Joe Wilkes delivers an urgent, brand of fingerstyle guitar wrapped in self-deprecating humour and sharp political storytelling. His fifth album, Hope In My Chest, Fire In My Throat (2026), is both a tribute to folk tradition and a challenge to its comfort zones, a charged mix of traditional material and originals shaped by bereavement, illness, addiction, and survival.

Wilkes came up in Coventry, at a time when it was long past caring whether it lived or died. Among the skeletal factories and terminally bored high streets, he learned the first rule of provincial survival – no one is coming to save you.

During lockdown Wilkes attempted some interpretations of ‘real’ folk songs. An initial double A side vinyl release Seven Gypsies / Hares On The Mountain.

The following period saw Wilkes involved in personal and legal problems in between trying out new folk sounds and styles. He sees modern folk as increasingly ornamental, polished and polite whereas it can and should speak to the brutality and beauty of modern life.n trying out new folk sounds and styles. He sees modern folk as increasingly ornamental, polished and polite whereas it can and should speak to the brutality and beauty of modern life.