Folk Awards winners in North-East

TO WIN the Best Duo category at the 2015 BBC Folk Awards is quite an achievement at any stage of an artists’ career. But just two years prior to this accolade Josienne Clarke and Ben Walker were virtually unknown on the folk scene (or any other, for that matter). So their success is quite remarkable.

Josienne and Ben had been performing to one woman and a disinterested dog at London acoustic nights since 2009. Following the release of their first two albums One Light Is Gone and The Seas Are Deep, interest began to grow.

Musician and producer Jim Moray persuaded them to look for a far bigger audience, although Josienne was initially sceptical that the folk and roots scene would welcome outsiders, but the 2013 album Fire & Fortune proved her wrong.

Self-financed, self-produced, self-arranged and released on the Folk Room label, this year's Nothing Can Bring Back The Hour was a hugely ambitious, uncompromised realisation of everything Josienne and Ben had planned when they met six years ago.

Although Ben Walker (who grew up in Worcestershire) studied classical guitar from childhood and Josienne Clarke (from West Sussex) is a classical music degree dropout, both are keen to stress that they’re “bog standard comprehensive school kids”. To emphasise the point, Josienne has been known to quip: “We’re not posh, just pretentious!”

* Dates: Sun, Oct18, Hartlepool Folk Festival. Box Office:hartlepoolfolkfest.co.uk

Fri, Oct 30, Durham, Old Cinema Launderette, oldcinemalaunderette.com/index.html

Viv Hardwick