with a ballad of Sir Ernest Shackleton’s epic Antarctic Expedition.

In 2016 they enjoyed festival slots at Rotterdam Bluegrass Festival, Cambridge Folk Festival, Towersey Folk Festival, Broadstairs Folk Week and Folk East. 2017 sees them performing at Folk In A Field, Bury Folk Festival, Broadstairs and Holmfirth Folk Festival amongst many others.

The Georgia Shackleton Trio with support from Ben Church, The Cumberland Arms, Newcastle, July 12,, 8pm. Tickets: £8 on 0191 265 1725 or http://www.wegottickets.com/event/406992