Folk Music
Author: Fusive Created: Wednesday, November 09, 2005
This is a blog about folk music. It will include information on music from Ireland, music from Scotland, the U.K, information on musicians and also local Folk from the Lancashire area. Also info on local live music and gigs in the Pendle and Lancashire area.
Mike Harding - BBC Radio2 - Wednesday Nights
By Fusive on Monday, February 13, 2006
WEDNESDAY 8th February 7-9pm Specially-extended highlights of Monday's 2006 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards, when The Brewery in London hosted a glittering line-up of performers and celebrity presenters, celebrating the very best in folk, roots and acoustic music. Performances from folk legends Richard Thompson and Paul Brady, Fairport Convention, Kate Rusby, Seth Lakeman and John Tams, who had five nominations in this year's awards. You can listen again until next Wednesday at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/r2music/folk/harding/index.shtml
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Ashley Hutchins
By Fusive on Monday, February 13, 2006
Ashley Hutchings (born January 26, 1945) is a folk musician. Hutchings was born in Southgate, London but moved to Muswell Hill while still a child. He formed several groups, including "Dr K's Blues Band" in 1964. When he met guitarist Simon Nicol, they rehearsed on the floor above Nicol's father's medical practice. The house was called "Fairport" and lent its name to the group they formed together. Hutchings has quite possibly founded more groups than any other bass-player. The most famous are Fairport Convention, Steeleye Span (formed after he left Fairport in 1970) and the ever-changing Albion Country Band (formed after leaving Steeleye in 1971).
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Sandy Denny
By Fusive on Monday, February 13, 2006
Alexandra Elene MacLean Denny (January 6, 1947 – April 21, 1978) was a British singer and songwriter, born in Wimbledon, London, England. She is best known for her involvement with the British folk-rock movement, including two spells as a member of Fairport Convention. As a child she studied classical piano. She left school before taking A-levels and started to train as a nurse at Brompton Chest Hospital. In 1965 she enrolled at Kingston School of Art, where she became involved in the folk club on campus. It was there that she met fellow students John Renbourn and Eric Clapton. She travelled in to Earls Court to play at the Troubadour club, where a member of The Strawbs heard her. In 1967 Sandy Denny was invited to join the band and recorded one album in Denmark with them, including the earliest version of her best-known (and widely covered) song "Who Knows Where the Time Goes." In 1968 she became lead vocalist for Fairport Convention replacing Judy Dyble.
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Maddy Prior
By Fusive on Monday, February 13, 2006
Maddy was born on 14th August 1947 in Blackpool. While in her teens she moved to St Albans. In St. Albans she befriended the young Donovan Leitch and Mac MacLeod. She later formed a duo with MacLeod called Mac & Maddy. In 1966 she began performing with Tim Hart, another St Albans resident, and together they recorded two albums before becoming founding members of Steeleye Span in 1970. They were the backbone of the group until the early 1980s when ill-health forced Tim into semi-retirement. Maddy married bassist Rick Kemp, and their daughter, Rose Kemp, launched her own recording career in 2003. Although best known as the powerful soprano in Steeleye Span, Maddy has recorded session work, albums of her own songs and eclectic styles from medieval, through folk-rock, prog-rock and traditional songs. She left Steeleye Span in 1997 but returned in 1999.
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Steeleye Span
By Fusive on Monday, February 13, 2006
Steeleye Span was co-founded by Ashley Hutchings, the London-born bass player who had co-founded Fairport Convention in 1967. Fairport was involved in a road accident in 1969 in which the drummer, Martin Lamble, was killed and other bandmembers injured. They convalesced in a rented house near Winchester in Hampshire and worked on their album Liege And Lief. Despite the success of the album, Ashley Hutchings and the band's vocalist Sandy Denny left Fairport Convention in early 1970.
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Crosby, Stills & Nash (and Young)
By Fusive on Monday, February 13, 2006
Crosby, Stills & Nash (at times known as Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young) is a pioneering folk rock/rock supergroup that formed out of the remnants of three 1960s bands: Buffalo Springfield, the Byrds, and the Hollies. The band is primarily known for their three- (and sometimes four-) part vocal harmonies. They have a strong association with the Woodstock Festival, and they are one of the few North American groups that rivaled the Beatles in popularity in the late 1960s and early 1970s. They are commonly referred to by their initials CSN or CSNY.
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Altan
By Fusive on Monday, February 13, 2006
Altan is a band from County Donegal, Ireland, that plays traditional Irish music. Frankie Kennedy used to travel from Belfast to Donegal in his summer holidays, learning Irish and playing music. There he met Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh. They married in 1981. They recorded on three of Albert Fry's albums, then, two years later they recorded their first album together, Ceol Aduaidh (Music of the North). Mairéad grew up in Irish-speaking Gweedore, learning to play fiddle from her father, himself a noted musician. At this time Donegal music was little known outside of the county. Frankie played obscure northern flute tunes. The combination attracted lots of attention, particularly since Mairéad had an outstanding voice as well a rare talent on the fiddle.
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Sweeney's Men
By Fusive on Monday, February 13, 2006
Sweeney's Men was an Irish traditional band. They were a part of the late 1960s Irish roots revival, along with groups like The Dubliners and the Clancy Brothers. Their line-up in 1966 was Joe Dolan, Johnny Moynihan and Andy Irvine, but Dolan was replaced by Terry Woods only a year later. At the time, they played the tin whistle, concertina, harmonica, guitar, mandolin, banjo and bouzouki.
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Davy Spillane
By Fusive on Monday, February 13, 2006
Davy was born in Dublin in 1959 and was brought up to speak Irish as his first language. At the age of 12 he fell under the spell of the uilleann bagpipes. His father took him to festivals around Ireland. For the next three years he played at sessions and met many prominent Irish musicians. At the age of 16 he started to play at concerts in Ireland, Britain and Europe. He starred as a gipsy in Joe Comerford's film "The Traveller". In 1978 he appeared on a compilation album of promising young uilleann players called "The Piper's Rock". From this point he moved away from traditional music and began to write his own tunes, mainly ballads.
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Dónal Lunny
By Fusive on Monday, February 13, 2006
Dónal Lunny (born 1947) is an Irish folk musician. Born in Tullamore, then moved to Newbridge, County Kildare, as a teenager he joined a band called Rakes of Kildare, with Christy Moore. The strangely named Emmet Spiceland was an amalgam of two bands. Dónal joined them and recorded one album with them in 1968. They were a vocal harmony group and reached number one in Ireland with a single "Mary From Dungloe". In 1971 he played on Prosperous, the first album by Christy Moore.
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