british folk | Musicosity

british folk

Maddy Prior

Maddy Prior (born 14 August 1947, Blackpool, England) is an English folk singer. One of the most accomplished female vocalists in the British folk music scene, Maddy Prior is best known as the lead singer in the electric folk-rock band Steeleye Span. In her teens Prior moved to St Albans, where she befriended the young Donovan Leitch and Mac MacLeod. She later formed a duo with MacLeod called Mac & Maddy. She became a roadie for visiting American musicians, including Reverend Gary Davis.

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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.

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Blue Murder

There is more than one artist with this name: 1) British hardrock band
2) Dutch guitarpop band
3) British folk group

1) Blue Murder was the hard rock brainchild of ex-Whitesnake and Thin Lizzy guitarist John Sykes. The original 1988 lineup of the band, also included ex-The Firm bass player Tony Franklin and drummer Cozy Powell (although he was almost immediately replaced by Carmine Appice). Ray Gillen was also briefly in the 1988 line-up before Sykes decided to take the vocal duties himself in addition to guitar.

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Isla St Clair

Isla St Clair (born 2 May 1952), born Isabella Margaret Dyce, is a Scottish singer, actress and former TV game show co-host. In 1971 St Clair was voted Folk Singer of the Year by the New Musical Express. In 2003 St Clair was awarded an honorary degree as a Master of the University of Aberdeen for her lifelong contribution to the traditional music of Scotland. She was born in Grangemouth, central Scotland, in 1952. Her mother, Zetta, sang in folk clubs and wrote songs. The family moved to Aberdeen, where she sang with the Aberdeen Folk Singing Club from the age of 10.

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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.

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Caroline Martin

Bristol born Caroline Martin started writing and recording in 1996. At this point in her life she was living on the edge of Wentwood Forest in South Wales. With her dog for company, Caroline drew on her surroundings, the isolation and memories from her childhood upbringing in Yate to write her stories of loss, fear and revenge. Caroline released her debut 5 track EP - Young Tender Rabbit Meat - on her own label in 1998.

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The Copper Family

The Copper Family is a multi-generational British folksinging family whose work spans the period from the 1840s to the present. They sing traditional folk songs of south England and are the only and original source for many of the songs they sing. Their style of delivery is rough-and-ready unison and harmony, mostly a cappella, and their subject matter is farming, the seasons, and the country life in general. Their Wikipedia site (http://en.wikipedia.

Read more about The Copper Family on Last.fm.

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Spiers & Boden

Spiers and Boden are an English folk duo. John Spiers plays melodeon, concertina and other squeezeboxes, while Boden plays fiddle, sings, and stamps out the rhythm on a piece of board. They began playing together in 1999 and their first album as a duo was Through and Through (2001). In 2002 they were both session musicians on Eliza Carthy's album Anglicana, and toured with her as part of her band The Ratcatchers.

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