Biography
In the 1970s the folk scene across England gained fresh energy from acoustic guitarist Robin Dransfield and his younger brother Barry, whose fiddle playing helped shape their sound. The pair’s bluegrass-inflected vocal harmonies, which they called “country and northeastern,” remain warmly remembered by listeners. During the mid-1960s the brothers had already performed together in the semi-professional bluegrass and old-time group the Crimple Mountain Boys. In 1969 Barry persuaded Robin to resign from teaching and concentrate solely on music. As the duo Robin & Barry Dransfield they first attracted attention at the Harrogate Folk Club, where they appeared alongside Martin Carthy, Ewan MacColl, and the Watersons. Their lineup later expanded into an acoustic and electric configuration with the arrival of vocalist, bassist, and keyboardist Charlie Smith plus drummer Brian Harrison. Two years of unbroken activity culminated in the duo and band releases Rout of the Blues and Lord of All I Behold. The Dransfields toured with British singer/songwriter Ralph McTell and were asked to join Steeleye Span on the road. They also secured a recording agreement with Warner Bros. Steeleye Span ultimately withdrew the invitation after hearing accounts of the Dransfields’ high-energy shows. The brothers therefore spent a UK tour supporting American singer/songwriter Tom Paxton instead. Mounting tensions between Robin & Barry Dransfield during that trek led to arguments that dissolved the group. Although Barry listed the album The Fiddler’s Dream—drawn from stories about an invented traveling fiddler—as a band project, it was largely a solo recording. Robin stepped back from the stage and worked as a roadie for Dave & Toni Arthur. Nearly a decade later the brothers reconvened to make the acoustic duo album Popular to Contrary Belief, issued in 1977. Each soon returned to separate careers. Robin’s first solo effort, Tidewave, appeared three years afterward. In 1997 the Free Reed label issued the 39-track anthology Up to Now, which surveys the recorded work of Robin & Barry Dransfield both together and individually.
Albums