Biography
The husband-and-wife team Terry Woods and Gay Woods gained their widest recognition from a short-lived membership in Steeleye Span’s original configuration, an association that produced only a single album before the pair departed after several months. While the remaining Steeleye Span lineup—Ashley Hutchings, Maddy Prior, Tim Hart, and the newly added Martin Carthy—solidified its standing among Britain’s leading folk-rock ensembles and underwent multiple personnel shifts, the Woods receded from prominence. They promptly established their own folk-rock outfit, the Woods Band, recruiting guitarist Ed Deane and drummer Pat Nash; Terry Woods had also hoped to include uilleann piper Paddy Keenan, yet that collaboration never materialized, although Keenan later performed with the Bothy Band.
In 1971 the Woods Band issued its lone, self-titled album, a work that matched the quality and character of Steeleye Span’s earliest recordings. The set blended traditional songs with original compositions, most of them written by Terry Woods, and enriched standard rock instrumentation with mandola, concertina, autoharp, dulcimer, bodhran, and harpsichord. Following the group’s dissolution, Terry and Gay Woods cut three duo albums during the latter half of the 1970s. They parted ways both personally and professionally in 1980; Terry Woods entered the Pogues in 1985, while Gay Woods performed with Auto Da Fe throughout the 1980s and rejoined Steeleye Span for a six-year tenure beginning in 1994.
In 1971 the Woods Band issued its lone, self-titled album, a work that matched the quality and character of Steeleye Span’s earliest recordings. The set blended traditional songs with original compositions, most of them written by Terry Woods, and enriched standard rock instrumentation with mandola, concertina, autoharp, dulcimer, bodhran, and harpsichord. Following the group’s dissolution, Terry and Gay Woods cut three duo albums during the latter half of the 1970s. They parted ways both personally and professionally in 1980; Terry Woods entered the Pogues in 1985, while Gay Woods performed with Auto Da Fe throughout the 1980s and rejoined Steeleye Span for a six-year tenure beginning in 1994.
Albums
