FOLK troubadour Seth Lakeman returns the Lighthouse in Poole later this year on December 16.

The musician has recently linked up with emerging harmony vocal trio Wildwood Kin for his eighth album, Ballads Of The Broken, an epic, soulful set of stripped-back songs, booked for September 16 release.

Continuing the Devon folk musician's vision for recording in inspiring locations – previous albums have been made in a church and a copper mine – the 11 tracks were cut live in the Great Hall of a Jacobean manor house.

The spiritual-sounding songs have a trance-like quality: they encompass evocative contemporary messages, yet have an ethereal quality as if they have been hanging in the air for centuries.

Lakeman first met Wildwood Kin, Devonian sisters Emillie and Beth Key and their cousin Meghann Loney, at a charity gig, and now they accompany his fiddle, viola and strident electric tenor guitar and multi-instrumentalist Johns's electric guitar, mandolin and hurdy-gurdy.

Ballads Of The Broken Few has seven original numbers plus a cover of Anna Lee, the Laurelyn Dossett song from Levon Helm's Grammy-winning Dirt Farmer album, and Lakeman's take on the 19th century moralistic song Pulling Hard Against the Stream.

In addition, he has revisited the Cecil Sharp House archive, featured in The Full English project, to re-work traditional broadsides The Stranger and The Willow Tree for an album available on CD, vinyl and digital formats.

Lakeman's Ballads Of The Broken Few 2016 Tour will run to 23 dates in November and December.