CHRIS Wood, one of England’s most decorated folk singers, performs Selby Town Hall's last show of 2014 this weekend.

Once chastised by an art school lecturer for having "a remarkable eye for trivia", the multiple BBC Radio 2 Folk Award winner has since turned his love of small things into writing vivid, arresting songs in the topical troubadour format with surgical clarity.

Wood started out as a choirboy and much of his music bears the influence of those years spent singing Bach, Handel, Gibbons and Boyce. Self-taught on guitar and violin, he is a frank songwriter, unafraid to speak his mind.

Throughout his career, independence has been balanced by collaboration, working with the likes of Andy Cutting and Jean François Vrod, as well as Eliza and Martin Carthy, Dizraeli and Billy Bragg in roots supergroup The Imagined Village.

“Chris’s work is endlessly inventive, while at the same time remaining firmly rooted in English folk’s finest traditions” says Chris Jones, Selby Town Council's arts officer.

“He's challenging those who accuse folk of being a staid, dust-covered museum antiquity with some of the most engaging and thought-provoking social commentary in music today. It’s folk music with bite and a really great way to sign off our most successful season to date.”

Chris Wood, Selby Town Hall, Saturday, 8pm. Tickets cost £15 in advance on 01757 708449 or at selbytownhall.co.uk or £17 on the door from 7.30pm.