Reg Meuross

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Reg Meuross
Reg Meuross at the RAW Launch by Rachel Snowdon.jpg
Reg Meuross at the Cockpit Theatre, London, on 5 October 2019
Background information
Birth nameReginald Lawrence Meuross
Born5 January 1953 (1953-01-05) (age 71)
Stockton-on-Tees, England
Genres Folk music
Occupation(s)Musician, singer-songwriter
Instrument(s)Guitar, banjo, dulcimer, voice, harmonica
Years active1986–present
LabelsHatsongs, Stockfisch Records
Website regmeuross.com

Reg Meuross is an English singer and songwriter based in Somerset. He has released 15 solo albums. His song-writing contains narrative, protest and commentary.

Contents

History

Meuross first appeared on the British acoustic music scene in 1986 when he formed The Panic Brothers [1] with comedian Richard Morton. He made an album called In The Red, produced by Clive Gregson. "The Brothers" appeared regularly on TV, including on Friday Night Live; and at Edinburgh, Sidmouth, Glastonbury and other festivals.

Following his work with The Panic Brothers, Meuross formed a roots band, The Flamingos, featuring former Graham Parker guitarist Martin Belmont, Bob Loveday from the Penguin Café Orchestra and Bob Geldof's band, and Alison Jones of The Barely Works. The Flamingos recorded an album, Arrested, in 1991.

Meuross toured until 2009 with Hank Wangford and The Lost Cowboys as a member of the band, and also as a solo artist with Hank Wangford on the "No Hall Too Small" tour. [2]

Meuross's solo recording and touring career began in 1996. He has released 15 albums as a solo artist. In a review in The Guardian in 2016, Robin Denselow described him as "one of the more versatile, under-sung survivors of the English acoustic scene." [3]

He co-wrote Seth Lakeman's first single, "Divided We Will Fall", from the album The Well Worn Path, released on the Cooking Vinyl label in November 2018. [4]

Solo albums

In 1996 Meuross released his first solo album, The Goodbye Hat. [5] It was followed by Short Stories in 2004, and Still in 2006.

Dragonfly was released in July 2008. One of its songs, "And Jesus Wept", was inspired by the story of Harry Farr, a first World War soldier in the trenches who suffered from shell-shock and was shot for cowardice and desertion. "Lizzie Loved a Highwayman" was the story of highwayman Dick Turpin, related by his widow. Meuross performed these two songs at the Royal Albert Hall on 25 March, 2009, as part of a concert for the Teenage Cancer Trust. [6] The title track of the album, "Dragonfly", was written about the events of 9/11 [7] and the 7 July bombings in London.

In 2010, Meuross released All This Longing, [8] an all-acoustic album featuring Paul Sartin (Bellowhead), Andy Cutting on accordion, Jackie Oates on viola, Simon Edwards on bass and Roy Dodds (Fairground Attraction) on percussion. The album included the song "The Heart Of Ann Lee", which told the story of the Manchester-born, 18th century founder of the Shakers, Ann Lee, who was forced into marriage, bore four live children "taken before they were ten" and four stillborn, and fled to the United States to escape persecution. [8]

In 2011, Meuross released The Dreamed and the Drowned, a collection of previously unreleased tracks recorded between 2006 and 2011. [9] His next two albums were Leaves and Feathers, released in 2013, [10] and England Green and England Grey, released in 2014.

December, released in 2016, was the first in a trilogy of albums on which Meuross sang and played all the instruments (guitar, banjo, dulcimer, tenor guitar and harmonica [11] ) himself. Martin Chilton of The Telegraph included December in his selection for Best Folk Albums of 2016. [12] In 2017, Meuross released Faraway People, [13] the title track of which was named "Song of the Year 2017" in Fatea Magazine's annual awards show. [14] Twelve Silk Handerchiefs was released in December 2018: the songs on this album told the story of the 1968 Hull triple trawler tragedy in which 58 men died, and the subsequent campaign for improved safety conditions. The solo trilogy was completed in November 2019 with the release of RAW.

In October 2021, Meuross released Songs of Love and Death, a collection of traditional folk songs made in collaboration with folk duo Harbottle and Jones. Meuross said he had played over the years with some of the finest folk musicians in Britain, and folk songs were "in my breath and in my blood", but this was the first time he had thought of recording a folk album. He toured Songs of Love and Death with Harbottle & Jones in the UK in the Spring of 2022. [15]

His album Stolen from God was released in April 2023. The songs on the album, the product of four years' research, related to England's part in the transatlantic slave trade of the 17th and 18th centuries.

Discography

Albums

Singles

Musical style and subject matter

Meuross's work can be described as folk music in the living tradition. He writes about real people and their lives, delivering his songs on stringed instruments – primarily a restored 1944 Martin 017 guitar [11] – that are often played in a fingerpicking style. His subject matter is varied and his repertoire includes songs about historical characters and events, protest songs, political and social commentary, love songs, and flights of imagination inspired by personal experiences. [21]

Songs about historical figures and events

Song cycles

  • Meuross's 2018 album 12 Silk Handkerchiefs [29] comprises a song cycle with narrated interludes, which together encapsulate the history of the 1968 Hull triple trawler tragedy in which 58 men died, [30] [31] and the subsequent campaign led by fishwife Lillian Bilocca for improved safety conditions on trawlers.
Inspired by the book The Headscarf Revolutionaries by Brian W. Lavery, [32] the full song cycle was first performed as a multimedia show in Hull Minster on 8 November 2018, with Lavery narrating, and local Hull musicians Sam Martyn and Mick McGarry completing the musical line-up with Meuross. [33]
  • Stolen From God, released in 2023, is a 10-song cycle on England's part in the Transatlantic slave trade during the 17th and 18th centuries. The product of four years of research, the album documents the impact of the trade from various perspectives, including the benefits that accrued to the Crown, the church, and other British institutions. [34] [35]

Protest and commentary songs

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References

  1. ↑ "The Panic Brothers – Discography". Discogs. Retrieved 30 June 2020.
  2. ↑ BBC. "No Hall Too Small". www.bbc.co.uk.
  3. ↑ Denselow, Robin (17 March 2016). "Reg Meuross: December review – a very English kind of Americana". The Guardian– via www.theguardian.com.
  4. ↑ "Divided We Will Fall Archives - Folking.com". folking.com. 4 November 2018.
  5. 1 2 "Reg Meuross – The Goodbye Hat". Discogs. 26 October 1995. Retrieved 27 August 2020.
  6. ↑ "Teenage Cancer Trust 2009 Setlists". The Setlist Wiki. Retrieved 28 June 2019.
  7. 1 2 Carter, Malcolm. "Reg Meuross: Dragonfly". Penny Black magazine. Retrieved 15 September 2014.
  8. 1 2 3 Davies, Mike (September 2010). "Reg Meuross — All This Longing (Hatsongs)". NetRhythms. Retrieved 15 September 2014.
  9. 1 2 Davies, Mike (September 2011). "Reg Meuross — The Dreamed And The Drowned 2006–2010 (Hat)". NetRhythms. Retrieved 15 September 2014.
  10. 1 2 Davies, Mike (February 2013). "Reg Meuross – Leaves and Feathers (Hatsongs)". NetRhythms. Retrieved 15 September 2014.
  11. 1 2 3 Pratt, David (3 October 2019). "Reg Meuross: Raw – Folk Radio". Folk Radio UK. Retrieved 29 June 2020.
  12. ↑ Chilton, Martin (19 January 2016). "The best folk music albums of 2016". The Telegraph– via www.telegraph.co.uk.
  13. 1 2 Davies, Mike (29 July 2017). "Reg Meuross: Faraway People (Album Review) – Folk Radio UK". Folk Radio UK. Retrieved 30 June 2020.
  14. ↑ "FATEA – Home". www.fatea-records.co.uk.
  15. ↑ "Reg Meuross Songs of Love and Death".
  16. ↑ Chilton, Martin (4 September 2014). "Reg Meuross, England Green & England Grey, album review". The Daily Telegraph . Retrieved 15 September 2014.
  17. ↑ Blake, Thomas (29 November 2018). "Reg Meuross: 12 Silk Handkerchiefs (Album Review) – Folk Radio UK". Folk Radio UK. Retrieved 30 June 2020.
  18. ↑ Davies, Mike (25 October 2021). "Reg Meuross, Harbottle & Jonas - Songs Of Love & Death - Folk Radio UK". Folk Radio UK. Retrieved 22 April 2022.
  19. ↑ Carter, Malcolm (1 March 2022). "Reg Meuross and Harbottle & Jonas - Songs of Love and Death - Review". Pennyblackmusic. Retrieved 22 April 2022.
  20. ↑ "SINGLES BAR 52 – A round-up of recent EPs and singles". Folking.com. 18 May 2020. Retrieved 6 July 2020.
  21. 1 2 Heywood, Fiona (30 October 2016). "The songs of Reg Meuross – Living Tradition". The Living Tradition. Retrieved 4 July 2020.
  22. ↑ Carter, Helen (20 November 2009). "Policeman dies as devastating deluge strikes Britain". The Guardian. Retrieved 16 August 2020.
  23. ↑ Sandles, Tim (26 March 2016). "Tavistock Murder – Legendary Dartmoor". Legendary Dartmoor. Retrieved 31 July 2020.
  24. ↑ Hall, Colin (7 November 2014). "Lost love of Rowland Torre and Emmott Sydall". Stoney Middleton Heritage Centre. Retrieved 14 August 2020.
  25. ↑ Beaumont, Peter (15 March 2020). "Eyam recalls lessons from 1665 battle with plague". The Guardian. Retrieved 14 August 2020.
  26. ↑ "Crossbones". Crossbones. Retrieved 30 September 2020.
  27. ↑ "Plaque to Emily Wilding Davison". UK Parliament. Retrieved 13 August 2020.
  28. ↑ Kelly, Mike (4 April 2016). "What links Jeremy Corbyn, Tony Benn and Morpeth suffragette Emily Davison?". Chronicle Live. Retrieved 13 August 2020.
  29. ↑ Carter, Malcolm (22 February 2019). "Reg Meuross – 12 Silk Handkerchiefs CD". Penny Black Online Music Magazine. Retrieved 12 August 2020.
  30. ↑ "Triple Trawler Tragedy". Hull Daily Mail. Mail News & Media. Retrieved 2 August 2020.
  31. ↑ "Triple Trawler Tragedy – Hull Live". Hull Daily Mail. Mail News & Media. 23 May 2019. Retrieved 2 August 2020.
  32. ↑ "The Headscarf Revolutionaries". Barbican Press. Retrieved 6 June 2022.
  33. ↑ Robinson, Hannah (4 March 2019). "Moving tribute to Triple Trawler Tragedy and Headscarf Revolutionaries is returning to Hull – Hull Live". Hull Daily Mail. Mail News & Media. Retrieved 2 August 2020.
  34. ↑ Martin, Tim (23 March 2023). "Reg Meuross Stolen from God". Americana UK. Retrieved 27 December 2023.
  35. ↑ Johnson, Steve (28 March 2023). "Great Songs for Anti-Racist Demos". Morning Star. Croydon, London. Retrieved 27 December 2023.
  36. ↑ Dugan, Emily (12 August 2014). "Stephanie Bottrill, who blamed the bedroom tax for her suicide, had history of depression, inquest hears". The Independent. Independent Digital News & Media Ltd. Retrieved 12 August 2020.
  37. ↑ Russell, Jenni (8 January 2009). "Christelle and her baby died at the hands of a callous state". The Guardian. Retrieved 12 August 2020.
  38. ↑ "Michael Brown: Ferguson officer won't be charged for 2014 killing". The Guardian. 31 July 2020. Retrieved 16 August 2020.
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