GILMORE & ROBERTS

Contemporary folk/acoustic duo Gilmore & Roberts combine award-winning songwriting with astounding musicianship and their trademark harmonies to create a powerful wall of sound. Nominated three times at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards, Katriona Gilmore (fiddle, mandolin) and Jamie Roberts (guitar) met while studying at Leeds College of Music and released their debut album in 2008.

Since then, the duo have toured Canada and mainland Europe, played some of the UK’s biggest acoustic festivals, toured with folk rock legends Fairport Convention and won countless accolades for their genre-spanning work.

A Problem Of Our Kind (released 12.10.18) is the fifth studio album from Gilmore & Roberts – their first release since 2016’s live album In Our History, which celebrated a decade of performing together.

‘We realised most of songs on the album deal with different aspects of being human – some negative, like selfishness or materialism, and some more positive, like our sentimental side or philanthropy” explains Jamie Roberts (vocals, guitar).

“Us humans are pretty complex” continues Katriona Gilmore (vocals, fiddle, mandolin). “Somehow it made us want to present these songs in quite a simple way.”

Recorded at the duo’s home in South Yorkshire by co-producer Ben Savage (well-known on the UK roots scene for his own acclaimed musical output with The Willows and Hannah Sanders), A Problem Of Our Kind contains some of the most stripped-back arrangements of Gilmore & Roberts’ career so far, alongside full-tilt band numbers featuring their regular festival rhythm section of Fred Claridge (drums) and Matt Downer (double bass).

From the heavy yet sparse groove of the gutsy opening track ‘Gauntlet’ to the quietly insistent country-tinged heartbeat of ‘Things You Left Behind’ and the contemplative ebb and flow of ‘On The Line’, Gilmore & Roberts delve deep into the human psyche with their songs, holding all their findings – good and bad, dark and beautiful – up to the light. “People and their stories have always been our primary source of inspiration for writing songs” says Katriona with a smile. “Thankfully there are enough amazing humans – past and present – to keep us going for a long time yet!”

https://gilmoreroberts.co.uk/