Tim Hart

English folksinger and multi-instrumentalist Tim Hart entered the world on January 9, 1948, in Lincoln, the county seat of Lincolnshire, England. Born to a vicar, he gained widest recognition as a founding member of Steeleye Span, the pioneering British folk-rock ensemble. His earliest performances took place in the early 1960s with a group called the Rattfinks while he was a student at St. Albans School, the same institution once attended by the Zombies. Beginning in 1966 he and vocalist Maddy Prior traveled through English pubs and folk clubs together. Prior to entering Steeleye Span in 1969, the pair issued two favorably received collections, Folk Songs of Olde England, Vol. 1 and Vol. 2. The group itself was assembled that year by Prior, Hart, and former Fairport Convention bassist Ashley Hutchings, then completed by the husband-and-wife duo Gay and Terry Woods; their first recording, the critically acclaimed Hark! The Village Wait, appeared in 1970. Although personnel shifted repeatedly across Steeleye Span’s extended history—the band remained active on the road as late as 2010—Hart and Prior formed its core until 1982. The same year they also produced one additional joint album, the lush Summer Solstice, whose string arrangements were supplied by the noted Robert Kirby. Working alone, Hart issued a self-titled album in 1979 that drew assistance from several Steeleye colleagues, followed in 1981 by two sets devoted to nursery rhymes. Medical concerns prompted his relocation in 1988 to the island of La Gomera in Spain’s Canary Islands, where his attention turned toward family life, writing, and photography. An inoperable lung-cancer diagnosis arrived in 2008, and he died at his island residence the next year on Christmas Eve.