british folk
Seth Lakeman
Seth Lakeman, the West Country born singer and songwriter credited with bringing folk music to a whole new audience since his 2005 Mercury nominated album, 'Kitty Jay', released his eagerly anticipated 4th album, ‘Poor Man's Heaven’, on June 30th 2008. Seth’s new album, (the follow up to 2006’s critically acclaimed, gold selling ‘Freedom Fields’), perfectly captures the raw, rhythmic energy of his live shows.
Fairport Convention
Fairport Convention is often credited with being the first English folk-rock band. Fairport, formed in 1967, rapidly developed from playing cover versions of American 'west coast' music to an individual style which melded rock music with traditional English tunes and songs. Like their peers The Byrds , Buffalo Springfield and Jefferson Airplane, they were blessed with several considerable individual talents, and produced music that, at least initially was eclectic, as well as exploratory. This side of the band may best be heard on Heyday, a collection of tracks broadcast by the BBC.
Dave Swarbrick
Dave Swarbrick (born 5 April 1941) is an English folk musician. He plays violin, viola, mandolin, and guitar. He was born in New Malden, Surrey and grew up in Birmingham. He learnt the rudiments of the violin from a local fiddler and attended the Birmingham College of Art (now the Birmingham Institute of Art and Design) in the late 1950s. Playing guitar, he joined Beryl Marriot's Ceilidh Band in Birmingham. Beryl encouraged him to take up the fiddle again.
- 23 reads
Bellowhead
Bellowhead are an 11 piece band that play arrangements of English traditional music. They have released one Ep, E.P.onymous in Oct 2004, and two albums, Burlesque in Oct 2006 and Matachin in Oct 2008. Current band members are.. Jon Boden - lead vocals and fiddle
John Spiers - melodean & concertina
Benji Kirkpatrick - bouzouki, guitar, mandolin, tenor banjo
Paul Sartin - Fiddle, oboe and vocals
Rachael McShane - Cello, fiddle, vocals
Gideon Juckes - Sousaphone, Helicon & Tuba
Pete Flood - percussion
- 45 reads
Show of Hands
Three bands have performed and recorded under the name "Show of Hands". 1) Show Of Hands are England's most successful acoustic roots duo - Steve Knightley and Phil Beer. Their widespread appeal is based on the combined power of Steve's original songs, the quality of their vocals and harmonies, and their multi-instrumental virtuosity. Their performances feature guitars, mandocello, fiddle, cuatro, viola and concertina. Packing venues from the smallest village hall to the Royal Albert Hall in London, the duo continue to produce original music popular the world over.
- 47 reads
Bert Jansch
Herbert Jansch (b. 3rd November 1943), commonly known as Bert Jansch, is a Scottish folk musician and founding member of the band Pentangle. He was born in Glasgow and, particularly in his early career, was sometimes characterised as a British Bob Dylan. This, however, was misleading, in that Jansch's best work has always been fundamentally instrument-driven unlike Dylan's, which is primarily lyric-based.
Kerfuffle
A four-piece instrumental and vocal group, Kerfuffle draw their inspiration from both traditional and contemporary music to create their uniquely appealing sound. Formed around a Derbyshire/South Yorkshire axis in 2003, Kerfuffle originally consisted of Sam Sweeney (fiddle, percussion), Hannah James (vocals, accordion), Chris Thornton-Smith (acoustic guitar) and Tom Sweeney (bass guitar). Thornton-Smith was replaced by Jamie Roberts. www.kerfuffleonline.co.uk
- 22 reads
John Renbourn
John Renbourn (born August 8, 1944, Marylebone, London, England) is a British guitarist and songwriter. He is possibly best-known for his collaboration with guitarist Bert Jansch as well as his work with the folk group Pentangle, although he maintained a solo career both before, during and after that band's existence (1967-1973). While most commonly labelled a folk musician, Renbourn's musical tastes and interests take in early music, classical music, blues and world music. His most influential album, Sir John Alot (1968), featured his take on songs from the Medieval era.
- 22 reads
Bella Hardy
As a child Bella was always singing. Edale was the ideal place to nurture this natural ability, with an abundance of communal song. Having played the fiddle a small amount at school, Bella attended a Folkworks Youth Summer School in Durham age 13. Motivated by the number of young people playing folk music, she was inspired to begin working on folk fiddle. She also met many of her great friends and musical companions.
- 4 reads
Martha Tilston
Martha Tilston is a singer-songwriter, formerly of acoustic duo Mouse, and currently based in Brighton, England.
She is the daughter of acclaimed songwriter Steve Tilston, and has been writing songs from an early age. Her solo debut, 'Rolling', was self released in 2003, and 'Bimbling' followed in 2004. The following year she assembled The Woods, who include members of Semble, to record her free downloadable album 'Ropeswing'. 2006 saw a full UK tour and the release of the album 'Of Milkmaids And Architects'.
- 40 reads
