Will Pound and Jenn Butterworth

This virtuosic duo formed as the result of a chance meeting at a folk session in 2018, and led to Will and Jenn’s music travelling around the world as a viral internet sensation. Their roots lie in the English and Scottish folk music traditions, but they draw on inspiration from blues, gypsy jazz and folk traditions across the globe. In their live shows, they play a game of ‘musical cat and mouse’; improvising and responding to each other, weaving virtuosic performances that are unique and in-the-moment as only two musicians highly accomplished in their craft can produce.

Their debut album, recorded live in Glasgow in 2023, has received great praise:

“Harmonica and melodeon ace Will Pound and guitarist Jenn Butterworth – well known for her work with the Kinnaris Quintet and much else – transfer their celebrated live duo to the studio and their opening blues-inflected reel set would raise the dead and make them dance, as harmonica squalls joyously alongside the intense skitter and slap of guitar. They ease back for two Irish jigs – well-known, well-worn but treated with gently rollicking affection, before Pound switches to diatonic melodeon for a couple of limber, self-composed bourrées. There’s a solitary song from Butterworth – Better Things, a vintage but sprightly anti-nuke protest by Peggy Seeger – followed by the Queen of Sheba, ushered in with reedy gusto. A thoughtfully poignant rendering of the retreat march Battle of the Somme precedes a return to the frenetic in the Beggarman set – not so much musical dialogue as mutual hot pursuit” – Jim Gilchrist, The Scotsman

Will and Jenn are both individually well-known and respected artists, and have won or been nominated for awards from the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards, FATEA, Songlines and the Scots Trad Music Awards. They are excellent collaborators, and have worked with many of the UK’s top trad acts.