A knowledgeable folk-loving audience packed Kenilworth's most intimate venue to welcome back Will Pound and Jenn Butterworth to the area.

With their Warwick Folk Festival performances a recent happy memory, the Tree House Bookshop initiative provided a rare opportunity to hear the duo without the need for sound engineers and special lighting.

Indeed, the lighting was an audience decision - an extended table lamp and a few fairy lights the preferred option!

Pound and Butterworth are extraordinary professionals, both now very comfortable playing as a duo.

Butterworth's intricate guitar chord structuring is one of her great strengths; Pound's ability to play a wide selection of harmonicas and melodiums, without a hint of domination of the stunning guitar accompaniment, an important factor in their success.

Pound's lively start included a revisit to his 2018 CD, the "Year in Morris and Folk Dance", with Blackthorn Stick Irish Washerwoman.

Soon enough, Jenn was called upon to sing a solo – a tribute to Gillian Welch, whose very moving 2017 Dark Turn of Mind proved to be the perfect opportunity for a very tender, thoughtful moment at the end of a troubling "mini-budget" day.

Building on the success of the 2021 national tour of "Day Will Come" using Pound's search across the EU 27 Member States for inter-country folk song links, the duo developed an Irish set with Jenn's cascading chords an unforgettable feature in "My Darling Asleep" and "Jimmy Ward's (jig)".

American folk hero, Peggy Seeger features prominently in Jenn's repertoire, both artists showing a distaste for politicians in their writing and choice of songs.

"Better Things To Do" was an immediate hit with this knowledgeable audience!

Two recent Pound interpretations will live long in the memory.

The regimental pipe march from WW1, "Battle of the Somme" and his successful attempt to rewrite Handel's "The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba" in a Quebecois style, exhibited the Pound creative stamp at its finest.

Audience involvement added to the enjoyment of Jenn's version of "South Australia" and Pound's interpretations of Northumbrian folk songs demonstrate his keen understanding of the importance of regional influences in folk music.

Tree House Bookshop was warmly applauded for providing this Butterworth/Pound duo with a delightfully intimate venue on their tour which proceeds to the Stables at Milton Keynes (of Dankworth fame) and then King's Place in London.

Like this story? Then subscribe to our FREE weekly newsletter to get the latest Kenilworth news straight to your inbox every Friday.