Tim van Eyken (born 7 March 1978) is an
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
guitar
The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...
ist and
melodeon
Melodeon may refer to:
* Melodeon (accordion), a type of button accordion
*Melodeon (organ), a type of 19th-century reed organ
*Melodeon (Boston, Massachusetts), a concert hall in 19th-century Boston
* Melodeon Records, a U.S. record label in the ...
player of
Belgian
Belgian may refer to:
* Something of, or related to, Belgium
* Belgians, people from Belgium or of Belgian descent
* Languages of Belgium, languages spoken in Belgium, such as Dutch, French, and German
*Ancient Belgian language, an extinct language ...
descent.
Career
Van Eyken first started playing
penny whistle
The tin whistle, also called the penny whistle, is a simple six-holed woodwind instrument. It is a type of fipple flute, putting it in the same class as the recorder, Native American flute, and other woodwind instruments that meet such criteria. ...
after seeing
James Galway
Sir James Galway (born 8 December 1939) is an Irish virtuoso flute player from Belfast, nicknamed "The Man with the Golden Flute". He established an international career as a solo flute player. In 2005, he received the Brit Award for Outstan ...
on television. He graduated to playing for his mother, then a member of the Beetlecrushers clog dance team. There was pressure from the team to play something louder, so he learned the
melodeon
Melodeon may refer to:
* Melodeon (accordion), a type of button accordion
*Melodeon (organ), a type of 19th-century reed organ
*Melodeon (Boston, Massachusetts), a concert hall in 19th-century Boston
* Melodeon Records, a U.S. record label in the ...
. He first came to prominence in 1998 when he won the
BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Award
The BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Award is an annual competition for young folk musicians in the United Kingdom. It was first awarded in 1988 as the Young Tradition Award, taking its present name in 1998. Recent winners of the award include Brighde C ...
. In 2000 he was invited to become the fourth member of
Waterson–Carthy
Waterson:Carthy were an English folk group originally comprising Norma Waterson on vocals, her husband Martin Carthy on guitar and vocals and their daughter Eliza Carthy on fiddle and vocals.
They have a repertoire of predominantly British trad ...
, a position he held until May 2007. He has his own band, Van Eyken, consisting of
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 ...
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 ...
,
Olly Knight (
Lal Waterson
Elaine "Lal" Waterson (15 February 1943 – 4 September 1998) was an English folksinger and songwriter. She sang with, among others, The Watersons, The Waterdaughters and Blue Murder. She was born in Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire. In 1998, s ...
's son) on electric guitar, Colin Fletcher on
double bass
The double bass (), also known simply as the bass () (or #Terminology, by other names), is the largest and lowest-pitched Bow (music), bowed (or plucked) string instrument in the modern orchestra, symphony orchestra (excluding unorthodox addit ...
, and Pete Flood on
percussion
A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...
. Their version of the traditional English song "
John Barleycorn
"John Barleycorn" is an English and Scottish folk song listed as number 164 in the Roud Folk Song Index. John Barleycorn, the song's protagonist, is a personification of barley and of the alcoholic beverages made from it: beer and whisky. ...
" - "Barleycorn" - won the award for Best Traditional Track at the 2007 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards.
He was a member of the now-defunct group Dr Faustus, together with Robert Harbron,
Benji Kirkpatrick
Benji Kirkpatrick (born 1976) is an English folk singer and musician, who plays guitar, bouzouki, mandolin and tenor banjo. A son of folk musicians John Kirkpatrick and Sue Harris, he was brought up in Shropshire. Previously a member of Bellowhe ...
, and
Paul Sartin
Paul Sartin (20 February 1971 – 14 September 2022) was an English singer, instrumentalist, composer and arranger, specialising in oboe and violin. He was best known for his work with the folk band Bellowhead, but also played with three-piece ...
. In 2008 he appeared at the National theatre in ''
War Horse
The first evidence of horses in warfare dates from Eurasia between 4000 and 3000 BC. A Sumerian illustration of warfare from 2500 BC depicts some type of equine pulling wagons. By 1600 BC, improved harness and chariot design ...
'' by
Michael Morpurgo
Sir Michael Andrew Bridge Morpurgo (''né'' Bridge; 5 October 1943) is an English book author, poet, playwright, and librettist who is known best for children's novels such as ''War Horse'' (1982). His work is noted for its "magical storytellin ...
.
Discography
;Solo albums
*''New Boots'' (1998)
*''Stiffs Lovers Holymen Thieves'' (2006)
In 2009 ''
John Barleycorn
"John Barleycorn" is an English and Scottish folk song listed as number 164 in the Roud Folk Song Index. John Barleycorn, the song's protagonist, is a personification of barley and of the alcoholic beverages made from it: beer and whisky. ...
'' from ''Stiffs Lovers Holymen Thieves'' was included in
Topic Records
Topic Records is a British folk music label, which played a major role in the second British folk revival. It began as an offshoot of the Workers' Music Association in 1939, making it the oldest independent record label in the world.M. Brocken, ...
70 year anniversary boxed set ''
Three Score and Ten
''Three Score and Ten: A Voice to the People'' is a multi-CD box set album issued by Topic Records in 2009 to celebrate 70 years as an independent British record label.
The album consists of a hardback book containing the seven CDs and a paper ...
'' as track four on the seventh CD.
;Tim van Eyken and Robert Harbron
*''One Sunday Afternoon'' (2001)
;As a member of
Waterson–Carthy
Waterson:Carthy were an English folk group originally comprising Norma Waterson on vocals, her husband Martin Carthy on guitar and vocals and their daughter Eliza Carthy on fiddle and vocals.
They have a repertoire of predominantly British trad ...
*''Fishes & Fine Yellow Sand'' (2004)
*''
Holy Heathens and the Old Green Man
''Holy Heathens and the Old Green Man'' is an album by Waterson–Carthy.
There is more instrumental accompaniment on this collection than on any previous Waterson–Carthy album. Tracks 13 and 16 could even be mistaken for the work of Brass Monk ...
'' (2006)
;As a member of Dr Faustus
*''The First Cut'' (2003)
*''Wager'' (2005)
;As a member of the War Horse Company - Songman
*''War Horse CD - Release mid September 08'' (2008)
References
External links
Official site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Van Eyken, Tim
English folk musicians
English folk singers
English melodeon players
Living people
21st-century accordionists
1978 births
21st-century British singers
Waterson–Carthy members