BETH Packer and Clinton Hough are Ma Polaine’s Great Decline, who have followed their debut album with a third EP release, Small Town Talk, which they're currently touring, playing at The Sitting Room at The Blue Boar on Saturday, June 11.

The EP was engineered and co-produced by BBC Folk Award winner Ben Walker at The Crypt Studio in London and draws influence from a typically wide breadth of genres.

In their live shows, Packer moves between double bass, accordion and harmonica, with Hough on electric or acoustic guitar and an occasional percussive foot, all accompanying Packer’s powerful yet sensitive vocal.

Following the EP tour Ma Polaine’s Great Decline will appear at several festivals, such as Towersey, Marlborough Jazz, Wonderfields, Sandwich Folk and Ale and Nailsworth Arts, to name a few.

Ma Polaine's Great Decline can be seen at The Wild Hare Club at De Koffie Pot in Hereford on Friday, June 10; at The Sitting Room at The Blue Boar, Ludlow on Saturday, June 11 at 8pm. For tickets, call 01584 878989; and on Sunday, June 12 at the Assembly Rooms in Presteigne.