The Jack Tars

The Jack Tars will bring you music from the Golden Age Of Sail with a variety of instruments including: Melodeon, Fiddle, Guitar, Whistle and rousing vocal harmonies! Specialising in Sea Shanties, you can expect a mixture of traditional and contemporary arrangements which are high energy and great fun for audience participation! Along with some good old Irish Folk songs, Jigs/Reels/Hornpipes you can expect a lively foot tapping performance.

Formed in Yorkshire 2020 in lockdown the band struggled to meet and rehearse until 2021 when they first appeared at A Wakefield Cultural Heritage Event, Ripon Boat Club & Skipton Canal Basin. Since then, 2022 has been a very good year for The ‘Tars’ as they have played successfully at a number of Yorkshire Festivals like Shepley, Holmfirth, Knaresborough FEVA, Grassington, & Robin Hoods Bay!

2023 saw The Tars build on their initial success and release a 5 track EP available on Spotify as well as music videos accompanying it on YouTube. They also had a big line up change before the spring just in time for the festival season. Highlights of the year were leaving Yorkshire to venture down south to Wiltshire’s Vintage Nostalgia Festival, Tide Over Fest in Plymouth and Harwich International Sea Shanty Festival. A rather special moment was being asked to perform at Liverpool’s’ 80th anniversary commemorations of The Battle Of The Atlantic paying tribute to the brave sailors who perished during the longest campaign during WW2.

All of a sudden it’s 2024 and The Jack Tars have been busy recording a full length 14 track album which was released on March 8th as a CD and later on Spotify! The Tars are setting sail for real this year as they land on the shores of Europe to play in Germany and The Netherlands at International Maritime Festivals! We are excited to be playing again in Knaresborough this year!