An Introduction to..June Tabor

Specially selected 15 track CD compilation / Features recordings from her many TOPIC LP releases / Recordings feature Maddy Prior, Martin Simpson ,Oysterband, Nic Jones and Andrew Cronshaw.

June Tabor is quiet simply one of Britain’s greatest interpreters of popular song. Tabor has always made consistently exquisite records all graced by a pitch perfect voice that can be dark, romantic, poignant and angry according to the requirements of the song. This elegant introductory selection is drawn from Tabor’s albums for Topic recorded between her 1976 debut, Airs And Graces and 2011’s Ragged Kingdom which found her reuniting on record with Oysterband.

June Tabor effortlessly mixes traditional and contemporary material, the former exemplified here by two early traditional recordings of ‘While Gamekeepers Lie Sleeping’ and ‘The Devil and Bailiff McGlynn’. The contemporary selections featured here include Eric Bogle’s classic anti-war piece ‘The Band Played Waltzing Matilda’ along with Dan Penn and Chips Moman’s ‘The Dark End of the Street.’ Significantly, this selection also focuses on June Tabor’s own compositions. Also featured on these recordings are Maddy Prior, Martin Simpson and Nic Jones to name but a few.

Tabor has also written and/or played with Nic Jones, Andrew Cronshaw, Savourna Stevenson and the Creative Jazz Orchestra, among others, as well as her regular musical partners, pianist and arranger Huw Warren, violin/viola player Mark Emerson, accordion maestro Andy Cutting and clarinet/saxop­honist Mark Lockhart. A June Tabor album is always an emotional master class which can be warm and alluring or chilling or emotionally intense. Elvis Costello has described June Tabor as ‘the great voice of English folk music’ but more than that, June Tabor is one of the finest vocalists Britain has produced in any genre.