Maggie Holland

Maggie Holland

Maggie Holland is an English singer and songwriter from Alton, Hampshire, in the United Kingdom. Born in 1949, she grows out of the Hampshire folk club scene of the late 1960s and works across folk, blues, country dance and singer-songwriter material.

Early work and bands

Her first professional music work is as bass guitarist, and later singer, in the blues and goodtime duo Hot Vultures with Ian A. Anderson. The pair tours Britain, Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands between 1973 and 1979, covering around 30,000 miles a year, with Holland also driving. Hot Vultures later expands into The English Country Blues Band with Rod Stradling and Sue Harris, who is later replaced by Chris Coe.

By the late 1970s and early 1980s, that line-up develops further into Tiger Moth, a country dance band. Holland also works in The Vacant Lot, a small country dance band based in north-east Hampshire, after moving to Oxford in 1986.

Solo work and songwriting

From around 1980, Holland begins to perform occasionally as a solo artist, accompanying herself on guitar and five-string banjo on a mix of modern and traditional British and American songs. Her first solo album, Still Pause, is recorded in 1983.

She starts writing her own songs in 1987, initially with encouragement from Tiger Moth colleague Jon Moore. She records the EP A Short Cut with Moore and Kevin Mason on keyboards, then forms Maggie's Farm with them. That group develops the arrangements of her songs and tours Bangladesh in 1988.

In 1992 she records her second solo album, Down to the Bone. She emigrates to Scotland in 1993 and lives in Leith.

Later releases and recognition

Holland works regularly in Belgium again from 1996 after a long break. In the winter of 1998/99 she records Getting There for Irregular Records. Her repertoire includes her own songs alongside material by Robb Johnson, Bob Dylan, Billy Bragg and Bruce Cockburn, as well as traditional songs.

Her songs are recorded by other artists including Martin Carthy and June Tabor. She receives the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards Best Song of 1999 in February 2000 for A Place Called England. In 2003 she records Circle of Light, with Wendy Wetherby on cello and Malcolm Ross on guitar; the album includes songs by Leon Rosselson, Billy Bragg, Dave Evans, Al Stewart and five songs by Robb Johnson, alongside two Holland originals, No 4071, Private Bennett and Cold Night On Bernard Street. A 2007 compilation gathers material from Still Pause, A Short Cut, Down To The Bone and previously unissued recordings, plus a re-recording of A Place Called England.

Collaborations

Holland also performs in an occasional duo with Chris Coe, including a British Council tour of the Far East in 1985. She plays bass in Robb Johnson's occasional band from 1989, alongside John Maxwell on drums. In later years she is a member of Maggie's Farm and collaborates with Robb Johnson and Derroll Adams.