Chris Wood (folk musician)
Encyclopedia
Chris Wood is an English folk music
ian and composer who plays fiddle
, viola
and guitar
, and sings. He is an ardent enthusiast for traditional
English dance music (with a background in English church music), including Morris
and other ritual
s and ceremonies
, but his repertoire also includes much French folk music
and traditional Québécois
material. He has worked for many years in a duo with button accordion
/melodeon
player Andy Cutting
: Wood & Cutting are one of the most influential acts on the English folk music scene. Q Magazine gave their "Live at Sidmouth" album four stars and put the duo "at the forefront of the latest wave of British music acts". One of his first recordings was playing bass and percussion on "Jack's Alive" (1980) the first album by the Oysterband
(at that time called the Oyster Ceilidh
Band).
Wood is also a member of the acclaimed Wood, Wilson & Carthy, with Roger Wilson
and Martin Carthy
. Wood & Cutting, together with piano accordionist Karen Tweed
and guitarist Ian Carr
, make up the Two Duos Quartet, who have made one album "Half as happy as we". With John Dipper on fiddle
and Robert Harbron on concertina
s, he is part of the English Acoustic Collective. This is also the name of an organisation which Wood set up in 1999 to link the many threads of his teaching activities, including summer schools based at Ruskin Mill near Nailsworth
, Gloucestershire
.
Other projects include "Listening to the River" (a concert project which interweaves recordings of dialect
and oral history
from the area around the River Medway
with live music) and "Glassblower", described as "an industrial ballet".
At the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards
2006, the Best Original Song category was won by Chris Wood and storyteller Hugh Lupton
for "One in a Million", a modern retelling of a widespread traditional tale in which a lost ring is rediscovered in the stomach of a fish. He was also nominated in three other categories: Best Album (for "The Lark Descending"), Best Traditional Track ("Lord Bateman"), and Folk Singer of the Year.
In 2009, the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards recognised Chris as Folk Singer of the Year, and "Trespasser" was also recognised as Album of the Year.
In March 2009 Chris took part in the Darwin Song Project
, a multi-artist songwriting retreat organised by the Shrewsbury Folk Festival
to create songs that had a "resonance and relevance" to Darwin. A CD was released in August 2009.
In 2011, Chris again tasted success at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards, where he was recognised as Folk Singer Of The Year as well as winning Song Of The Year for his song "Hollow Point", from The Handmade Life, a song about the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes
in 2005.
Coroare; Back at Lusignac; Elizabeth Clare; I feel a smile coming on; Lusignac; Mrs Saggs; The North Downs Way
; The Shouter; Ville de Québec; Hard; Albion: Walk this World
He has written new words for the traditional song:
He has written tunes for the following lyrics:
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
ian and composer who plays fiddle
Fiddle
The term fiddle may refer to any bowed string musical instrument, most often the violin. It is also a colloquial term for the instrument used by players in all genres, including classical music...
, viola
Viola
The viola is a bowed string instrument. It is the middle voice of the violin family, between the violin and the cello.- Form :The viola is similar in material and construction to the violin. A full-size viola's body is between and longer than the body of a full-size violin , with an average...
and guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
, and sings. He is an ardent enthusiast for traditional
Folk music of England
Folk music of England refers to various types of traditionally based music, often contrasted with courtly, classical and later commercial music, for which evidence exists from the later medieval period. It has been preserved and transmitted orally, through print and later through recordings...
English dance music (with a background in English church music), including Morris
Morris
-People:* Morris , a common family name * Morris , Belgian cartoonist, creator of Lucky Luke* Morris, one of the 14 Tribes of Galway, Ireland-Places:In Canada*Morris, Manitoba...
and other ritual
Ritual
A ritual is a set of actions, performed mainly for their symbolic value. It may be prescribed by a religion or by the traditions of a community. The term usually excludes actions which are arbitrarily chosen by the performers....
s and ceremonies
Ceremony
A ceremony is an event of ritual significance, performed on a special occasion. The word may be of Etruscan origin.-Ceremonial occasions:A ceremony may mark a rite of passage in a human life, marking the significance of, for example:* birth...
, but his repertoire also includes much French folk music
Music of France
France has a wide variety of indigenous folk music, as well as styles played by immigrants from Africa, Latin America and Asia. In the field of classical music, France has produced a number of legendary composers, while modern pop music has seen the rise of popular French hip hop, techno/funk,...
and traditional Québécois
Music of Quebec
Being a modern cosmopolitan society, today, all types of music can be found in the Canadian province of Quebec. What is specific to Quebec though are traditional songs, a unique variety of Celtic music, legions of excellent jazz musicians, a culture of classical music, and a love of foreign rhythms...
material. He has worked for many years in a duo with button accordion
Accordion
The accordion is a box-shaped musical instrument of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone family, sometimes referred to as a squeezebox. A person who plays the accordion is called an accordionist....
/melodeon
Melodeon (organ)
A melodeon is a type of 19th century reed organ with a foot-operated vacuum bellows, and a piano keyboard. It differs from the related harmonium, which uses a pressure bellows. Melodeons were manufactured in the United States sometime after 1812 until the Civil War era...
player Andy Cutting
Andy Cutting
Andy Cutting is an English folk musician and composer. Born 18 March 1969 in Harrow, he plays melodeon and has had instruments made by Castagnari to his own specification. He won the Folk Musician of the Year at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards 2008 and 2011...
: Wood & Cutting are one of the most influential acts on the English folk music scene. Q Magazine gave their "Live at Sidmouth" album four stars and put the duo "at the forefront of the latest wave of British music acts". One of his first recordings was playing bass and percussion on "Jack's Alive" (1980) the first album by the Oysterband
Oysterband
Oysterband is a British electric folk or folk rock band formed in Canterbury in or around 1976.-Early history:...
(at that time called the Oyster Ceilidh
Céilidh
In modern usage, a céilidh or ceilidh is a traditional Gaelic social gathering, which usually involves playing Gaelic folk music and dancing. It originated in Ireland, but is now common throughout the Irish and Scottish diasporas...
Band).
Wood is also a member of the acclaimed Wood, Wilson & Carthy, with Roger Wilson
Roger Wilson (folk musician)
Roger Wilson is an English folk singer, fiddler, guitarist, and songwriter who, he says, abandoned a graphic design career to become a full-time musician in 1986. He was a member of The House Band and later joined Chris Wood and Martin Carthy in performances...
and Martin Carthy
Martin Carthy
Martin Carthy MBE is an English folk singer and guitarist who has remained one of the most influential figures in British traditional music, inspiring contemporaries such as Bob Dylan and Paul Simon and later artists such as Richard Thompson since he emerged as a young musician in the early days...
. Wood & Cutting, together with piano accordionist Karen Tweed
Karen Tweed
Karen Tweed is a piano accordionist from London, England.-Biography:Tweed began to play the piano accordion at the age of 11, studying from button and piano accordion virtuoso John Whelan, and went on to win the first of 5 all-Ireland championships in 1977...
and guitarist Ian Carr
Ian Carr (guitarist)
Ian Carr is an English guitarist and producer from Yorkshire, who has performed with Swåp and The Kate Rusby Band.Until the late 1990s, Carr was a part of The Kathryn Tickell Band...
, make up the Two Duos Quartet, who have made one album "Half as happy as we". With John Dipper on fiddle
Fiddle
The term fiddle may refer to any bowed string musical instrument, most often the violin. It is also a colloquial term for the instrument used by players in all genres, including classical music...
and Robert Harbron on concertina
Concertina
A concertina is a free-reed musical instrument, like the various accordions and the harmonica. It has a bellows and buttons typically on both ends of it. When pressed, the buttons travel in the same direction as the bellows, unlike accordion buttons which travel perpendicularly to it...
s, he is part of the English Acoustic Collective. This is also the name of an organisation which Wood set up in 1999 to link the many threads of his teaching activities, including summer schools based at Ruskin Mill near Nailsworth
Nailsworth
Nailsworth is a town in Gloucestershire, England, lying in one of the Stroud Valleys in the Cotswolds. It has a population of around 6,600 people and lies on the A46 road....
, Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn, and the entire Forest of Dean....
.
Other projects include "Listening to the River" (a concert project which interweaves recordings of dialect
Dialect
The term dialect is used in two distinct ways, even by linguists. One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a characteristic of a particular group of the language's speakers. The term is applied most often to regional speech patterns, but a dialect may also be defined by other factors,...
and oral history
Oral history
Oral history is the collection and study of historical information about individuals, families, important events, or everyday life using audiotapes, videotapes, or transcriptions of planned interviews...
from the area around the River Medway
Medway
Medway is a conurbation and unitary authority in South East England. The Unitary Authority was formed in 1998 when the City of Rochester-upon-Medway amalgamated with Gillingham Borough Council and part of Kent County Council to form Medway Council, a unitary authority independent of Kent County...
with live music) and "Glassblower", described as "an industrial ballet".
At the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards
BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards
The BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards celebrate outstanding achievement during the previous year within the field of folk music. The awards have been given annually since 2000 by British radio station BBC Radio 2....
2006, the Best Original Song category was won by Chris Wood and storyteller Hugh Lupton
Hugh Lupton
Hugh Lupton is one of the most prominent figures in the Oral Storytelling Tradition. He co-founded the Company of Storytellers in 1985, and for a while ran a branch of The Crick Crack Club in Norfolk...
for "One in a Million", a modern retelling of a widespread traditional tale in which a lost ring is rediscovered in the stomach of a fish. He was also nominated in three other categories: Best Album (for "The Lark Descending"), Best Traditional Track ("Lord Bateman"), and Folk Singer of the Year.
In 2009, the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards recognised Chris as Folk Singer of the Year, and "Trespasser" was also recognised as Album of the Year.
In March 2009 Chris took part in the Darwin Song Project
Darwin Song Project
Darwin Song Project is a compilation album, released on September 7, 2009. It features folk artists from the UK and North America, who were tasked with the creation of new songs that had a "resonance and relevance to Charles Darwin". The artists gathered together for 7 days in a farmhouse in...
, a multi-artist songwriting retreat organised by the Shrewsbury Folk Festival
Shrewsbury Folk Festival
Shrewsbury Folk Festival is an annual festival of folk and world music and traditional dance held in the town of Shrewsbury in Shropshire, England....
to create songs that had a "resonance and relevance" to Darwin. A CD was released in August 2009.
In 2011, Chris again tasted success at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards, where he was recognised as Folk Singer Of The Year as well as winning Song Of The Year for his song "Hollow Point", from The Handmade Life, a song about the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes
Jean Charles de Menezes
Jean Charles de Menezes was a Brazilian man shot in the head seven times at Stockwell tube station on the London Underground by the London Metropolitan police, after he was misidentified as one of the fugitives involved in the previous day's failed bombing attempts...
in 2005.
Discography
His recordings include:- Ever Simpler (solo)
- Chris Wood & Andy Cutting - (1990) RUF Records RUFCD01
- The Old Hat Dance Band - (1992) Old Hat Music OH2CD
- Lisa (Wood & Cutting) - (1993) RUF Records RUFCD02
- Live at Sidmouth (Wood & Cutting) - (1995) RUF Records RUFCD03
- Lusignac (Wood & Cutting) - (1995) RUF Records RUFCD04
- Wood, Wilson, Carthy - (1998) RUF Records RUFCD05
- Crossing (with Jean-François Vrod) - (1999) RUF Records RUFCD06
- Half as Happy as We (Two Duos Quartet) - (1999) RUF Records RUFCD07
- Knock John (Wood & Cutting) - (1999) RUF Records RUFCD08
- Ghosts (English Acoustic Collective) - RUF Records RUFCD09
- The Lark Descending (solo) - (2005) RUF Records RUFCD10
- The Imagined VillageThe Imagined VillageThe Imagined Village is a folk musical project founded by Simon Emmerson of the Afro Celt Sound System. It is intended to produce modern folk music that represents modern multiculturalism in the United Kingdom and as such, features musicians from a wide variety of ethnic and cultural backgrounds...
(various artists) - (2007) Real World - Trespasser (solo) - (2008) RUF Records RUFCD11
- Christmas Champions (with Hugh Lupton, Robert Harbron, John Dipper, Olivia Ross) - LUPTON7
- Darwin Song ProjectDarwin Song ProjectDarwin Song Project is a compilation album, released on September 7, 2009. It features folk artists from the UK and North America, who were tasked with the creation of new songs that had a "resonance and relevance to Charles Darwin". The artists gathered together for 7 days in a farmhouse in...
(various artists) - (2009) Shrewsbury Folk Festival SFFCD01 - The Horses (with Hugh Lupton)
- Albion - an anthology - (2009) Navigator Records NAVIGATOR29
- The Handmade Life (solo) - (2009) RUF Records RUFCD12
Compositions
His compositions include:Coroare; Back at Lusignac; Elizabeth Clare; I feel a smile coming on; Lusignac; Mrs Saggs; The North Downs Way
North Downs Way
The North Downs Way is a long-distance path in southern England, opened in 1978. It runs from Farnham to Dover, past Godalming, Guildford, Dorking, Merstham, Otford and Rochester, along the Surrey Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and Kent Downs AONB.East of Boughton Lees, the path splits...
; The Shouter; Ville de Québec; Hard; Albion: Walk this World
He has written new words for the traditional song:
- Hares on the Mountain
He has written tunes for the following lyrics:
- The Burning Babe (poem by 16th-century Catholic mystic Robert Southwell)
- One in a Million (by Hugh Lupton)
- Bleary Winter (by Hugh Lupton)