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s one who has been handed the folk label, and thus in turn used the label to describe my music, I guess it’s only natural to ask myself what my ‘folk credentials’ are. Do I really have any?


I grew up in a village call Sompting on the south coast. Sussex may once have had a great folk tradition, and it may still do, but it did not reach my childhood.


My parents were not big folk fans. Having been young in the 70s, they were aware of the folk revival and a few LPs could be found at home. My father plays guitar and sings rather too well for a hobbyist, but it’s much more James Taylor and Gordon Lightfoot (with a touch of Elvis) than old folk ballads.


I sang in the choir at school and was always a musician, but I was hardly a folk player. Aged 18 I found the music of Nick Drake, The Fairport Convention and Joan Baez. I loved it, I was hooked on the ‘folk sensibility’ as I perceived it - melancholy, reflective and drawing on experiences of human emotion that remain as potent today as they were several centuries ago. Listening to these artists, I began to hear traditional folk songs and learned to play a few. I began to feel at home with folk. It was a style of music that combined my love of the melancholic and of words.


In late 2010, now based in London, I released my debut album ‘One Light Is Gone’ (http://josienneclarke.bandcamp.com/album/one-light- is-gone) with the help of guitarist, arranger, tech-whizz and loyal compadre Ben Walker. He, like me, was not born into a family of folk fans or musicians. He found the records he loved in his late teens and aspired to be a guitarist like Bert Jansch, Richard Thompson and Gordon Giltrap. He also played in many rock bands and the odd jazz quartet. So, we have a love of folk that is born out of a similar revelation in our teens. We are also both classically trained and bring a similar approach to phrasing and timbre.


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