Chris Wood
There something virtually unquestionable about Chris Wood's artistry. He's tapped into the essence of our folk/roots scene, it's history and why it's still relevant today. His haunting melodies picked out on guitar and fiddle can reverberate around one's head for days and refuse to settle into any tidy pidgeonhole.
The Irish Times heralded Chris Wood as'the renaissance man of English folk' when on his own R.U.F Records label he released 'The Lark Descending' which included the BBC Folk Award winning song 'One In A Million' in 2005.
Since that release Wood’s appeal has gone way beyond English folk music. His constant touring in concert halls and at festivals has garnered much praise and found him many new followers.
He has had musical commissions from BBC Radio 3's Late Junction and The Sage, Gateshead and has completed work for The Arts Council of England whilst also writing and lecturing.
Wood was recently invited to join Paul Weller, Billy Bragg, Martin & Eliza Carthy in Simon Emerson's The Imagined Village project. The album was released on Real World and the tour was a great success. Chris started each show with a half hour solo spot hi-lighting his current solo album, 'Trespasser'. Chris has harnessed his polemic poetry to epic proportions for this offering, his art reflecting our lives in all their vividness.
Christmas Champions is Chris's latest collaboration with Hugh Lupton and is a multimedia show. First broadcast on Late Junction in 2005 a touring version did the rounds in 2007. It mixed the recorded voices of the past with ritual theatre, seasonal song, storytelling and music in a celebration of England’s most enduring midwinter custom, The Mummers Play.
2008 sees Chris and The English Acoustic Collective (a fluid group of artists) playing with The London Symphony Orchestra as part of the Judith Weir directed festival. He will also be back on the road and lecturing as per usual.
'The people of England have been unravelling the universe through their songs, stories, poetry, jokes and dances for millennia and it is this vibrant body of work which becomes the freely given treasure trove for the next generation. The simple lesson we have learnt from our ancestors is to tell nothing more or less than our own story and that the gold we are all searching for is in our own backyard'.
Chris Wood
Dave Kushar