Great names of folk, Martin Carthy and Norma Waterson, are the special guests at a celebration of English traditional music near Lambourn on Sunday.

The arts organisation Springline Arts has commisioned the event, The Seeds of Love: the Story of English Folksong, which takes place in the setting of the Oak Room at the Kindersley Centre. It is written and narrated by Stephen Sedley.

Norma Waterson and Martin Carthy have been leading figures in folk music since the early 1960s. Carthy's influential career has been celebrated with an MBE and various BBC Radio 2 music awards.

Norma, also awarded an MBE for services to English Music and fellow recipient of BBC awards, is one of the country's finest, most emotive singers with her wonderfully compassionate voice. In 1996 she was nominated for the Mercury Music Prize for her debut solo album.

The Seeds of Love was the first song that folklorist Cecil Sharp collected. He took it down from the singing of a Somerset gardener in 1903. He also collected songs from William Kimber, of Headington. The songs to be performed for this special concert were chosen not only to showcase the singers' talent but to set the scene in which oral song flourished for century after century.

The author of the narrative is Sir Stephen Sedley, who as well as being a senior Appeal Court judge, is an acknowledged expert on English folk music. He once lent his guitar to a young Bob Dylan at the legendary Troubadour Club in London and compiled the seminal songbook The Seeds of Love in 1967.

The concert is at the Kindersley Centre, Sheepdrove Farm, near Lambourn, at 7pm. Tickets cost £15, senior citizens/students £11, under 18 £5 and can be purchased at the door, or in advance, from www.springlinearts.co.uk or from Geoffrey Bailey Shoes, Wantage. For further details call 01235 762975 or visit the www.springlinearts.co.uk website.