Jon Boden has become the "stand out performer of his generation" (The Guardian) of traditional folk artists, but one whose repertoire extends far beyond the boundaries of the genre, from leading progressive folk juggernaut Bellowhead to his work in Spiers & Boden and as an acclaimed solo artist.

Parlour Ballads is the new album from Jon Boden, a piano led record full of sentimental ballads that tie together parlour music and folk song. Parlour Ballads seeks to awaken the sound of the old, well loved, slightly out of tune domestic piano and to reunite it with (or introduce it to) songs that might feel glad of the acquaintance.

“Parlour Music” is a genre that has been much derided over the centuries. Its heyday was the Victorian era when many middle-class houses had pianos and many children who could sight- read piano scores to a high level, musical literacy being highly prized. Parlour songs were composed and disseminated through sheet music, to be performed in private and public houses alike, but with an air of respectability not found in the music hall repertoire. This practice continued well into the twentieth century until technological advances supplanted the printed stave as the primary means of musical transmission.

Jon Boden is best known as the lead singer and main arranger of Bellowhead. After twelve years, a quarter of a million album sales, seven singles on the Radio 2 playlist and selling out hundreds of venues throughout the land and beyond. Widely respected as an interpreter of traditional song, his solo live shows showcase Jon’s instrumental talents on fiddle, guitar and concertina, as well as his trademark ‘stomp box’ which he and John Spiers introduced into to the world of traditional music in 2001. Through his solo work and his work with Bellowhead and Spiers & Boden, Jon has won eleven BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards.