The Askew Sisters

The Askew Sisters

The Askew Sisters are an English folk duo from the United Kingdom, made up of sisters Emily Askew and Hazel Askew. They perform with fiddle and melodeon and also sing, drawing on English folk material and related traditions.

Background

Emily and Hazel Askew are born and bred in London, where they grow up as the children of two Morris dancers. They are raised in the folk scene, with regular trips to ceilidhs and annual family holidays to Sidmouth Festival. As they become more interested in the music than the dance side of the tradition, they return from summer holidays wanting to start ceilidh bands.

Both begin with classical lessons at school and later form a folk band called Rubber Chicken. While still young, they play their first gigs and appear in a full article in Folk on Tap magazine. They also take part in Morris, Appalachian and Rapper dancing and play for those teams.

Development as a duo

Emily later switches to fiddle and Hazel takes up melodeon. They add songs to their repertoire and enter the New Roots competition as a duo, winning the top prizes. This leads to recording sessions with Doug Bailey, who releases the results as an EP on WildGoose Records. The six-track EP, Six by Two, contains English and French tunes and a couple of songs.

Over the next two years they tour widely, performing at folk clubs and festivals across 30 counties, as well as at the Natural History Museum. They become semi-finalists in the BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Award and are also featured in fRoots magazine.

Recordings and repertoire

The sisters develop a style centred mainly on traditional English material. Hazel also expands the song repertoire by researching material in books and old recordings at the Vaughan Williams Library at Cecil Sharp House. They work with songs from George Gardiner’s Hampshire collections, and their father Bob Askew researches those collections as well.

For their first album, All in a Garden Green, they return to WildGoose Studios and record mainly traditional English material, including some songs from George Gardiner’s collection. They choose not to use session musicians, aiming to present the sound of two performers alone.

Performances

The Askew Sisters perform at venues across the UK, from major festivals and folk clubs to London’s National Theatre and National Portrait Gallery. Their playing combines fiddle, melodeon and singing in a traditional English folk setting.