by Mike Sinclair

Will Keating and John Dowling are going back to church for their 2022 Winter Candlelit Concert Tour. 

The Cornwall folk and banjo duo performed in 15 churches across Cornwall last winter and this year they have a bigger schedule with 28 appearances from late October until early December.

Will and John both love their home county of Cornwall. Their passion for their county shines through in their music, but also in the venues they choose for their Concert Tours.

They will be performing to communities in hamlets, villages, and towns across the Duchy with each church, stunningly beautiful in its own right, steeped with history, with fantastic acoustics for a concert.

“This is a very meaningful tour for both of us,” said Falmouth-based Will ahead of their first date at the magical creekside St Just-in-Roseland Church, on October 26.

Award-winning singer-songwriter Will Keating, also one of the members of popular Cornish male singing group The Oggymen, has wowed audiences far and widesince embarking on a solo career in 2017. 

Two sold-out headline performances at the iconic Minack Theatre in 2020 and 2021, cemented Will’s reputation as one of Cornwall’s stand out performers with Harry Glasson, writer of Cornwall My Home – one of Will’s favourite songs – paying the compliment: “Cornish songs delivered with passion and presence, honesty and integrity.”

Joh, who lives in St Just-in-Penwith, is a world class banjo player. At the age of 19 he became a BBC Radio 2 Folk Award winner with the trio Black Cat Theory and at 21 he became the first non-American to win the USA National Bluegrass Banjo Championships held in Kansas. 

Folk legend Ralph McTell said: “John Dowling’s banjo playing reminds us of the breadth of expression this sometimes-maligned instrument is capable of. In his hands the dignity to this instrument is restored.  John is not just a great banjo player but a master musician”

Both established individual performers in their own right, together the duo will be blending nostalgic Cornish folk songs with intricate foot-tapping instrumentals.

Advance tickets are available online at www.willkeatingcornwall.com/tickets or call 01726 63523