Janice Burns & Jon Doran are an award-winning Anglo-Scottish duo who came together after discovering a shared love of traditional music. Their songs tell vivid stories about the nature of life and our place in the world.

Janice & Jon’s musical storytelling comes alive through tight vocal harmonies and sensitive interplay between mandolin, bouzouki and guitar. Their arrangements have a spellbinding presence and an understated energy that transports songs from the pages of books and manuscripts into the imagination of the listener.

Following the success of their self-titled EP in 2020, Janice & Jon released their debut album, No More the Green Hills, in Autumn 2022. The album had overwhelmingly positive feedback, finding its place in the Official UK Folk Albums Chart, as well as gaining airplay on BBC Radio 2 and BBC Radio Scotland.

With their relaxed and personable approach to performance, Janice & Jon are renowned for the warmth of their connection with audiences. From opening Stage 2 at Cambridge Folk Festival, to playing at the likes of Celtic Connections, Ceòl Cholasa, Edinburgh Tradfest, Sidmouth Folk Festival and Cecil Sharp House, the duo are highly sought after across the UK and beyond.

“They play lovely strings, they have gorgeous harmony arrangements. Really well crafted, intimate, beautifully understated.” – Karine Polwart

The duo’s winter gigs have become something of a tradition over the last few years, and now they’re heading out on tour with their brand-new festive album, Great Joy to the New. This winter album from the duo,  has been a long time coming – in fact, it’s been in the making for the last 7 years. Since the duo first met, they’ve come together each December to find and share festive songs. This annual tradition has been a cornerstone in their lives and careers, even as the world has shifted around them. Now at last, Great Joy to the New is set for release on Friday 22nd November.

The album is rooted in tradition, in all senses of the word. It draws strongly on traditional material, as well as the customs and rituals that draw people together through the winter to bring light to dark nights. Beautiful, colourful, musical traditions, linked by the common cause of sustaining people spiritually, mentally, or financially through a harsh winter. Janice and Jon’s new album and live show explores these themes through a collection of traditional folk songs about Christmas, winter, and optimism for the new year.

Many of the songs on the album were first chosen and arranged while Janice and Jon were living in Norway, studying Norwegian traditional music. Being in rural Telemark, surrounded by mountains and deep snow which arrived in October and stayed until early May, was a source of inspiration as they began to gather their early material.

The duo first performed their winter songs to an audience during the second 2020 lockdown when they decided that some festive cheer was needed (along with lots of mulled wine!). They hosted a ‘pay as you feel’ livestream which was so well attended that it became their best paid gig of the year. Since then, the demand for a Christmas album has grown annually, as their winter gigs have grown in popularity each year.

                                   Album Artwork – Gemma Trickey

It wouldn’t be Christmas without gathering friends around, and Janice and Jon are joined on this album by an array of collaborators, including Ben Nicholls (Seth Lakeman, Sam Sweeney Band) on double bass, Mari Bjørkøy leading a traditional Norwegian winter song, and a brass band playing on 4 of the tracks (The Derby Ram, Carol of the Beasts, Dunstan Lullaby, and Sans Day Carol) with arrangements by Jon Boden of Bellowhead.

The duo also enlisted the help of a few friends to form a mini choir for backing vocals, including folk legend Sandra Kerr; fellow musicians Amy Leach, Alasdair Paul, Suze Terwisscha (aka Catch the Sparrow) and Sam Baxter; plus Keith Hudson (a member of Janice’s choir) and the duo’s agent, Lucy Shields.

The record was produced, recorded and mixed by Andy Bell, and mastered by Sam Proctor.

Tour dates as follows:

28 Nov – Folk at the Lodge, Chester
29 Nov – Spring Bank Arts Centre, New Mills
30 Nov – Cafe #9, Sheffield
4 Dec – The Old Hairdressers, Glasgow
5 Dec – Norwegian Church, Cardiff
 6 Dec – Calstock Arts, Cornwall
 7 Dec – Bournemouth Folk Club
 8 Dec – Bishop’s Castle Town Hall, Shropshire
 11 Dec – Costa Winter Festival, Hayling Island
12 Dec – The Fleece Inn, Bretforton
13 Dec – Wingfield Barns, Diss
 14 Dec – ACE Space, Newbury + online with Live to Your Living Room
 15 Dec – Abbey Hill United Reformed Church, Kenilworth
19 Dec – The Cumberland Arms, Newcastle upon Tyne
 21st Dec – Horsenden Farm, Perivale, London

Find full details at www.janandjon.com/live

Great Joy to the New will be released on 22nd November 2024. It is available to pre-order at  janandjon.bandcamp.com

Featured image credit Mike Sreenan