I was born in Birmingham in 1975, and have lived there ever since, apart from a three-year spell away at University.

I’m a member of the board of the Traditional Arts Foundation and am also involved with the Traditional Arts Team, a Birmingham-based organisation dedicated to the promotion of the traditional arts, and which runs, among many other things, the traditional song session held once a month at the Midland Arts Centre in Cannon Hill Park.

I’m also active as a composer, and have just completed a substantial five-movement piece for Piano and Concertina Band entitled, catchily enough, Statements for Piano and Concertina Band especially for the 2007 meeting of the National Concertina Band at Hawkwood College, in Stroud.

I do teach as well, both individually and in workshops. I was delighted to be asked back to the “Concertinas At Witney” course in 2006 and had a marvellous time getting the Sunday Band class to play reggae. I also taught at the Swaledale Squeeze for the first time in 2007.

My current musical projects are:

Solo acoustic

I perform on my own, using a wide variety of acoustic instruments for accompaniment. The repertoire is split fairly evenly between original songs, written very firmly in the Tradition, traditional English songs, and traditional Appalachian songs. The latter particularly are giving me a lot of pleasure at the moment as I’m exploring playing the autoharp and Appalachian (or Mountain) Dulcimer.

The Harry Nilsson project - solo

An acoustic performance of the whole of Nilsson’s spectacular “Harry” album, on piano, concertina, normal and high-strung acoustic guitars, and autoharp, finishing with Nilsson’s interpretation of Randy Newman’s Sail Away.

Electric

The electric group meets infrequently and doesn’t have a name, but consists of myself (electric bass guitar and vocals), Simeon Murray (woodwind) and Ron Collins (drums). The repertoire is again mostly traditional, but the arrangements are loose, and the sound varies from hushed fingerpicking and whispered clarinet to Bo Diddley drums, shrieking flute, and heavily overdriven bass.

Improvisation

I’m also a regular member of the Birmingham Improvisers’ Orchestra, a large free-improvisation collective.

Instruments

I play a variety of instruments, but am currently trying to focus on a smaller number than usual. For the purposes of trying to be a bit more disciplined, the instruments I’m using most at the moment are concertina, mountain dulcimer, autoharp, and guitar. However I also play piano, harmonium, piano accordion, mandolin, melodeon, bass guitar, ukulele, and harmonica.

Non-musical stuff

I’m a big fan of Land Rovers and run a 1993 Defender 110 County. This comes in very handy for pulling other people out of mud at folk music events.

I also have a greenhouse full of rather absurd but wonderful cacti and write a separate blog about this, called blossfeldiana.com.