Phillip Henry and Hannah Martin are an English

folk music Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be called world music. Traditional folk music has b ...

duo. In 2017, they renamed themselves Edgelarks and released an eponymous album.

Career

In 2008, Henry travelled to

Calcutta Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...

to study under the slide guitarist Pandit Debashish Bhattacharya. When Henry returned, he joined the band The Roots Union, with Martin, which spent three years on the road. The band came to an end in 2010, and Henry and Martin continued working together. They were "discovered" by Show of Hands frontman

Steve Knightley Steve Knightley (born 1954) is an English singer, songwriter and acoustic musician. Since 1992 he has been one half of folk/roots duo Show of Hands along with Phil Beer. Knightley was named "Songwriter of the Nineties" by BBC Radio 6 Music in ...

who first encountered the duo busking on the seafront during Devon's

Sidmouth Folk Week There has been a folk festival in the coastal town of Sidmouth in South West England in the first week of August every year since 1955, attracting tens of thousands of visitors to over 700 diverse events. Sidmouth Folk Festival offers a wide r ...

. The duo won "Best Folk Act" in the 2013 South West Music Awards, Best Duo title in the 2013 Spiral Earth Awards and Best Duo at the 2014 BBC

Radio 2 Folk Awards The BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards celebrate outstanding achievement during the previous year within the field of folk music, with the aim of raising the profile of folk and acoustic music. The awards have been given annually since 2000 by British ra ...

. They have subsequently been nominated a further two times at the BBC Folk Awards, in 2016 and 2018. Henry and Martin work with Peter Knight's Gigspanner Trio, to form the five piece Gigspanner Big Band. They are also members of the folk disco project, The Band of Love.

Hannah Martin

left, Hannah Martin Martin is a singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist from

Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devon is ...

. Writing on

fiddle A fiddle is a bowed string musical instrument, most often a violin. It is a colloquial term for the violin, used by players in all genres, including classical music. Although in many cases violins and fiddles are essentially synonymous, th ...

viola The viola ( , also , ) is a string instrument that is bow (music), bowed, plucked, or played with varying techniques. Slightly larger than a violin, it has a lower and deeper sound. Since the 18th century, it has been the middle or alto voice of ...

, and

banjo The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and usually made of plastic, or occasionally animal skin. Early forms of the instrument were fashi ...

, and drawing on UK traditions, she has been commended by

Mike Harding Mike Harding (born 23 October 1944) is an English singer, songwriter, comedian, author, poet, broadcaster and multi-instrumentalist. Harding has also been a photographer, traveller, filmmaker and playwright. Early life and education Harding's ...

. 2012 saw Martin selected to be part of the National Theatre's War Horse School, working with John Tams,

Nancy Kerr Nancy Kerr (born 1975) is an English folk musician and songwriter, specialising in the fiddle and singing. She is a Principal Lecturer in Folk Music at Leeds Conservatoire and Newcastle University. She was the 2015 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards "Folk ...

, John Kirkpatrick and Chris Parkinson. She was also involved in The Nursery Rhyme Project for the Bristol Old Vic, co-writing and performing in a show exploring one of our oldest oral traditions. She worked with

Greg Russell Greg P. Russell is an American sound engineer. He has worked on more than 200 films since 1970, and has received 16 Academy Award nominations for Best Sound Mixing, although he has never won. Greg has also been nominated for 11 Cinema Audio So ...

, Tim Yates, and

Findlay Napier Findlay Napier (born November 1978) is a Scottish singer songwriter and teaching artist. He was a member of Scottish folk group Back of the Moon and runs music writing courses. Biography Napier was born in Glasgow, Scotland in November 1978 ...

on the protest song project Shake The Chains.

Philip Henry

Philip Henry Henry is a

slide guitar Slide guitar is a technique for playing the guitar that is often used in blues music. It involves playing a guitar while holding a hard object (a slide) against the strings, creating the opportunity for glissando effects and deep vibratos tha ...

ist and

harmonica The harmonica, also known as a French harp or mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used worldwide in many musical genres, notably in blues, American folk music, classical music, jazz, country, and rock. The many types of harmonica inclu ...

player from Lancashire. He has studied the music of the

Deep South The Deep South or the Lower South is a cultural and geographic subregion in the Southern United States. The term was first used to describe the states most dependent on plantations and slavery prior to the American Civil War. Following the war ...

of America, of the British Isles, and

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. Specializing in lap slides while his harmonica style combines country blues and

folk Folk or Folks may refer to: Sociology *Nation *People * Folklore ** Folk art ** Folk dance ** Folk hero ** Folk music *** Folk metal *** Folk punk *** Folk rock ** Folk religion * Folk taxonomy Arts, entertainment, and media * Folk Plus or Fol ...

styles with

beat-boxing Beatboxing (also beat boxing) is a form of vocal percussion primarily involving the art of mimicking drum machines (typically a TR-808), using one's mouth, lips, tongue, and voice.

Selected discography

*''Singing The Bones'' (2011) *''Mynd'' (2013) * ''Live In Calstock'' (2014) * ''Watershed'' (2015) * ''Edgelarks'' (2017) * ''Folk Fever'' (2018) as The Band of Love * ''Feather'' (2019) * ''Henry Martin'' (2020)

Awards

* Best Duo 2013 Spiral Earth awards * Best Folk Act 2013 South West Music Awards * BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards (2014)

References

External links

* {{Authority control English musical duos Folk music duos Musical groups established in 2010 English folk musical groups 2010 establishments in England