Eyam is an English village and civil parish in the Derbyshire Dales that lies within the Peak District National Park. There is evidence of early occupation by Ancient Britons on the surrounding moors and lead was mined in the area by the Romans. A settlement was founded on the present site by Anglo-Saxons, when mining was continued and other industries later developed. However, Eyam’s main claim to fame is the story of how the village chose to go into isolation so as to prevent infection spreading after bubonic plague was discovered there in 1665.
Robb Jenner Johnson is a British musician and songwriter who has been called "one of the last genuinely political songwriters". He is known for his mix of political satire and wit. He has his own record label, Irregular Records, and has released more than 40 albums since 1985, either solo or in several collaborations.
Gerald Conway was an English folk and rock drummer and percussionist. He performed with the backing band for Cat Stevens in the 1970s, with Jethro Tull during the 1980s, and was a member of Fairport Convention from 1998 to 2022. Conway also worked as a session musician. He was married to vocalist Jacqui McShee, the singer of the band Pentangle, of which he was also a member.
Somerset is a county in the south-west of England. It is home to many types of music.
Jim Moray is an English folk singer, multi-instrumentalist and record producer.
"The Highwayman" is a romantic ballad and narrative poem written by Alfred Noyes, first published in the August 1906 issue of Blackwood's Magazine, based in Edinburgh, Scotland. The following year it was included in Noyes' collection, Forty Singing Seamen and Other Poems, becoming an immediate success. In 1995 it was voted 15th in the BBC's poll for "The Nation's Favourite Poems".
The Suffolk Miracle is Child ballad 272 and is listed as #246 in the Roud Folk Song Index. Versions of the ballad have been collected from traditional singers in England, Ireland and North America. The song is also known as "The Holland Handkerchief" and sometimes as "The Lover's Ghost".
The Young'uns are an English folk group from Stockton, County Durham, England, who won the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards "Best Group" award in 2015 and 2016 and "Best Album" for Strangers in 2018. They specialise in singing unaccompanied, performing traditional folk songs and sea shanties, contemporary folk songs such as Billy Bragg's 1985 song "Between the Wars" and Sydney Carter's 1981 song "Sing John Ball", and original works including "You Won’t Find Me on Benefits Street" and "The Battle of Stockton". They champion the folk music of the Northeast of England, where they are from, celebrating local history and performing songs by local songwriters such as Graeme Miles.
Martin Belmont is an English rock and country-blues guitarist.
O'Hooley & Tidow are an English folk music duo from Yorkshire. Singer-songwriter Heidi Tidow performs and records with her wife, singer-songwriter and pianist Belinda O'Hooley, who was formerly a member of Rachel Unthank and the Winterset. O'Hooley & Tidow were nominated for Best Duo at the 2013 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards. Their 2016 album Shadows was given a five-star review in The Guardian, and four of their other albums, including their 2017 release WinterFolk Volume 1, have received four-star reviews in the British national press. From 2019 to 2022, their song "Gentleman Jack", from the album The Fragile, featured as the closing theme for the BBC/HBO television series Gentleman Jack. Their album Cloudheads was released on 21 April 2023.
Lucy Victoria Ward is an English singer-songwriter from Derby, England. She performs, with a voice described as expressive and powerful, traditional English folk songs as well as her own material. Three of her albums, Adelphi Has to Fly, Single Flame and I Dreamt I Was a Bird, have been critically acclaimed and have each received four-starred reviews in the British national press.
Ange Hardy is an English singer, songwriter and recording artist.
The Black Feathers are a husband and wife roots music duo based in Gloucestershire, UK who play a blend of Folk and Americana. Their debut EP was listed in The Telegraph as one of the best Folk albums of 2014.
Merry Hell are an English folk rock band from Wigan, Greater Manchester, formed in 2010. The core members of the band include the three Kettle brothers, who were previously members of the Tansads. As of 2023 the band have released six studio albums.
Kara were a folk music group from Hertfordshire, England, whose music has been called "spirited acoustic folk with a Russian twist". Their debut album, Waters So Deep, was acclaimed by The Daily Telegraph.
Lillian Bilocca was a British fisheries worker and campaigner for improved safety in the fishing fleet as leader of the "headscarf revolutionaries" – a group of fishermen's family members. Spurred into action by the Hull triple trawler tragedy of 1968 which claimed 58 lives, she led a direct action campaign to prevent undermanned trawlers from putting to sea and gathered 10,000 signatures for a petition to Harold Wilson's government to strengthen safety legislation. She threatened to picket Wilson's house if he did not take action. Government ministers later implemented all of the measures outlined in the charter.
Miranda Sykes is an English folk singer, double-bassist and guitarist who performs with Steve Knightley and Phil Beer in the acoustic roots/folk group Show of Hands. As of 2019 she is undertaking solo performances while on maternity leave from the group. She has recorded with Show of Hands and has also performed and recorded as a duo with mandolin player Rex Preston.
George "Pop" Maynard was an English folk singer and marbles champion. The folk singer Shirley Collins considers Maynard to have been the "finest traditional English singer, matched only by Harry Cox".
Winter Stories is an album by American singer Judy Collins and Norwegian musician Jonas Fjeld backed by American blugrass group Chatham County Line. It was released on November 29, 2019 on the Cleopatra label and reached number one on the Billboard Top Bluegrass Albums chart, becoming the 80-year-old Collins' first ever American number one album on any chart, as well as the first for Fjeld and the third for Chatham County Line.
Rachel Newton is a Scottish singer and harpist. As well as playing both acoustic and electric harp she also plays viola, fiddle, piano and harmonium. She performs solo as well as in the bands The Shee, The Furrow Collective and Boreas and was formerly a member of the Emily Portman Trio. She was a member of the Lost Words Spell Songs project and is a co-founder of The Bit Collective, a group campaigning for equality in folk music.
