Two of the most loved and respected musicians on the English folk scene, Jackie Oates and John Spiers return in December 2026 with their much-loved annual Christmas show, A Midwinter’s Night.
Warm, intimate and full of the quiet magic of the season, A Midwinter’s Night brings together traditional carols, songs and tunes from England and beyond, alongside the duo’s characteristically beautiful arrangements for voice, fiddle, viola and melodeon.
What began as a lockdown project in Jackie’s living room has grown into an annual Christmas tradition, taking Jackie and John to arts centres, folk clubs and venues across the country each December. At its heart is their 2024 album A Midwinter’s Night – a 13-track collection celebrating midwinter in all its shades: joyful, mysterious, reflective and full of warmth.
For their 2026 tour, Jackie and John reunite after particularly busy autumns with their other musical projects. John comes to the tour fresh from performing with Bellowhead, one of the most celebrated and successful bands in contemporary British folk music, while Jackie has been touring As The Light Draws In, her new collaborative album with acclaimed singer, songwriter and pianist Belinda O’Hooley.
Together again for December, Oates and Spiers return to the simple musical chemistry that has been at the heart of their partnership for a decade.
Multi award-winning folk singer and musician Jackie Oates and renowned melodeon player John Spiers first began playing together spontaneously during guest appearances at Nettlebed Folk Club in Henley-on-Thames. Discovering a shared love of English traditional music – and particularly material connected with their native Oxfordshire – they began performing as a duo in 2016.
Their first full-length studio album, Needle Pin, Needle Pin, followed in 2020.
That same year, with Christmas gatherings and live performances impossible, Jackie and John created their first Christmas At Home concert: a homemade programme of seasonal music filmed in Jackie’s living room and around rural locations in Wallingford, Wootton and Headington Quarry.
The response was so warm that a second concert followed in 2021. When live performances returned, the pair took the music on the road – and their Christmas concerts have since become a fixture of the festive folk calendar.
Released in 2024, A Midwinter’s Night grew out of those concerts and the pair’s shared fascination with the songs, tunes, customs and rituals surrounding Christmas and midwinter.
Recorded at Wormwood Studios in North Oxfordshire with Stuart Jones, the album features Jackie and John alone, creating rich multi-instrumental arrangements with voice, fiddle, viola, melodeons, recorders and percussion.
Alongside lesser-known Breton carols such as Bergers, Écoutez La Musique is Jackie’s setting of the medieval text As I Lay on Yoolis Night. The haunting O Come, O Come Emmanuel and Seafarer’s Hymn sit alongside exuberant wassailing songs and instrumental music associated with the pair’s own family Christmas traditions.
Among these are the annual Headington Quarry Boxing Day Mummers Play and an instrumental arrangement of The Sussex Carol, reflecting the music associated with the Ditchling Mummers’ Boxing Day tradition.
Rather than the noise and commercial rush of Christmas, A Midwinter’s Night celebrates something quieter: old songs passed from one generation to another, winter landscapes, local customs, gathering together and making music.
In December 2026, Jackie Oates and John Spiers take A Midwinter’s Night on the road once again.
PRESS
“It’s a treat to listen to… Oates and Spiers are a fine match, the tunes elegantly paced and played, while Oates remains one of our finest singers.”
Folk Witness
“Oates & Spiers left the gaudy, commercialised crass-ness at home … theirs is a Christmas for all.”
Bristol24/7
JACKIE OATES
jackieoates.co.uk
“There’s a sweetness and melancholy to her voice that is like no other, and for which there is no known formula with which to replicate it.”
Songlines
Jackie Oates is a folk singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist and a central figure in English traditional music. Across eight solo studio albums she has become known for her distinctive voice, sensitive interpretation of traditional song and ability to bring old material into striking new settings.
Her acclaimed eighth solo album, Gracious Wings, was released in 2022. Alongside her solo work and collaboration with John Spiers, Jackie’s latest project is a new duo with celebrated singer, songwriter and pianist Belinda O’Hooley. Their album As The Light Draws In was released in 2026 and toured across the UK during the autumn.
Jackie continues to combine traditional music, original songwriting and unexpected contemporary material, collaborating with a wide range of artists and projects while seeking new corners of the folk tradition to illuminate through her voice, research and musicianship.
JOHN SPIERS
johnspiers.co.uk
“A blend of elegant, rhythmic and virtuoso playing and easygoing folk club banter. A quiet triumph.”
The Guardian
John Spiers – known throughout the folk world as “Squeezy” – is one of the leading melodeon players of his generation.
He is perhaps best known for his long-running partnership with Jon Boden and as a founding member of Bellowhead, whose spectacular live shows and inventive approach to traditional music have made them one of the most successful British folk bands of recent decades.
John has also performed with Eliza Carthy, appearing on her Mercury Prize-nominated 2002 album Anglicana, and works with legendary Steeleye Span fiddle player Peter Knight as part of the Gigspanner Big Band.
From infectious dance tunes to extraordinarily sensitive slow airs, John’s playing combines rhythmic drive, virtuosity and an instinctive understanding of traditional music. He joins Jackie for A Midwinter’s Night immediately following Bellowhead’s 2026 touring.