Background

I have been playing fiddle for over 30 years. I first started playing for the morris, then I tried Irish music. Finding this too diificult, I started playing music from central France alongside musicians from the group Blowzabella. After hearing John Kirkpatrick playing some marvellous old tunes from NW England, I published a collection of them in 1985 in a book called John Of The Greeny Cheshire Way. Since then I have been involved extensively in researching old books and manuscipts of English tunes. While conducting my research i came to see a strong connection between the music of Cumbria and that of Ireland and Scotland. I became curious how they made their way into the musical repertoire of the Lakeland musicians. Bonny Cumberland is a collection of tunes, from various sources, that explores those connections.