Country folk duo Two Ways Home are set for their North East debut as bring their The Round Up tour to Tyneside this week.
Nashville, New York, Germany, are all ticked off the “to play” list, along with many other locations in the UK and abroad.
However, husband and wife duo, Lewis and Isabella – Isi – Folkner are still breaking new ground and finding new places to play, as they prepare for their first ever show in the North East in the month that also marks their tenth anniversary as a musical duo.
Lewis, who grew up on Gloucestershire, and Isi, originally from Vienna, have carved a position for themselves as UK masters of the songwriters’ round with their The Round Up show, which has seen them sharing the stage with the likes of Lainey Wilson and Charlie Worsham.
And their Newcastle debut will see them bring The Round Up to Little Buildings on Wednesday (November 13), joined on stage by London-born, US raised songstress Katy Hurt and Luke Flear, who hails from Leeds, with County Durham heritage.
Regarding The Round Up, Isi says: “When we started it in, I think it was 2017, it [rounds] was really something that wasn’t happening very much. We went over to Nashville quite a bit and we saw that format and always thought it was quite nice, because you actually get to hear the stories behind the songs.
“Obviously at a show, if you want the show to be slick, you don’t really get that much of a background, so often it’s really nice to hear how people wrote the song, what is the song actually about, and just to hear it very stripped back.
“And also I feel like, with The Round Up, it was nice just to get people in the room and have like a chilled environment – it’s more like a show where people can even pitch in and just have a drink or just be around like in a living room kind of setting. So that was kind of what we wanted to do.”
Lewis adds: “And also when you’re going to a show as an audience member, and a lover of music, if you’re seeing a new act, I always feel like I love rounds. You can go, and you can listen to a new act and perhaps you don’t know any of their songs, or maybe you do know one of the act’s songs, and it’s just nice that you hear them in sequence and I think it’s opened our eyes to a lot of new acts that we’ve seen through rounds.”
That includes the Newcastle show, as it will be the first time – fleeting passings-by at festivals aside – that they have even met Luke Flear, a uniqueness of the format that often adds a real freshness to the occasion.
“It’ll be our first show together, but we’ll be getting to know each other on the stage as well,” says Lewis.
And it will be their Newcastle debut, so another first is on the cards.
Says Lewis: “We’ve not played in Newcastle before. We’ve always wanted to, but whenever you’re breaking into a new territory or a new town or new city or whatever, you have this worry that ‘what if nobody turns up?’. So we opted for a smaller venue, we want to pack it out, we want to bring the best round we can possibly bring to Newcastle. I know we will do it with those two acts [Hurt and Flear], because they’re both epic.”
“I really like Newcastle,” adds Isi. “I’ve been there a couple of times, two of my friends used to live there, and I really liked it, so I am excited to come back and look at the town again.”
Details of The Round Up tour and tickets for the Newcastle show are available from the Two Ways Home website.