THREE accomplished local folk groups, Yan Tan Tether, Duncan McFarlane and Anne Brivonesse, and Rum Doodle, are set to provide an evening of contemporary and traditional folk music at the Queens Hall, Burley in Wharfedale, on Saturday, November 17. The event, starting at 7.30pm, is one of a number of music events being staged by the Burley Bridge Association to raise funds to construct a footbridge over the River Wharfe in the village.

Yan Tan Tether is a female close harmony folk trio from Otley consisting of Rosie Knighton, Tess Leslie and Lynne O’Malley. They have been singing together since September 2013 and have already built up an enviable reputation in the local folk clubs and festivals around Yorkshire. They play a host of instruments between them (piano, banjo, guitar, fiddle) but concentrate mostly on creating beautiful a capella arrangements of traditional and more modern folk songs. Their voices blend as if they were family who have been singing together for years, creating spine-tingling harmonies interspersed with some rollicking good chorus songs. Their music has been played on the Mike Harding Folk Show who describes them as the “Golden Tonsils of Otley!”

Duncan McFarlane performs classy English folk, eminently listenable vocals and great songs, both traditional and contemporary with a strong rhythmic impetus that’s infectious in the extreme. Duncan’s a punchy guitarist in the ‘English folk’ style and offers a set about equally split between his own songs, other people’s and traditional. Duncan has an obvious feel for the traditional and a deep-rooted belief that it has a place in the current folk scene, aspects which he puts across with lively showmanship. His own songs show a canny grasp of, and response to, the tradition, while his intrinsic seriousness of intent and approach is often laced with a healthy irreverence that happens to be hugely entertaining. His acoustic duo features Anne Brivoness on fiddle and vocals.

Rum Doodle are a folk roots acoustic duo from Leeds. Martin Brennan and BB Tim play mostly their own original songs with influences as broad as Christy Moore & The Dubliners to Bob Dylan & Neil Young. They say ‘a lot of our material draws its inspiration from these islands we live in, be it about our wonderful heritage and different languages to growing up besides the Leeds & Liverpool Canal. But most important is the CRAIC’.

A bar will be provided on the night. Tickets cost £10 and are available from www.ticketsource.co.uk/burley-bridge-association, from the Coffee Station in Burley in Wharfedale, or from Just Books in Otley. For more information about the bridge campaign, visit www.burleybridge.com.