Chris Newman (born 30 October 1952) is a British acoustic

guitarist A guitarist (or a guitar player) is a person who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of guitar family instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselv ...

and

mandolinist A mandolin ( it, mandolino ; literally "small mandola") is a stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally plucked with a pick. It most commonly has four courses of doubled strings tuned in unison, thus giving a total of 8 ...

, noted for his work as a soloist, as the partner of the Irish harper Máire Ní Chathasaigh, as a member of the Irish-English band, Heartstring Sessions, and with his own band, The Chris Newman Trio.

Life and career

He was born in

Stevenage Stevenage ( ) is a large town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, about north of London. Stevenage is east of junctions 7 and 8 of the A1(M), between Letchworth Garden City to the north and Welwyn Garden City to the south. In 1946, Stevena ...

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For govern ...

, England. He began playing guitar at the age of four and, in his teenage years, was mentored by the jazz guitarist

Diz Disley William Charles "Diz" Disley (27 May 1931 – 22 March 2010) was an Anglo-Canadian jazz guitarist and banjoist. He is best known for his acoustic jazz guitar playing, strongly influenced by Django Reinhardt, for his contributions to the UK trad ...

.Mayor, Simon. ''New Celtic Mandolin''. Acoustics, 1998, p. 56. Interview with Chris Newman In the 1970s and 1980s, he worked as musical director and record producer for the singers

Fred Wedlock Peter Frederick Wedlock (23 May 1942 – 4 March 2010) was an English folk singer best known for his UK hit single "The Oldest Swinger in Town", which was covered by German comedian Karl Dall as "Der älteste Popper der Stadt". He performed ...

and

Brenda Wootton Brenda Wootton (née Ellery) (10 February 1928 – 11 March 1994) was a British folk singer and poet and was seen as an ambassador for Cornish tradition and culture in all the Celtic nations and as far as Australia and Canada. Early lif ...

, at the same time establishing his identity as a soloist with the 1981 album, ''Chris Newman''. He has subsequently worked with the Scottish-Irish

Celtic music Celtic music is a broad grouping of music genres that evolved out of the folk music traditions of the Celtic people of Northwestern Europe. It refers to both orally-transmitted traditional music and recorded music and the styles vary considerab ...

band,

The Boys of the Lough The Boys of the Lough is a Scottish-Irish Celtic music band active since the 1970s. Early years Their first album, called ''Boys of the Lough'' (1972) consisted of Aly Bain (fiddle), Cathal McConnell (flute), Dick Gaughan (vocals and guitar) and ...

. He has been principal guitar tutor for Newcastle University’s Folk B.Mus course since its inception, and regularly teaches at residential courses worldwide. He continues production work and has produced albums for many noted artists in the sphere of traditional and acoustic music, including Irish fiddler

Nollaig Casey Nollaig Casey ( ga, Nollaig Ní Chathasaigh) is an Irish fiddle player, and has an international reputation as one of Ireland's finest fiddle players. By the time she was eleven years old she could play violin, piano, tin whistle and uilleann pipe ...

and acoustic guitarist Clive Carroll.

Albums

*''Chris Newman'' (1981) - solo *''Chris Newman Two'' (1983) - solo *''Fretwork'' (1998) - solo *''Still Getting Away With It'' (2011) - solo *''The Living Wood'' (1988) - with harper Máire Ní Chathasaigh *''Out Of Court'' (1991) - with harper Máire Ní Chathasaigh *''The Carolan Albums'' (1991) - with harper Máire Ní Chathasaigh *''Live In The Highlands'' (1995) - with harper Máire Ní Chathasaigh *''Dialogues'' (2001) - with harper Máire Ní Chathasaigh *''Firewire'' (2006) - with harper Máire Ní Chathasaigh *''Christmas Lights'' (2013) - with harper Máire Ní Chathasaigh *''Breaking Bach (flat picking the partitas)'' (2021) - solo

Books

*''Adventure With A Flatpick'' (2001)

References

External links

Old Bridge Music
official site {{DEFAULTSORT:Newman, Chris 1952 births Living people British male guitarists British mandolinists People from Stevenage British record producers British music arrangers British music educators British male songwriters