Biography
The Famous Potatoes brand their distinctive approach ‘Soil Music’. The ensemble features Keith Baxter handling banjo, trombone, washboard and zobstick, Richard Baxter on vocals, melodeon, saxophone and harmonica, Nigel Blackaby supplying bass and vocals, Paul Collier contributing drums and vocals, Melanie Johnson playing recorder, clarinet and vocals, Paul ‘Prof’ McDowell on accordion and vocals, Tony ‘Please Sir’ Littman on guitar, and Charlie Skelton on fiddle. Littman and Skelton stepped in after the departures of Nick Pynn, whose instruments included fiddle, mandolin, mandocello, banjo and viola, and Richard ‘Rikki’ Reynolds on guitar; Pynn subsequently became part of the re-formed Cockney Rebel alongside Steve Harley. Their music draws from Cajun, skiffle, hillbilly, gospel and western swing, and in addition to stage performances the group regularly performs at barn dances and has made repeated appearances at the Greenbelt Christian Arts festivals. Originally assembled in 1979 under the name Folk Pistols specifically to provide music for barn dances, the band retained Johnson, McDowell and the two Baxter brothers as its core while Blackaby and Collier came aboard in 1982. During the Folk Pistols period the outfit issued two cassette albums, Get Your Skates On in 1981 and Twist With Ken in 1982, before adopting its present identity. Upon release It Was Good For My Old Mother generated considerable attention, particularly throughout the band’s native Essex region, while The Sound Of The Ground featured a rendition of the Hank Williams classic ‘I Saw The Light’.