YORK folk group Blackbeard's Tea Party play The Shire Hall, Howden on Saturday as part of their 16-date tour in support of their third full-length album, Reprobates.

Mining history books and the folk canon for stories of wicked and nefarious characters, the record turns the spotlight on murderous pirates, blood-thirsty executioners and rebellious slave traders, each sharing a dubious morality as barn-storming folk tunes rub shoulders with narrative folk songs.

Imaginative arrangements, dexterous musicianship and a dark, anarchic sense of humour mark out an album produced by Dave Boothroyd at Reel Recording Studios in Castleford, featuring such enticing track titles as The Steam Arm Man; Hangman's Noose; Punter's Graveyard; The Slave Chase; The Devil's Doorbell; Star Of Munster; Loose Shoulder and Close The Coalhouse Door.

In the six-piece line-up at Howden on Saturday will be fiddler and cellist Laura Barber; bass guitar, trombone and sousaphone player Tim Yates; lead vocalist and melodeon player Stuart Giddens; electric guitarist Martin Coumbe and percussionists Dave Boston and Liam "Yom" Hardy.

"It's partly chance, partly planned that we do a two-yearly cycle for each album; it seems to work really well for us," says Liam. "We can do a couple of festival runs, plenty of tours, and it also gives us the chance to work in other ideas for the next record.

"We were working on lots of different things at the same time before slowly but surely focusing on the things we most liked, so we had 15 songs ready, and it became clear that all the songs we really loved had the theme of nasty, immoral, nefarious characters, which we thought was amusing as it fitted our vibe, and then Reprobates seemed the ideal title for it."

Singer Stuart Giddens enjoys rooting around the archives for suitable stories, and one he stumbled across was the tale of Jack Ketch that now forms a song on the new record. "We're drawn to stories of characters that have been around a long time and it's always good to tell those stories again today – though there's the contrast of the music being made with better equipment now, and Reel Recording Studios were definitely a step up for us," says Liam.

"Being in a really decent studio this time enabled us to do things we couldn't do before, like layering the tom-tom drum over the thumping drums on Close The Coalhouse Door or being able to spend time on the guitar tone.

"That all feeds into the live sound as well because you find yourselves doing things in the studio that you haven't done before, and you think, 'OK, I'll do that in the live set too'."

Before the end of the year, Blackbeard's Tea Party will announce their tour plans for 2016. "We'll be going out on tour around Easter next year, April/May time, and festivals are trickling in now for the summer, so we're back into our two-yearly cycle, bringing out the album and playing as many shows as we can. That's the idea!"

Tickets for Saturday's 8pm gig cost £12 on 01430 431535, from Touchwood in Howden and at howden-live.com. The support act will be The Lost Art.