BEST duo award winners at the 2015 BBC Folk Awards Josienne Clarke and Ben Walker are playing at The Citadel next month.

Two years prior to receiving this accolade, vocalist Josienne and guitarist Ben were virtually unknown on the folk scene but, now signed to Rough Trade Records, they are touring the UK.

The "misery, mirth and beauty" of their performances has taken them to Cambridge Folk Festival, Bristol's Colston Hall and London's Purcell Rooms, a far cry from the pub back rooms where they began.

After their rendition of The Banks of The Sweet Primroses at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards this year, 6 Music DJ Cerys Matthews invited them to appear in the National Theatre's production of Our Country's Good. The play, which ran from August to October 2015 at the Olivier Theatre, also featured two of Josienne and Ben's original compositions.

Interest in the pair - who cite Sandy Denny, June Tabor, Nic Jones and Pierre Bensusan as influences - started to grow within the blogging community following the release of their first two albums One Light is Gone and The Seas are Deep.

In 2013 they released third album Fire & Fortune and in 2015 fourth album Nothing Can Bring Back the Hour.

The duo take to the stage on Friday, May 20 at 7.30pm at The Citadel Arts Centre in St Helens. Tickets, costing £10 , are available via citadel.org.uk or by calling 735436.