Ian A Anderson

Ian A Anderson

Ian A Anderson is an English folk and blues musician, producer, magazine editor and broadcaster from Weston-super-Mare, England. He is also known as Ian A. Anderson, with the middle initial added later to distinguish him from Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull. He is associated with folk, blues, country blues and acid folk, and his work also extends into world music.

Early work and the Bristol scene

He first comes to prominence in the Bristol-based country blues scene of the 1960s, performing both solo and with Mike Cooper. He performs live and records during this period, establishing the musical base for his later work.

Record labels and production

In the early 1970s, Anderson founds The Village Thing record label and works as a producer for it. The label supports a number of folk musicians, mainly from the Bristol area. Later, as part of his wider interest in world music, he founds Rogue Records, an independent label focused on world music recordings. Rogue Records is the first label in the UK to release recordings by Senegal’s Baaba Maal, Madagascar’s Tarika, the Gambian kora duo Dembo Konte and Kausu Kuyateh, and Tex-Mex accordionist Flaco Jimenez. He also founds The Weekend Beatnik, a label specialising in CD reissues of folk and world music albums.

Hot Vultures and world music collaborations

With Maggie Holland, Anderson performs in Hot Vultures before moving further into world music and working with musicians from different countries and styles. He later collaborates with a range of international artists and is part of Blue Blokes 3, alongside Lu Edmonds and Ben Mandelson. In that group, Edmonds plays instruments including cumbus, saz and guitar, while Mandelson plays mandolin, baritone bouzouki, banjo and tenor guitar, among others.

Folk publishing and broadcasting

After moving from the west country to Farnham, Surrey, Anderson founds Southern Rag in 1979 as a local quarterly folk magazine in A5 format. After 13 issues, it expands into a glossy A4 magazine with national distribution under the new title Folk Roots, later becoming a monthly publication. The magazine becomes known for its writing, its outspoken approach and its support for British folk music and world music, and it is later renamed fRoots. Anderson is the editor of fRoots magazine.

He also presents occasional series for BBC Radio 2, hosts a world music programme on Jazz FM, and broadcasts for 10 years on the BBC World Service. He now hosts fRoots Radio on the web.