SELBY Town Hall will present more shows than ever before in one spring season, to the delight of Selby Town Council's arts officer, Chris Jones.

So much so that this preview will focus on music, with the comedy and theatre shows to follow in next Thursday's What's On.

"We open up with the ‘King of Soul’, Geno Washington, doing a blues special backed by the rhythm section of his legendary Ram Jam Band. There’s also music from Eighties and Nineties' hit-makers The Christians, Fairground Attraction songwriter Mark Nevin, Irish icon Sharon Shannon and the inimitable Patti Boulaye, among many others."

Geno Washington Sings The Blues kicks off the spring programme on February 2 in the company of the Ram Jam Band's rhythm section; The Railsplitters, from Boulder, Colorado, play their high energy, non-conformist bluegrass on February 9; Liverpool’s Mersey-Soul outfit The Christians perform a rare intimate acoustic set on February 24, combining new material from their latest album, Sings & Strings, with such hits as Forgotten Town, Ideal World, Born Again, Hooverville and Words.

Slim Chance, formed by the late Ronnie Lane, of The Small Faces and The Faces, in the 1970s, are back on the road with the folk-rock band's original members Steve Bingham, Charlie Hart and Steve Simpson in the six-piece line-up at Selby on March 10.

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Jazz guitar luminaries Martin Taylor and Ulf Wakenius join forces on March 11, after years of touring and recording alongside Stephane Grappelli and Oscar Peterson respectively. Taylor worked with Grappelli for 11 years, filling the guitar chair of Django Reinhardt, while Wakenius played with Peterson for ten years, following on from Joe Pass, Herb Ellis and Barney Kessel.

Mark Nevin, Fairground Attraction songwriter, founder and double BRIT Award winner, is marking 30 years since topping the charts across Europe and Australasia with Perfect and the accompanying album First Of A Million Kisses by touring with his own band. He will be joined in Selby on March 17 by original Fairground Attraction band-mates Simon Edwards on bass, Roger Beaujolais on vibraphone and Richard Marcangelo on drums, who will combine old Nevin numbers with songs of hope and joy from his 2017 album My Unfashionable Opinion.

The Furrow Collective, the folk collaboration of Alasdair Roberts, Emily Portman, Lucy Farrell and Rachel Newton, perform traditional songs from both sides of the English and Scottish borders with playful, boundary-defying musicianship on March 24. Their second album, Wild Hog, brought them BBC Radio 2 Folk Award for Best Group in 2017, while Newton was named Musician of the Year at the same ceremony.

Emerging from the London country/roots circuit, Orphan Colours arrive on April 6 with a line-up led by songwriter Steven Llewellyn. Once part of British alt-country outfit Ahab, he now fronts an Americana "supergroup" featuring Ahab originator Dave Burn and bassist Graham Knight, Danny And The Champions Of The World’s drummer Steve Brookes and Noah & The Whale lead guitarist Fred Abbott.

On April 28, singer and musical theatre performer Patti Boulaye presents Billie & Me, her one-woman show wherein she discusses the parallels to be found in the life stories of Boulaye and Billie Holiday. Expect to hear such songs as That Ole Devil Called Love, Nice Work If You Can Get It and Lover Man.

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Woody Pines, Nashville purveyor of juke joint jump-blues, makes his Selby debut on May 5. "This is gonzo folk music, the kind of raise-the-rafters, boot-shakin’ jump blues that used to be banging out of juke joints all over the South in the late 1940s," says Chris Jones. "Having recorded their latest album with Grammy-winning producer Vance Powell, the trio’s distinctive bigger-than-three viper sound is beefed up by Skip Frontz Jnr on upright bass and Brad Tucker on vintage electric guitar and vocal harmonies."

Ireland’s breakthrough folk star Daoirí Farrell is Selby bound on May 13. A former electrician who decided to change profession after seeing Christy Moore perform on Irish television, this Dublin-born traditional singer and bouzouki player won the awards for best newcomer and best traditional track at the 2017 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards in the wake of releasing his second album, True Born Irishman.

Two more Irish musicians are on their way to Yorkshire in quick succession: button accordion player Sharon Shannon is booked in for May 18 after releasing Sacred Earth, her first studio album in three years in 2017; Belfast blues-rock guitarist Simon McBride, the "rightful heir to Rory Gallagher and Gary Moore", will combine his own songs with crowd pleasers by Jimi Hendrix and Free on May 19.

County Kildare singer-songwriter Heidi Talbot and Scottish folk fiddler John McCusker are celebrating ten years as musical partners in various projects by joining forces for the first time as a duo, playing Selby on June 8.

"This spring season is our biggest programme to date," says Chris. “There are a host of well-known and iconic names with performances from Geno Washington, The Christians, Sharon Shannon and Patti Boulaye, as well as stars of the very near future.

"On a personal level, I’m particularly excited to welcome British Americana supergroup Orphan Colours, featuring members of Noah and the Whale, Ahab and Danny And The Champions Of The World, and also the stunning folk-rock band Slim Chance."

Tickets are on sale at selbytownhall.co.uk and on 01757 708449.