From the industrial revolution, universal suffrage and the slave trade through to CND, Rock against Racism and the Miners’ strike, songs are a common and integral factor in all the movements that have sought to instigate change.

Shake the Chains is an exciting new touring commission from celebrated UK contemporary folk singer songwriters and special guests that will explore the role songs have played in social change, resistance and protest.

The project is a commission from Folk by the Oak, with support from Arts Council England, Help Musicians, and Folk Alliance.

Nancy Kerr is one of the most in-demand singer songwriters in English folk. She has won six BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards, including Singer of the Year (2015), Best Duo as part of Nancy Kerr & James Fagan (2000, 2003 & 2011), and Best Album & Best Group as part of The Full English Band (2014).

Findlay Napier made his name touring and recording with multi-award winning traditional Scottish folk band Back of the Moon.

Hannah Martin, half of a BBC Radio 2 Folk Award winning duo with Phillip Henry, is a skilled and versatile musician with a contemporary outlook and style of folk and roots music.

Politics graduate Greg Russell performs as a duo with Ciaran Algar, but also as a solo artist and with Nancy Kerr’s Sweet Visitor Band and The Tweed Project. The winner of two BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards in 2013 & 2014, and nominated in 2015, he is one of the finest and most versatile young artists in English folk music.

Tim Yates is in demand as one of the best ‘side-men’ in the UK folk scene for his versatility as a musician. He is an exceptionally gifted arranger and collaborator, and highly regarded as a writer with his material recorded by one of his bands, Blackbeard’s Tea Party.