Career
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" is the story of highwayman Dick Turpin, told from the third person perspective of 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.
All This Longing [8] (2010) is 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 includes 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]
The Dreamed and the Drowned (2011) is a collection of previously unreleased tracks recorded between 2006 and 2011. [9] The next two albums were Leaves and Feathers [10] (2013) and England Green and England Grey (2014).
December (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] Faraway People [13] followed in 2017, with the title track being named "Song of the Year 2017" in Fatea Magazine's annual awards show. [14] The album RAW completed the solo trilogy in November 2019.
A remote collaboration during lockdown led to the in-person recording, with folk duo Harbottle & Jonas, of a collection of traditional folk songs. The result is Songs Of Love & Death [15] (2021).
Two albums are in song cycle format. Twelve Silk Handerchiefs (2018) covers the story of the 1968 Hull triple trawler tragedy in which 58 men died, and the subsequent campaign for improved safety conditions in the fishing industry. Stolen from God (2023), the product of four years of research, examines England's part in the transatlantic slave trade during the 17th and 18th centuries. [16]
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