Phillip Henry and Hannah Martin are an English

folk music Folk music is a music genre that includes #Traditional folk music, traditional folk music and the Contemporary folk music, contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be ca ...

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

Career

In 2008, Henry travelled to

Calcutta Kolkata, also known as Calcutta (List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal. It lies 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 Show of Hands is an English acoustic roots/ folk duo formed in 1986 by singer-songwriter Steve Knightley (guitars, mandolin, mandocello, cuatro) and composer and multi-instrumentalist Phil Beer (vocals, guitars, violin, viola, mandolin, mando ...

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. 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. 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 and

John Spiers John Spiers (born 1975) is an English diatonic button accordion, melodeon, concertina and bandoneon player. Early life Spiers was born in Birmingham but moved to Abingdon-on-Thames, Abingdon at an early age. His father is a Morris dancer. He ...

to form the six 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 also known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel to the north, Somerset and Dorset to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Cornwall to the west ...

. Writing on

fiddle A fiddle is a Bow (music), bowed String instrument, string musical instrument, most often a violin or a bass. It is a colloquial term for the violin, used by players in all genres, including European classical music, classical music. Althou ...

viola The viola ( , () ) is a string instrument of the violin family, and is usually bowed when played. Violas are slightly larger than violins, and have a lower and deeper sound. Since the 18th century, it has been the middle or alto voice of the ...

, 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 in modern forms is usually made of plastic, where early membranes were made of animal skin. ...

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

Mike Harding Mike Harding (born 23 October 1944) is an English singer, songwriter, comedian, writer, broadcaster and musician. Early life and education Harding's father, Louis Arthur "Curly" Harding, a navigator in the RAF, was killed in the Second Worl ...

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

John Tams John Tams (born 16 February 1949) is an English actor, singer, songwriter, composer and musician born in Holbrook, Derbyshire, Holbrook, Derbyshire, the son of a Public house, publican. He first worked as a reporter for the ''Ripley, Derbyshire ...

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 Newcastle University. She was the 2015 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards "Folk Singer of the Year". ...

, John Kirkpatrick and Chris Parkinson. She was also involved in The Nursery Rhyme Project for the

Bristol Old Vic Bristol Old Vic is a British theatre company based at the Theatre Royal, Bristol. The present company was established in 1946 as an offshoot of the Old Vic in London. It is associated with the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, which became a fin ...

, co-writing and performing in a show exploring one of our oldest oral traditions. She worked with Greg Russell,

, Tim Yates, and Findlay Napier 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 that ...

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 incl ...

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 of the Southern United States. The term is used to describe the states which were most economically dependent on Plantation complexes in the Southern United States, plant ...

of America, of the British Isles, and

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

. Specializing in lap slides while his harmonica style combines

country blues Country blues (also folk blues, rural blues, backwoods blues, or downhome blues) is one of the earliest forms of blues music. The mainly solo vocal with acoustic fingerstyle guitar accompaniment developed in the rural Southern United States in t ...

and

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

styles with

beat-boxing Beatboxing (also, and sometimes, called beat boxing) is a form of vocal percussion primarily involving the art of mimicking drum machines (usually 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 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 rad ...

(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