WHO?
Jack Hogsden is a multi-instrumentalist, composer, sound engineer, and archivist, born and based in the county of Sussex, UK. His melodic compositions show his authentic personal traits and qualities; bouncy, fun, energetic, and adventurous, while also showing more tender, restrained, and emotional elements. The song and tune repertoire outside of his own compositions revolves around the idea of storytelling, narrative historical accounts, and the themes that he can directly relate to. His area of specialty is the reinterpretation of traditional songs from his home county of Sussex, or finding obscure versions of those Sussex songs from unpublished manuscripts and sources, and injecting them back into the canon. Over a decade of touring, and with even more experience on his chosen instruments, he is highly regarded for his unique finger-style guitar accompaniments, vocal range and harmony finding, and - what is possibly how he is most distinguishable - his dexterity, stylistic manipulation, and utilisation of the diatonic button accordion. His music invokes such a wide range of emotions, and through live performance showcases his knowledge and experience from within a huge range of traditions from the UK, Europe, and beyond. It's his ability to exploit the melodeon (in particular) into such a wide range of styles that has allowed him to work across genres outside of folk, including rock, reggae, and soul, and be involved in such a wide range of projects, tours, and lineups.
From a young age, Jack was always surrounded by musics of all genres; from pop to classic rock, from classical to folk. Having grown up as a competitive Irish Dancer to a national standard, and access to his dad's (Leon Hogsden) music collection, he was exposed to Irish and English folk/folk-rock bands such as Fairport Convention, Steeleye Span, Dervish, and Oysterband. After a career-ending accident involving a scaffold pole and his knee, Jack began to look more into the songs and guitar style that his family had developed; his dad having worked with bands such as Aisling Fortune, and his uncle (Carl Hogsden) previously touring with Jane Threlfall across the UK and US, the Wassail! Christmas tour with John Kirkpatrick, and in a duo with Leon. It was in his early teenage years with Grade 4 piano under his belt that a guitar ended up in his lap, and his adventure with dropped-tuning finger-style guitar began. Being heavily influenced by the greats of this tradition - Nic Jones, Martin Carthy, Richard Thompson, Bob Fox, and many more - Jack started exploring the separation of vocal and guitar timing, allowing for more of a storytelling experience, and learning how to emphasise and reinforce the lyrical content of the old Sussex songs.
For his 18th birthday, Jack received an old Hohner Erica melodeon, previously owned by Brian London; one of the musicians in Ditchling Morris, Jack's local morris side. He picked it up intuitively, and dedicated a large amount of his time to learning the instrument, and soon began playing for Ditchling at local stands and UK festivals, and eventually getting booked as an artist too. It was during this time that he built relationships with key musicians such as Jackie Oates, Saul Rose, Jim Sawyer, O'Hooley & Tidow, and Lady Maisery. Not long after in 2018, Jack started a degree in Folk & Traditional Music at Newcastle University, where he met more key musicians such as James Fagan, Nancy Kerr, Karen Tweed, Emily Portman, Julian Sutton, and Dave Gray, who loaned him a Castagnari Mory which Jack used to record his debut EP. While studying in his first year, Jack was invited to perform at Celtic Connections, and in his third, he was invited to perform as the first musician on the doorstep of British Parliament at 10 Downing Street, and played at venues including The Bridge Folk Club in Newcastle, and Sage Gateshead south of the river. His second year, was not quite what he expected.
Lockdown. Luckily Jack was able to get back down to Sussex with most of his belongings, and it was during this time that he saw Simon Care hosting "Simon's Musical Jukebox" on Facebook; a place where people can request tunes from his back catalogue that he would play along to, and in the process receive donations to give back to touring artists that were unable to work. Jack and Leon loved this idea, and with Simon's blessing began the weekly Kitchen Sessions. Over 60 consecutive weeks of at least 2-hour sessions, with no idea of what was going to happen (apart from Skirmish o'clock - if you know, you know), Jack and Leon together with Simon raised tens of thousands of pounds through donations, all of which went directly back to supporting those unable to work. And so began the long and wonderful friendship between Jack and Simon Care. Post-lockdown, Jack was able to go and finish his degree on-site in Newcastle, and he remained up there for two years working as a stage technician and sound engineer at the Sage Gateshead, working on shows including Transatlantic Sessions, and developing Millpost Records.
Around this time, Jack took a real interest in the archiving and cataloguing of traditional song; he has his own library of over 500 rare publications, as well as early releases on various formats that have never been digitised. The metadata analysis of traditional material has since led him to run and manage the John Bacon Archive; hundreds of hours of analogue video of morris dancing from around the world, which is slowly being digitised and viewable on the Ditchling Morris website. The original tapes are housed at the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library at Cecil Sharp House, London, and Jack regularly visits to liaise with librarians and archivists for this project.
In 2023 Jack returned to Sussex, and began working as a sound technician for Glyndebourne Opera House, which included a production of Lehar's The Merry Widow being broadcast on Christmas Day by the BBC. After a year, Jack met two musicians and close friends called Harry Abel and Dom Doran at a local tune session in Brighton, and the band Belver was born, although that name didn't appear until several months later. Together they performed at local folk clubs, venues, and gigs around Sussex, and within a year were invited to perform at Warwick Folk Festival in 2025; here they closed the Jester Stage and were joined by Simon Care on stage, which was certainly a key moment for Jack's career. Belver have been injecting their musicianship into traditional and modern compositions from around the UK, Europe, Canada and beyond, and continue to play concerts and ceilidhs around the UK. In 2026 they were invited back to perform at Warwick Folk Festival to close the same stage as the year before; it was this year that Jack properly met fellow players Mel Biggs, Toon Van Mierlo (Naragonia), and Hartwin Dhoore.
During 2025, while Belver were performing on the main stage at Hastings Traditional Jack in the Green, Jack met Doǧan Mehmet, who invited Jack to perform in the new concept album, theatre show, and musical project titled Alta Vida, where Jack is continuing to perform in the role of Steve. The first showcase was in July 2026, and included musicians such as Tom Phelan and Tom Fairburn. They are planning to develop the project and record in both the UK and France over the remainder of 2026/7.
Jack is currently working as a full-time touring musician with Belver, Ohmic Bolide, Dom Doran, in Alta Vida, and as a soloist. He is currently studying melodeon repair and setups under the guidance of Peter Rogan (Petro Melodeons), and is working as a mixing/mastering engineer in studios across the south-east.
Jack Hogsden works with or uses equipment from the following companies/brands, either through endorsement or as a supporter of their work:
Newtone Strings (Endorsed Artist)