Phillip Henry & Hannah Martin

Phillip Henry & Hannah Martin

Phillip Henry & Hannah Martin is an English folk duo, later known as Edgelarks. The pair draw on British folk traditions, with additional influences from American and Indian music, and work across song, instrumental performance and traditional material.

Phillip Henry

Phillip Henry is a slide guitarist and harmonica player from Lancashire. He spends a decade immersed in the music of the Deep South of America, the traditional music of the British Isles and Indian classical music. His guitar work focuses on lap slide and Dobro techniques, bringing those influences together into a distinctive style. His harmonica playing combines country blues and folk with beat-boxing, creating a modern sound rooted in older traditions. Dick Gaughan describes his playing as “stunningly good”, and Steve Knightley calls it “utterly captivating”.

Hannah Martin

Hannah Martin is a singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist from Devon. She writes mainly on fiddle, viola and banjo, and her work draws on the traditions of the British Isles. Mike Harding commends her as a performer. In 2012 she is selected for the National Theatre’s War Horse School, where she works with John Tams, Nancy Kerr, John Kirkpatrick and Chris Parkinson. She also takes part in The Nursery Rhyme Project for the Bristol Old Vic, co-writing and performing in a show based around one of the oldest oral traditions.

As a duo

The duo perform under the names Phillip Henry & Hannah Martin and, from 2017, Edgelarks. Their music sits within folk and related acoustic traditions, with elements that overlap with Americana, folk-rock and alt-country.