Jo Freya (born 4 December 1960) is an English saxophonist, clarinettist and singer.
She was born Jo Fraser, but changed her name to Jo Freya as a condition of joining the actors' union Equity, which does not allow two of its members to share the same name.[ citation needed ] She performs mainly folk music and world music and is part of the bands Blowzabella, Old Swan Band and Token Women, as well as performing and / or recording with Lal Waterson, Pete Morton, Maalstroom, and with her sister, Fi Fraser. [1] [2] [3]
She is part of the Lal Waterson Project, in memory of Waterson and in celebration of her work. [4] [5]
Solo albums
Anthology
With Pete Morton
As a member of Blowzabella
As a member of Fraser Sisters
As a member of Freyja
As a member of The Old Swan Band
As a member of Tanteeka
As a member of Token Women
In conjunction with Maalstroom
As a member of Moirai
Eliza Amy Forbes Carthy, MBE is an English folk musician known for both singing and playing the fiddle. She is the daughter of English folk musicians Martin Carthy and Norma Waterson.
The Watersons were an English folk group from Hull, Yorkshire. They performed mainly traditional songs with little or no accompaniment. Their distinctive sound came from their closely woven harmonies. They have been called the "most famous family in English folk music".
Elaine "Lal" Waterson was an English folk singer and songwriter. She sang with, among others, The Watersons, The Waterdaughters and Blue Murder. She was born in Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire. In 1998, she died suddenly in Robin Hood's Bay, of cancer diagnosed only ten days before. "Lal Waterson's voice was stark but captivating, her songs lyrically ambitious and melodically powerful."
Norma Christine Waterson was an English singer and songwriter, best known as one of the original members of The Watersons, a celebrated English traditional folk group. Other members of the group included her brother Mike Waterson and sister Lal Waterson, a cousin John Harrison and, in later incarnations of the group, her husband Martin Carthy.
The Old Swan Band is a long-established and influential English country dance band.
James Yorkston is a Scottish folk musician, singer-songwriter and author from the village of Kingsbarns, Fife. He has been releasing music since 2001. As well as recording as a solo artist, he has released music with his backing band the Athletes, as part of the Fence Collective, and as a member of the trio Yorkston/Thorne/Khan. He has also written fiction and non-fiction books.
Andy Cutting is an English folk musician and composer. He plays melodeon and is best known for writing and performing traditional English folk and his own original compositions which combine English and French traditions with wider influences. He is three times winner of the Folk Musician of the Year award at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards and has appeared on around 50 albums, both as a solo artist and in collaboration with other musicians. He was born in Harrow, London and is married with three children.
Oak was an English folk band in the early 1970s.
Anne Patricia Briggs is an English folk singer. Although she travelled widely in the 1960s and early 1970s, appearing at folk clubs and venues in England and Ireland, she never aspired to commercial success or to achieve widespread public acknowledgment of her music. However, she was an influential figure in the British folk revival, being a source of songs and musical inspiration for others such as A. L. Lloyd, Bert Jansch, Jimmy Page, The Watersons, June Tabor, Sandy Denny, Richard Thompson, and Maddy Prior.
No Roses is an album by Shirley Collins and the Albion Country Band. It was recorded at Sound Techniques, and Air Studios in London, in the summer of 1971. It was produced by Sandy Roberton and Ashley Hutchings. It was released in October 1971 on the Pegasus label.
Bill Leader is an English recording engineer and record producer. He is particularly associated with the British folk music revival of the 1960s and 1970s, producing records by Paddy Tunney, Davey Graham, Bert Jansch, John Renbourn, Frank Harte and many others.
Coope Boyes and Simpson was an English vocal folk trio, formed around 1990. Their sound was rich and often had unusual vocal harmonies.
Blowzabella is an English folk band formed in London in 1978. The band currently consists of Andy Cutting, Jo Freya, Paul James, David Shepherd, Barn Stradling, and Jon Swayne; members of the band have changed multiple times since their inception, with Jon Swayne being the only remaining original band member. It is estimated that Blowzabella musicians played between 26 and 32 instruments in total, which include bagpipes, hurdy-gurdy, diatonic button accordion, alto sax, and triangle. Their music is heavily influenced by English and European traditional folk music, and has inspired a variety of European folk bands with their unique style and sound. Many European folk artists attribute Blowzabella as a major influence in their music.
Blue Murder is an occasional English folk supergroup, consisting at various times of various members of Swan Arcade, Coope Boyes and Simpson, Waterson–Carthy and The Watersons.
Michael Waterson was an English writer, songwriter and folk singer.
Maria Gilhooley, who records under the name Marry Waterson, is a singer, songwriter and visual artist. A member of the Waterson-Knight-Carthy family musical dynasty, Waterson is described as having "thrived on communal music making while developing highly original and distinctly English performance styles of [her] own."
Pete Morton is an English folk singer-songwriter who lives in London, England. According to fRoots, Morton "is amongst the best that the British roots music scene has produced in living memory."
Swan Arcade were a British folk music vocal group formed in 1970. "A leading light of the British folk revival" they sang a wide variety of songs, including blues, pop and rock and roll, as well as traditional folk music, mostly performed a cappella. Swan Arcade also performed with The Watersons as the Boggle Hole Chorale, and The Watersons and Martin Carthy as Blue Murder. They finally disbanded in 1988, but one of their members, Jim Boyes, still performs as part of Coope Boyes and Simpson.
Robin Morton was an Irish folk musician, song collector, broadcaster, record producer, band manager, and founder of the Temple Records label and the Kinmor publishing company.
Bright Phoebus, fully titled Bright Phoebus: Songs by Lal & Mike Waterson, is a folk rock album by Lal and Mike Waterson. It was recorded in May 1972 with musical assistance from various well-known members of the British folk rock scene. The album failed to make an impact on its original release, but it was subsequently championed by many musicians, including Billy Bragg, Arcade Fire, Richard Hawley and Jarvis Cocker. For years the album was difficult to obtain. In 2017, a re-release of Bright Phoebus was announced and shortly thereafter pulled from the market for legal reasons.