Chris Foster

'His is one of the most distinctive voices in English folk music, totally sure and engaging, with some of the most accomplished and sensitive guitar accompaniments that you are likely to hear. A mesmeric performer.' Vic Smith - The Folk Diary

Chris Foster is a master of his trade. Alongside Nic Jones, Dick Gaughan and June Tabor, he established himself in the 1970's as one finest interpreters of the traditional ballads of the British Isles. Tales of romance, magic, murder, liquor, love, adultery and cross dressing. Each song is a story. Shared experiences of the human condition, instantly recognisable to all audiences, crossing the boundaries of urban and rural experience, of past and present.

As a story teller in song, Chris takes the evocative tunes of dark ballads alongside the upbeat rhythms of rogue's tales and sometimes jagged lines of Leon Rosselson's contemporary verses and provides guitar accompaniments that range from fine filigree lines to beautifully paced punchy, rhythmic counterpoint harmony, weaving words and music together to complement the action of the story.

Chris has a distinctive voice, deep and clear with a faint overlay of his native Somerset, and a vocal style that incorporates a subtle use of decoration with an intricate and exciting sense of rhythmic patterns. Underpinning it all is his on-stage persona, with his urbane wit and engaging enthusiasm for his music that draws the audience into his performance.

Chris Foster's own history is as varied as one of the protagonists' from his songs. He grew up in Somerset, where he first heard and started singing traditional songs. Following a visual arts training he became a full-time musician, clocking up 8 years of continuous touring throughout Britain, Europe and North America. Along the way, he picked up musical influences and songs from traditional musicians in the coastal villages of East Anglia, intriguing and unusual songs from the manuscripts of the Victorian / Edwardian folk song collectors of his native West of England and awards and critical acclamation for his recorded work in 1977 and 1979. Then in the 1980's he changed focus, dropping out of the folk scene and settling in Salisbury where he co-founded Mobile Arts, a mixed media community arts company. Using music, drama, visual arts, oral history and print, Mobile Arts established a reputation for exciting, original work, much of which researched, revived and re-interpreted the musical traditions and customs of the area.

In the 1990's Chris moved to the midlands and cast it all back into the melting pot, re-emerging onto the folk scene with innovative visual and musical contemporary interpretations of English songs and traditions in two shows 'Sting in the Tale' and 'Traveller's Tales'. He has been booked for solo performances at festivals (such as Sidmouth, Chippenham, Towersey, Wadebridge, Warwick and Bromyard) and at clubs throughout England, as well as performing in Canada, Hungary and Iceland. He has also been increasingly in demand as an accompanist on other peoples' recordings.

His own recent solo CD 'Traces', tells compelling stories which in his own words, "reveal traces of other lives, struggles and times which I can only imperfectly imagine, but which still resonate powerfully today."

'The warm tone of Chris' voice and his captivating guitar playing draws you into the ancient world of storytelling which links generation to generation, culture to culture and humanity back to its humanity.' Susan Grace - Burton Mail