Dave Cousins

Dave Cousins ranks among the most singular and long-lasting figures to emerge from the British folk-rock surge of the mid-to-late 1960s, standing alongside Richard Thompson as perhaps its foremost graduate. He is recognized principally as the founder and guiding force of the Strawbs, the ensemble that began in folk, shifted into folk-rock, and progressed into progressive rock, serving as his central creative platform—with occasional interruptions—since the mid-1960s. Born David Joseph Hindson in Hounslow, England, he spent his childhood in a middle-class household in the region later termed the Thames Delta. There he formed an early bond over music with Tony Hooper, a fellow student at Thames Valley Senior School. Both youths were drawn to the skiffle movement led by Lonnie Donegan and the Vipers Skiffle Group, yet they gravitated toward its folk-inflected elements rather than following most peers into American rock & roll. By his late teens Cousins was drawn more to Martin Carthy and the Young Tradition than to the Beatles and their contemporaries. His engagement with American music centered on Leadbelly, Elizabeth Cotten, and Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, whom he witnessed live during that period; foremost among these early touchstones were Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs, whose work he first encountered on a live Newport Folk Festival recording. Having already adopted the banjo alongside the guitar, he developed sufficient command of Scruggs’ technique to be acknowledged as one of England’s most accomplished young banjoists.

Bob Dylan constituted his other primary influence, emerging in England in 1964 and sharing numerous sources of inspiration. Cousins recognized that his own expressive yet raspy voice was, in commercial terms, “unconventional,” a judgment akin to contemporary assessments of Dylan’s singing. He absorbed the American’s methods of composition and lyrical approach without attempting direct imitation, instead treating them as a standard against which to measure the scope of his own songwriting. During this time he and Hooper sustained themselves performing as a duo in clubs and on radio, while Cousins also contributed banjo sessions for rising artists including Leonard Cohen and Joni Mitchell. The Strawberry Hill Boys, built around Cousins and Hooper, originated in the mid-1960s as a bluegrass outfit and later became the Strawbs. With Cousins established as lead singer and chief songwriter, the group moved from bluegrass through folk—briefly featuring Sandy Denny—then into electric folk, folk-rock, and ultimately progressive rock retaining a folk foundation, thereby launching Rick Wakeman’s career.

Cousins remained the sole constant member, his voice and compositions anchoring the band’s sound throughout its transformations. His songs blend tones of rebellion and antiquity, evoking protest material from the eighteenth or nineteenth centuries. Memorable melodies recur, supported by his distinctive, heartfelt delivery. Comparable to his early model Dylan, who carved a place for his vocal style, Cousins has fashioned material that renders his singing persuasive and at moments beautiful despite its unconventional character. Listeners who respond to his voice cherish its expressiveness; others may remain unmoved by the music’s appeal. Sufficient numbers of the former have ensured substantial record sales for Cousins and the Strawbs across both sides of the Atlantic and in distant markets such as Japan, where his solo albums received early CD reissues ahead of their British releases.

His initial solo release, Two Weeks Last Summer, appeared in 1972 during a transitional phase for the Strawbs. After five years as the group’s dominant creative presence, and with virtually all songwriting—apart from occasional contributions from Tony Hooper—resting with Cousins following Denny’s departure, the 1970 arrival of bassist John Ford and drummer Richard Hudson introduced two additional songwriter-singers. The solo album arose from the surplus of material Cousins had accumulated, which he elected to present in a harder-rock context apart from the band, enlisting Deep Purple’s Roger Glover, Jon Hiseman of Colosseum, Miller Anderson then of the Keef Hartley Band, and Dave Lambert, who succeeded Hooper in the Strawbs. His next solo effort, Old School Songs, followed in 1980 and highlighted the work of his new collaborator, guitarist Brian Willoughby, who subsequently joined the group. Bridge appeared fourteen years later, with Boy in the Sailor Suit arriving in 2006, Secret Paths in 2008, and Duochrome—recorded with violinist Ian Cutler—also in 2008. That same year marked the first official U.S. CD releases of Cousins’ early solo albums. He has continued regular touring with the Strawbs. Since the early 1990s he has maintained activity in radio and runs his own imprint, Witchwood Records.