Guests for the 2024 Moreton Traditional Sing

My love of singing came from my family, church choir and school. My grandfathers played and sang but unfortunately I have no memories of them, my father’s army singing and songs were seldom heard and my mother’s contribution was her Spinners LP.

I first visited a Folk Club while at school which started a lifelong love of folk song. Moving to Peacehaven in Sussex and finding the Coppers club stated my journey into traditional singers and song. My interest in humorous songs from traditional singers was sparked by seeing Johnny Doughty who reminding me of my father’s singing. Later a remark in a Bob Copper talk “having a humorous song up your sleeve was always useful in the pub session” started me looking into humorous, Music Hall and nonsense songs from traditional performers.

Ever since her early years with the Songwainers, Sue Burgess has been a distinctive voice in several well-known harmony groups (notably Regal Slip) and duos. She is currently part of The Gilchrist Collective (with Peter & Barbara Snape and Brian Peters), but these days also appears regularly as a solo performer. Sue's love of traditional songs and ballads has remained constant throughout and she is now recognised for her interpretation of a unique repertoire.

I have been collecting and researching the songs, stories and poems of old Lancashire for 50 years now, interpreting them for modern day audiences and performing at folk, arts and literary clubs, mainly around Lancashire, but I have occasionally strayed as far afield as Aberdeen and Dartmoor! Along the way I’ve developed a range of talks for local social and historical societies using these songs to celebrate Lancashire’s dialect and our intangible heritage. They are the words of cotton workers, of coal miners and quarrymen, of housewives and mothers – and they represent their story, written in their own language and they were as real to them as were the looms and shovels they worked with. Over the years I have also become active in every dialect society in the County and am currently Chairman of The Lancashire Society and President of the Lancashire Authors’ Association. Since 2008, and up to Covid, I appeared regularly on BBC TV and radio, speaking about our Victorian dialect authors. I also turned up on Flog It!, Countryfile, Michael Portillo’s Railway Journeys, Radio 4’s “Tongue and the Talk”, Celebrity Antiques Road Trip and I once had to go all the way to London just to say 12 words to Shirley Bassey, live on The One Show!

Web site: Sid Calderbank

Moira was born in Scotland into a family where singing and music were a big part of her life and where her love of song was founded. She has long been recognised by club and festival goers for her superb interpretations of Scottish, Irish and English songs and ballads. A former winner of the “Sidmouth Singer of the Year” award, Moira became more widely known through her contributions to the Pastimes albums. She also has a solo album, “On Ae Bonny Day”. She has appeared in Britain, Germany and the USA, charming audiences with her clear ringing voice and wonderful repertoire. Also part of the duo Moira Craig and Carolyn Robson since Sarah Morgan’s untimely death in 2013.

Moira and Carolyn have both grown up surrounded by music and song, Moira in Scotland and Carolyn in Northumberland. Over the years they have been recognised individually as outstanding British folk artists Although they tend to perform material from their traditional Scottish and Northumbrian roots and heritage, it is not unusual for the occasional contemporary song to be included in their repertoire with compelling and amusing lyrics, close harmonies, and good humour.

According to David Kidman
“Their two-part harmonies are to die for, their peerless vocal togetherness and unrivalled expertise, their absolute, unreserved delight in winkling out the inner subtleties of their songs’ melodies makes their performances the most inordinately fine singing you’re likely to hear.”

One of the best Folk voices of his generation. Nick Dow has been singing and collecting traditional folk songs for over forty years. His guitar playing is sensitive and well thought out and his repertoire contains many songs you will hear nowhere else. Nick has gleaned songs from the West Country, and been given songs by the Travelling people with whom he has lived and worked.

Nick Dow is trained in the dying art of Gypsy Wagon Painting and has worked as a painter for a long list of celebrities including Ronnie Wood of the Rolling Stones.

Nick Dow's gigs are informative and entertaining. He has a great sense of humour, and nobody goes home disappointed.

‘The adjective “sturdy” is the overriding impression that first acquaintance with Nick’s singing affords: he has a well-rounded and full-toned baritone with a warm, supremely even-toned range and a grand confidence in the direct, unfussy delivery.’ David Kidman

‘Nick is a fine guitarist and his backings are carefully worked out and always appropriate, but to hear the full majesty and impact of this magnificent voice at its finest, then it is those where that voice is heard on its own that these ears are attracted to.’ Vic Smith

‘He's really a rather good and interesting singer’ Rod Stradling

(Friday evening) From The Collection

Nick and his wife Mally have been collecting traditional folksongs for the last 40 years - sometimes deliberately but mostly by accident. Nick will be introducing and singing a selection of songs he learned face-to-face from traditional singers. Nick and Mally have collected songs in Dorset, Lancashire, Surrey, Yorkshire, and many from Gypsy Folk and Travellers, and in fact, a few miles up the road from Moreton at Stow on the Wold Horse Fair. There is usually an entertaining story as to how the song came their way.

(Saturday afternoon) Book launch: A Secret Stream Volume 2

Nick Dow introduces his third book, and plays field recordings from his collection.
Selected by Nick Dow
Musical notation by Cohen Braithwaite-Kilcoyne
Notes by Steve Gardham
The songs have been chosen to demonstrate the musical continuity of the song tradition within the Travelling community and to complement the historical songs published in the original volume, A Secret Stream, in 2021.

The songs have been selected by Nick Dow, and many come from his own collecting activities undertaken in the 1980s, as well as from collectors like Doc Rowe, Mike Yates, Ken Stubbs, Paul Burgess, and the late Gwilym Davies, among others.

The volume also includes dance tunes, stories, and songs in Anglo-Romany Cant, as well as well-researched and key informative notes by Steve Gardham.

Martin and Shan Graebe sing traditional songs together, mostly unaccompanied and in harmony. Their repertoire is based mainly on the songs of southern England, particularly those found by the Devonshire folk song collector, Sabine Baring-Gould, whose life and work Martin has been studying for several years. Shan is also well known for the workshops that she leads on aspects of voice use and care. Martin’s book As I Walked Out: Sabine Baring-Gould and the Search for the Folk Songs of Devon and Cornwall (Signal Books, 2017) has received both the Katharine Briggs Folklore Award and the W G Hoskins Prize.

Bryony Griffith is an English fiddle player and singer with a repertoire of traditional English dance tunes and songs and a passion for delving through the tune and song manuscripts of her native Yorkshire. Her skills encompass solo performance, duo work with husband Will Hampson and more recently with Yorkshire singer and musician Alice Jones, and extensive experience of playing for folk dance in ceilidh band Bedlam, The Demon Barbers and various dance teams. She was also a member of the much-missed a cappella quartet The Witches of Elswick.

With over 20 years' experience researching folk material and devising innovative ways of presenting it in performance and education, Bryony’s down-to-earth and relaxed style of teaching and performing is much in demand by festival and project organisers all over the UK and Europe. She is the Senior Lecturer in vocals and fiddle on the Folk, Roots and Blues degree at Leeds Conservatoire, and directs Shepley Singers, a 50-strong group of amateur singers who perform her 4-part a cappella arrangements of traditional English songs.

Web site: Bryony Griffith

Katie Howson is best known as a driving force in a number of significant English ceilidh bands including the Old Hat Dance Band and PolkaWorks, playing the melodeon and harmonica. She grew up in the East Anglian tradition, forming the Old Hat Concert Party in the 1980s: a much-loved multi-generational group of singers, musicians and stepdancers from Suffolk and Norfolk. Katie is also a researcher, historian and writer on various aspects of traditional music, song and dance. Together with her husband John Howson, she founded and ran the East Anglian Traditional Music Trust until 2017, and since John’s death in 2022, now runs the Veteran recording label.

Web site: Katie Howson

ALL ABOARD THE CHARABANC this Saturday afternoon for a trip round the musical pubs of Mid-Suffolk, with your tour guide Katie Howson. This light-hearted presentation was originally devised by John Howson, inspired by his song-collecting experiences in Suffolk, and includes recordings of songs and music from the likes of Charlie Stringer, Emily Sparkes and Gordon Syrett.

Don't be late, the virtual tour on March 2nd starts at 15.45 precisely!

Yorkshire stonemason Will Noble learnt his first song whilst on the family farm as a boy, later attending after- hunt sings, shepherds’ meets and traditional local pub carol sessions. Over 40 years of performance, Will added many fine songs from elsewhere to his repertoire, and is now acknowledged as a true representative of the English singing tradition.

Romany Gypsies Jean & Tom Orchard have been sharing their music together for forty five years. Jean sings songs handed down to her from her mum Amy Birch and her grandmother and plays penny whistle alongside Tom and his melodeon, sharing old English and Irish tunes and songs. Tom step dances, using traditional Romany stepping. We are very happy to welcome Jean & Tom this year after their brush with Covid in 2022 meant they were unable to join us.

Traditional Songs and Music from England

Brian Peters is one of the English folk music scene’s great all-rounders, a compelling singer and an outstanding multi-instrumentalist. He’s a top anglo-concertina player, expert on melodeon (button accordion) and guitar, and has recently added banjo to the list. Well known for his towering renditions of Child Ballads and other songs from the tradition, but also encompassing songs of social comment and instrumentals, Brian’s repertoire is full of variety, fire and humour.  He also has a deep knowledge of the history behind the folk repertoire.

Brian has played countless folk festivals in Britain, and has an international reputation based on regular tours and festivals in the USA, Canada and Australia.  He’s an experienced teacher and leader of instrumental and ballad workshops, including work at several Appalachian Mountain summer schools. Brian has recorded many acclaimed CDs, devised concept performances of Child Ballads and Appalachian-English songs, and worked with singers and musicians including Sara Grey (USA) and Jeff Davis (USA). He collaborated with with Pete Coe and Laura Smyth on 2019’s ‘Road to Peterloo’ project, and had a key role in the most recent revival of Peter Bellamy’s ‘The Transports’ at Whitby Folk Week in 2022.

‘One of the best English singers and musicians on the folk club and festival scene’
English Dance & Song

‘A singer, guitarist and melodeon player of rare ability… one of the very best performers in the field of English Traditional song and music’
Dirty Linen (USA)

Web site: Brian Peters

Matt Quinn is a singer and instrumentalist who has spent over fifteen years performing all over, from small folk clubs to Glastonbury & WOMAD. Well known as a multi-instrumentalist, he is also a versatile singer who is in demand on the English folk scene. Matt has a broad repertoire and a deep interest in traditional song, introducing songs from the likes of Gordon Hall to a new audience. He is committed to preserving the tradition in an accessible way for a 21st century audience.

Matt is adaptable and collaborative, working as part of ‘The Dovetail Trio’, with ceilidh bands ‘Geckoes’ and ‘The Discussion Topic’, as a cast member for Mick Ryan’s folk Opera ‘A Day’s Work’, melodeon teacher in the Netherlands and Iceland and latterly as half of a duo with George Sansome, with whom he released ‘Sheffield Park’ in 2023. In between times, he entertains all and sundry with his original take on more recent classics. Even during lockdown, there was no stopping him – catch him at the festival to find out more about ‘Isolation Quinn’.

Web site: Matt Quinn

Leading folk animateur, Carolyn Robson studied at the Royal Academy of Music before working as a teacher, presenter for Radio 4’s Music Workshop, Education Officer for EFDSS, Senior Advisory Teacher for the Voices Foundation, performer and soloist. She draws on a wealth of songs from the British tradition and sang with the renowned a cappella trio Craig Morgan Robson until Sarah Morgan’s untimely death in 2013.  Carolyn now sings in various collaborations with Moira Craig (of Craig Morgan Robson) and with Iris Bishop (duet concertina / accordion). Carolyn is the musical director of three community choirs in Hampshire in Alton, Petersfield and Winchester, as well as a chamber choir, Take Note. She is in demand as a workshop leader with choirs, small singing groups and masterclasses, at festivals and Arts Centres throughout Britain. 

Web site: Carolyn Robson

Peter and Barbara Snape are a very popular duo from the North West of England with a repertoire that is distinctly ‘northern’ in nature and liberally sprinkled with the ‘feel-good’ factor. The Snapes have a great love of traditional British folk music and have built a well-deserved reputation both for researching varied and interesting songs from their North West home and for championing the work of folk song collectors such as Anne Geddes Gilchrist OBE and Fred Hamer.

Web site: The Snapes

Seb Stone is a traditional singer, whistle player and uilleann piper from the Peak District. In 2022 he won both the Future of Folk and Shantyman of the Year awards at Bromyard Folk Festival. Since then, he has appeared at many of the country’s top folk festivals. His debut album, recorded with Scribe Records, is due for release at the end of March.

Seb Stone on Facebook.

The Gilchrist Collective (Peter & Barbara Snape, Brian Peters and Sue Burgess) present, ‘Most Truly Yours, Aunt Anne’, which celebrates the achievements of Anne Geddes Gilchrist OBE (1863-1954), who made an important collection of songs, tunes and folklore from her home in Lancashire and became a significant figure in the folk music world of the early 20th century. The Gilchrist Collective tell her story for the first time, using narrative, slides and a rich and varied selection of the songs she discovered.

Web site: The Gilchrist Collective (page on the Snapes' site).

Bob was one of the pioneers of sound for folk and was the first person ever to provide concert sound at Sidmouth and Chippenham folk festivals. The latter led to him touring with the Albion Band’s River Hymn show. After a break to have a family life he returned to sound a few years ago and is facing a busy 2024 season. His motto? “Good sound reinforcement is conspicuous by its apparent absence”.

Web site: Fidelity Sound Hire