Songs From The Blue House

Songs From The Blue House

Songs From The Blue House is a folk, country and alt-folk group that begins as a three-piece vanity project and develops into a larger acoustic ensemble, with as many as 14 members appearing on occasion. The band forms in January 2003, when Shane Kirk brings James Partridge back into music after an 11-year hiatus; Partridge and Kirk have been writing and playing together on and off for more than two decades.

Line-up

The group’s main members are James Partridge on vocals and guitar, Shane Kirk on guitar and vocals, Richard ‘Gibbon’ Hammond on bass and vocals, Helen Mulley on vocals and flute, Richard ‘Fiddly’ Lockwood on fiddle, Tony Winn on banjo, Tony Turrell on piano and keyboards, and David Booth on drums. Nick Zala sometimes plays pedal steel with the group.

Style and live performances

The band moves between folky, country, acoustic pop and wider, windswept “big music” influences, and it draws on a range of backgrounds among its players. It is also known for extended onstage banter, which is part of its live reputation as well as the music itself.

Releases and appearances

Songs From The Blue House plays the main stage at Cornbury Festival in 2006, appears in the UK magazine The Word, performs at Oxford Folk Festival in 2007, and takes part in live broadcasts on BBC Radio Suffolk in East Anglia, where the band is based. Its third album, Tree, is released through High Barn, an East Anglian acoustic record label, and features guest appearances from Judy Dyble, formerly of Fairport Convention, and Paul Mosley of Moses, among others.

Later activity

A fourth album is in preparation, with a spring or summer 2011 release planned.