Although Peter and Barbara have been performing together for only a short time, there is a synergy that suggests otherwise. It has been said that they embody an uncluttered, more organic attitude to their music – the very spirit of real folk.

Barbara, originally from Birkenhead, was a young observer of the many singers that performed at the Spinners Folk Club in Liverpool during that legendary period of the ‘revival’ were she was lucky enough to see Tom Anderson and Aly Bain, Ewan McColl and Pete Seeger and The Copper Family to mention a few. Inspired and excited, she later became involved in the Liverpool Trad. Club, where, as a teenager, she began singing herself, both solo and in various duos and groups on the way.

In 1981 she joined ‘Bright Phoebus’, an exciting and innovative acepalla/gospel group, who, under the guidance of Peter Bellamy produced a wonderful sound. Unfortunately, due to the ill-health of one of its members, the group disbanded after only four years. She then moved away from Liverpool to East Lancashire and although not far from ‘home’, the distance was enough to prevent regular contact with the singers and the clubs she had come to know so well, and consequently, with regular singing. However, in the year 2000 she started to attend a local folk club where in 2004, she met Peter.

Peter’s interest in folk music developed through attending the same public house as the Garstang Morris Dancers, where an evening of English Country music was a weekly event. Eventually, and perhaps inevitably, he purchased a melodeon, joined the team and has been playing melodeon ever since! Garstang was a creative force with strong visual impact and strict tempo – a useful background.

There is a touching sincerity and simplicity in their respective backgrounds that now permeates their music. Barbara’s lovely clear flexible voice and Peter’s sympathetic intuitively sensitive melodeon playing will capture your attention and warm your heart.

Peter and Barbara have a wonderfully broad repertoire that includes a satisfying proportion of traditional material from all around the British Isles, with some songs from the Lancashire music-hall era plus a few more of a contemporary nature.