Nancy Kerr Explained

Nancy Kerr
Background:solo_singer
Birth Place:London, England
Genre:English folk music
Occupation:Singer-songwriter
Multi-instrumentalist
Instrument:Vocals, fiddle, viola, cello, guitar, harmonium, autoharp
Years Active:1990s–present
Label:Little Dish Records
Associated Acts:Eliza Carthy
Sandra Kerr
Epona
Nancy Kerr and James Fagan
Kerr Fagan Harbron
Tim Van Eyken
Simpson Cutting Kerr
Melrose Quartet
Website:nancykerr.co.uk

Nancy Kerr (born 1975)[1] is an English folk musician and songwriter, specialising in the fiddle and singing. She is a Principal Lecturer in Folk Music at Newcastle University. She was the 2015 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards "Folk Singer of the Year".[2] [3]

Born in London, she now lives in Sheffield.[4]

Early life

Kerr is the daughter of London-born singer-songwriter Sandra Kerr[5] and Northumbrian piper Ron Elliott.[6] [7]

Career

Kerr came to prominence in the early 1990s via a musical partnership with fellow fiddle player Eliza Carthy. The duo produced two albums – Eliza Carthy & Nancy Kerr (1993) and Shape of Scrape (1995) – before ceasing to work together.[8] [9] A retrospective collection of their work (plus three previously unreleased tracks) – On Reflection – was released in 2002.[10] [9]

Kerr and her mother released an album together – Neat and Complete – in 1996.[11]

Since 1995, Kerr has worked extensively with Australian bouzouki player and singer James Fagan, whom she married in 2007.[12] [13] The duo won the Horizon Award at the inaugural BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards in 2000, and Best Duo at the same awards in both 2003 and 2011.[14] Between 1997 and 2008 they released six albums on the Fellside label – Starry Gazy Pie, Scalene (with Sandra Kerr), Steely Water, Between The Dark and Light, Strands of Gold and Station House (with Robert Harbron). The album Station House was the result of a collaboration with concertina player Robert Harbron to form the trio Kerr Fagan Harbron. In 2010 Kerr and Fagan produced their first completely original collection of songs – Twice Reflected Sun. The first track of the album, Queen of Waters, was nominated for the "Best Original Song" category at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards in 2011.

Kerr has also worked with a number of groups, including folk/pop group Epona, Australian folk family band The Fagans and the Tim van Eyken band.[15] In 2010 she joined James Fagan, Richard Arrowsmith and Jess Arrowsmith to form Melrose Quartet in her new home city of Sheffield.[16] They released a live EP in 2011 called Live at Cheltenham and two studio albums: Fifty Verses in 2013 and Dominion in 2017.[17] She has also performed in the trio Simpson Cutting Kerr, with Martin Simpson and Andy Cutting, whose debut CD Murmurs was released on Topic Records on 8 June 2015.[18]

Kerr has been involved in several commissioned works. In 2013 she was part of Fay Hield's The Full English band to promote the on-line publication of the folk collections of the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library in Cecil Sharp House. The collective won "Best Group" at the 2014 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards and their CD The Full English won "Best Album" at the same ceremony.[19] In 2014 Kerr was a key songwriter in The Elizabethan Session, a concert, CD and film commissioned by Folk by the Oak and The English Folk Dance and Song Society creating new music about the Elizabethan era.[20] In November 2015, Kerr was one of four songwriters commissioned by Folk by the Oak and The English Folk Dance and Song Society to write and tour a production called Sweet Liberties looking at the history of British parliament and democracy. Their CD Sweet Liberties was released in 2016.[21] In 2017 and 2018 Kerr was one of five musicians who formed Shake the Chains, a project that explored "the role songs have played in social change, resistance and protest".[22] The project was commissioned by Folk by the Oak and supported by Arts Council England, Help Musicians and Folk Alliance. The group toured in 2017 and 2018, and made a live album in 2017.[23]

In 2014, Kerr released Sweet Visitor, her first CD of original songs under her own name, on her own label Little Dish Records. The album's release on 21 July 2014 was followed by a UK tour with The Sweet Visitor Band (James Fagan, Rowan Rheingans, Tom Wright and Tim Yates) in November. James Fagan now shares his role in the band with Greg Russell. 2016 saw the production of Kerr's second album of original songs with The Sweet Visitor Band on Little Dish Records. The album, entitled Instar, was produced by Tom Wright and was released on 16 September 2016.[24]

In 2017 and 2018, Kerr played the Mother in a production of Peter Bellamy's folk opera The Transports.[25]

Having previously taught on the Newcastle University Folk Degree, Kerr is now a Principal Lecturer and Voice & Fiddle Tutor at Leeds Conservatoire.

In May 2020, Nancy Kerr recorded 31 new arrangements of songs by Leon Rosselson as a series of videos published on her YouTube channel Nancy Kerr Music.

Awards

Selected discography

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Index entry. 2 December 2022 . . ONS.
  2. News: Nancy Kerr wins BBC Folk Singer of the Year. Chilton. Martin. The Daily Telegraph. 2015-04-23. 2017-12-01. 0307-1235.
  3. Web site: Radio 2 Folk Awards 2015, 2015, BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards - Folk Awards 2015 - The Winners! - BBC Radio 2. BBC. 2018-10-09.
  4. Web site: Nancy Kerr. Our Favourite Places - The Sheffield Culture Guide. 2017-12-01. https://web.archive.org/web/20171202053256/http://www.ourfaveplaces.co.uk/guides/meet-the-locals/nancy-kerr. 2 December 2017. dead.
  5. Web site: About Sandra Kerr . Sandra Kerr . 2022-12-02.
  6. News: The life of Sandra Kerr: From Bagpuss to folk legends Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger . Kelly . Mike . 2015-03-13 . . 2022-12-02 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20200803155714/http://www.thejournal.co.uk/north-east-analysis/analysis-news/life-sandra-kerr-bagpuss-folk-8834554 . 2020-08-03.
  7. Web site: Nancy Kerr . . 18 July 2019 . . 2 December 2022.
  8. Web site: Eliza Carthy & Nancy Kerr. mainlynorfolk.info. 2017-12-01.
  9. Mrs Casey recordings
  10. Web site: Eliza Carthy & Nancy Kerr: On Reflection. mainlynorfolk.info. 2017-12-01.
  11. News: Catalogue of releases - Fellside Recordings. Fellside Recordings. 2018-10-10.
  12. [Taplas]
  13. News: Nancy Kerr - Minute of Listening. Minute of Listening. 2018-10-10.
  14. BBC Folk Awards, 2000, 2003, 2011
  15. Web site: Nancy Kerr and James Fagan at SpiralEarth.co.uk. www.spiralearth.co.uk. 2018-10-10.
  16. Web site: Nancy Kerr → Our Favourite Places – Sheffield Culture Guide. Our Favourite Places – Sheffield Culture Guide. 2018-10-10.
  17. Web site: Melrose Quartet. Discogs. 2018-10-10.
  18. Web site: Martin Simpson • Andy Cutting • Nancy Kerr - Murmurs. Discogs. 2018-10-10.
  19. News: The Full English. The English Folk Dance and Song Society. 2018-10-10.
  20. Web site: The Elizabethan Session Documentary – Mallard Productions. Mallard Productions. 31 October 2015 . 2016-04-13.
  21. Web site: Whalley. Johnny. Sweet Liberties: Album Review. Folk Radio UK. 8 January 2018. 18 November 2016.
  22. Web site: Folk by the Oak Shake the Chains. www.folkbytheoak.com. 2018-10-10.
  23. News: Shake the Chains tour to celebrate the protest song - M Magazine. 2016-10-17. M magazine: PRS for Music online magazine. 2018-10-10.
  24. Web site: Little Dish Records. Discogs. 2018-10-10.
  25. Web site: The Transports review – extraordinary richness of Botany Bay convicts' stories. Hickling. Alfred. 2017-01-27. the Guardian. 2018-10-10.
  26. News: Nancy Kerr & James Fagan. 2012-06-21. Navigator Records. 2018-10-09.
  27. Web site: The Spiral Awards 2011 Spiral Earth. www.spiralearth.co.uk. 2018-10-09.
  28. Web site: 2014, BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards - Winners - BBC Radio 2. BBC. 2018-10-09.
  29. Web site: Eliza Carthy & Nancy Kerr. mainlynorfolk.info. 2018-02-19.
  30. Web site: Waterson:Carthy. mainlynorfolk.info. 2018-02-19.
  31. Web site: Eliza Carthy & Nancy Kerr: Shape of Scrape. mainlynorfolk.info. 2018-02-19.
  32. Web site: Kate Fletcher, Epona. mainlynorfolk.info. 2018-02-19.
  33. Web site: Five Little Frogs / Five Little Owls. mainlynorfolk.info. 2018-02-19.
  34. Web site: Five Little Frogs / Five Little Owls. mainlynorfolk.info. 2018-02-19.
  35. Web site: Eliza Carthy & Nancy Kerr: On Reflection. mainlynorfolk.info. 2018-02-19.
  36. Web site: Hudson Records – The Transports – The Transports. Hudson Records. 2018-10-10.

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