Singer-Songwriter and Activist Billy Bragg Performs at The Suffolk

Punk rocker, soldier, Essex boy, folk singer, Skiffle aficionado, protest singer’s protest singer, patriot, optimist, lefty polemicist, author, soul miner, musicologist, champion of the underclasses, Cockney vocalist and all-round decent bloke Billy Bragg is kicking off his “The Roaring Forty USA Tour” with a show at The Suffolk on Thursday, July 18, at 7 p.m. and culminating with a July 27 return to the Newport Folk Festival — his first appearance there since 2017. The tour will feature Bragg, along with keyboardist and vocalist JJ Stoney, performing fan-favorites featured on 2023’s acclaimed box set “The Roaring Forty 1983-2023.”

“Ahead of my appearance at Newport Folk Festival, I’m taking a weeklong swing through the Northeast U.S.,” said Bragg, a Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter and activist. “Looking forward to playing in some cities where I haven’t been for a long old time .”

Bragg has been a recording artist, live performer and political campaigner for 40 years. He has released 11 solo studio albums, and in 2017 released a mini album, “Bridges Not Walls.” His performances at the BBC were anthologized in “The Best of Billy Bragg at The BBC 1983-2019.”

Bragg has worked with a wealth of celebrated musicians from different musical backgrounds including Eliza Carthy, Norman Cook, Dick Gaughan, Joe Henry, Kirsty MacColl, Ian McLagan, Johnny Marr, R.E.M., Natalie Merchant, Romeo Stodart, Danny Thompson, Robert Wyatt, Pete Seeger, The Philharmonic Orchestra and U.S. alt-rock band Wilco, with whom he created two critically acclaimed collections setting previously unheard lyrics by legendary American Folk singer Woody Guthrie to music.

Tickets are $70 to $90 at thesuffolk.org. The Suffolk is at 118 East Main Street in Riverhead.