DORSET duo Ninebarrow are on a mission to change perceptions of folk music. Jon Whitley and Jay LaBouchardiere played a sold-out homecoming show for the Bournemouth Folk Club at the Shelley Theatre last week.

“I think people expect us to come out wearing socks, sandals and Aran sweaters. They get a surprise when it’s a couple of young chaps,” says Jay.

“People who don’t know folk music have an impression of what it’s going to be like and we quite enjoy dispelling that clichéd image of folk,” adds Jon.

Last year saw the pair focus full-time on making music as Ninebarrow. Jon had previously worked as a teacher at Baden-Powell school in Poole, while Jay as a doctor at Bearwood Medical Centre.

Now extensively touring the UK, Ninebarrow have released two critically received albums, While The Blackthorn Burns in 2014 and last year’s, Releasing the Leaves.

The band combines breath-taking vocal harmonies and melodies, delivering original songs that are inspired and rooted in the local landscape and history of the British Isles.

There’s also a strong element of storytelling that has proved immensely popular around the country with audiences keen to learn about Dorset.

“In some ways the stories that proceed the sings are as important as the music itself. We’ve been struck by how many people at gigs used to live in Dorset. There’s a lot of love for Dorset out there!” says Jon.

For those fortunate enough to have a ticket for the Bournemouth Folk Club’s sold-out show, they can expect to see folk music with a difference and not a sandal and sweater in sight.

“They’ll get folk music, but we pride ourselves on doing something slightly different in the genre. For people who haven’t seen us before, we want to send them away thinking ‘wow. I didn’t realise that’s what folk music was!’”

For more information please visit bournemouthfolkclub.com or ninebarrow.co.uk