Spiers & Boden

Spiers & Boden

Spiers & Boden is a British folk duo made up of Jon Boden and John Spiers. Spiers plays melodeon, concertina and other squeeze-box instruments, while Boden plays fiddle, sings and also keeps rhythm by stamping on a board.

Career

The pair begin playing together in 1999 and release their first album as a duo, Through and Through, in 2001. In 2002 they appear as session musicians on Eliza Carthy’s album Anglicana and tour with her as part of her band The Ratcatchers. Their second album, Bellow, arrives in 2003 and gains wider attention, with material largely drawn from traditional tunes and songs rooted in the Morris tradition.

They win the BBC Radio 2 Folk Award for Horizon Award in 2003, followed by Best Duo in 2004. In 2005 they release the albums Tunes and Songs, and later issue Vagabond on Navigator Records.

Related work

Both musicians are founding members of Bellowhead, a folk band formed to combine traditional English folk music with a brass band sound.