“It was twenty years ago today”
In 1990 Chris Wood and Andy Cutting embarked on a collaboration which proved to be one of the most influential in English Folk Music. This concert will draw from their classic repertoire as well as exploring their restless quest for ever deeper and more vivid musical experience.
Chris Wood's Albion featuring Andy Cutting has recently been nominated for the Best Reissue Or Compilation Of 2009 in The fRoots Critics Poll Albums Of 2009.
Chris Wood is an uncompromising writer whose music reveals his love for the un-official history of the English speaking people. With gentle intelligence he weaves the tradition with his own contemporary parables. His writing has been said to share the same timeless quality as Richard Thompson at his best.
Chris’s latest projects include the new album, Handmade Life, which saw Chris touring with a 4 piece band in late 2009 and he will go on to tour the album solo in 2010.
He is also an integral collaborator and vocalist as part of Simon Emmerson’s project, ‘The Imagined Village’ which won a 2008 BBC Radio 2 Folk Award for ‘Best Track’ for ‘Cold Hailey Rainy Night’. The project also features artists such as Eliza Carthy, Martin Carthy and Johnny Kalsi. The new album is released in January at Celtic Connections in Scotland.
The Irish Times heralded Chris Wood as "the renaissance man of English folk" when on his own R.U.F Records label he released The Lark Descending which included the BBC Folk Award winning song One In A Million in 2005.
Wood’s appeal has now gone way beyond English folk music. He was invited to sing at last year's WOMEX where he garnered much praise and found many new followers. Likewise, his spot at the WOMAD 2008 festival was testament to his widening appeal. He has had musical commissions from BBC Radio 3's Late Junction and Between The Ears, and also from The Sage Gateshead, and has completed work for Arts Council England whilst also writing and lecturing.
"The finest and most original singer-songwriter to have emerged from the British folk scene since Richard Thompson" The Guardian
Andy Cutting is a rarity. A musician's musician (BBC Radio 2 Folk Award Winner Best Musician 2009): a soulful and technically outstanding melodeon practitioner with an ear for a fine tune. Many of his tunes have been purloined along the way: some considered contemporary classics on the folk scene. But then, Andy is also a warm and emotive performer, modestly engaging his audiences with his self-deprecating wit and then flooring them with downright staggering musicianship. There are few melodeon players who put so much feeling into their playing, whether it is a set of dance tunes, or accompaniment to a slow English ballad.
Andy has been consistent musical force since he came swiftly to prominence with the innovative Blowzabella. As well as a thorough grounding in the English tradition, Andy's influences extend way beyond these isles, particularly to the music of Central France and to the storming Quebecois tradition. These influences will be well-known to all those familiar with Andy's duo with English fiddle player, guitarist and singer, Chris Wood. Wood & Cutting became one of the most influential, and enduring, duos on the scene; paving the way for the explosion of many of today's thrusting young newcomers.
"In my musical life I've been lucky to work with a few musicians that I would call a genius, Andy Cutting without a doubt is one of these people. He is not only a true master of his instrument but a very inspiring musician to play with and be around. I've learned loads just by listening & watching Andy play. To top it all off, you couldn't meet a nicer fella" John McCusker
Andy is also performing solo at Towersey