GRACE WILL LEAD US HOME 
John Newton was a bad boy teenager. Pressed-ganged at 17, he was sold as a slave himself to an African Princess; later became a slave ship captain and after being saved from a shipwreck devoted himself to God, writing the song that’s become a worldwide symbol against oppression  – Amazing Grace.

To mark Newton’s 300th birthday, Angeline Morrison; Cohen Braithwaite-Kilcoyne; Jon Bickley and John Palmer explore his life; the inextricable link between Amazing Grace and the slave trade; its iconic status as a protest against oppression and its relevance today.

Many of those singing it don’t know the story of the man who wrote it. Many more cannot reconcile his early life with the sentiments of the song.

Grace Will Lead Us Home uses traditional and new songs, linked by 18th century diaries and writings, to highlight all aspects of his life, how Amazing Grace became such an iconic statement of protest and what it means in the modern world.

It’s the latest chapter in a three-year Arts Council-funded project that’s already produced a series of exhibitions, podcasts, videos, lectures, seminars and an album (currently being revised for the tour).

The Guardian: Stirring and Imaginative
Mojo Magazine: Echoes of Peter Bellamy’s The Transports – the sounds here are sweet indeed ****
Songlines: Powerful compositions, gorgeous arrangements
Folking: Heady stuff
Roots Magazine: A truly triumphal experience
KLOF Magazine: A fine album with themes remarkably relevant to today

BIOS

Angeline was born in Birmingham to a Jamaican mother and a father from the Outer Hebrides Her album Sorrow Songs: Folk Songs of Black British Experience was The Guardian Folk Album of the Year in 2022. Her new album Ophelia has received great critical acclaim for its imagination and darkness.

Cohen ancestry is Barbadian and was brought up in Birmingham and Worcester. Twice nominated as BBC Radio Two’s Folk Artist of the Year, his trio Granny’s Attic are currently celebrating their 15th anniversary with a nationwide tour. He has just released his third solo album, Play Up The Music which includes innovative and uplifting treatments of some well known folk songs and tunes.

Jon is from London and is a poet, singer, songwriter and broadcaster, who is the director of the John Newton Project. He has also recorded an album on John Newton and William Cowper’s Olney Hymns. He’s well known as the presenter of the Invisible Folk Club streamed radio show

John is from Somerset and is a narrator, writer and producer. He created Ghosts, Werewolves and Countryfolk – Songs and Stories of Sabine Baring-Gould with Jim Causley and Miranda Sykes which played to full houses at summer festivals, and From Pub to Pulpit, the Vaughan Williams 150^th anniversary tour of more than twenty Cathedrals with Paul Hutchinson’s Coracle featuring Anna Tam, and acapella group Broomdasher and the Country Diary in Song which interweaved entries from Edith Holden’s best selling book with popular songs collected by Cecil Sharp. He’s been producing and appearing in events for forty years.