Sue Harris

For other people named Susan Harris, see Susan Harris (disambiguation).

Sue Harris is an English musician classically trained as an oboeist, but best known for her folk music performances with the hammered dulcimer.^[1][2]

Sue Harris
Harris on stage at Greenwich, London, 1982
Background information
Instrument(s)	Oboe, hammered dulcimer, vocals
Website	Facebook page

John & Sue Kirkpatrick (Sue Harris) with Geoff & Pennie Harris, Norwich Festival 1977; L-R: Sue Kirkpatrick (Harris), Pennie Harris, John Kirkpatrick, Geoff Harris

Harris (second from right) with Martha Rhoden's Tuppenny Dish (Border Morris team), Towersey Festival, 1980

Biography

Harris is fluent in reading and writing music and switched from her original instrument, the oboe, to the hammered dulcimer in the mid-1970s. In making that switch, she became one of the foremost performers on that folk instrument, though at the time it seemed just a matter of expediency. She was married to John Kirkpatrick, a prominent melodeon virtuoso in England. On getting pregnant with their first son, she found herself unable to maintain the breath control needed to play the oboe.^{[citation needed]}

She performed on both instruments with the Albion Country Band on their debut album Battle of the Field (1976), and also recorded and performed as one half of a duet with Kirkpatrick. Harris has also performed with Richard and Linda Thompson, and has been a composer for the BBC on various broadcast plays, as well as for live theatre. She is also a singer and has written music for choral groups.^{[citation needed]}

More recently, in 2008 she was leader of the "Wild Angels Community Choir" in Welshpool, Powys, Wales.^[3]

Following the World Dulcimer Congress held in Malvern, Worcestershire in 2015, Harris formed the English Dulcimer Duo with Lisa Warburton. The duo has toured extensively, performing a repertoire of English and Welsh tunes.^[4]

Discography

Solo albums

• Hammers and Tongues (Free Reed Records FRR 020, 1978)^[5]
• Pastorela (Beautiful Jo Records, 2002)^[6]

Albion Country Band

• Battle of the Field (Island Records, 1973)^[7]

The English Country Blues Band

• No Rules (1982)^[8]
• Unruly (2014)^[9]

John Kirkpatrick and Sue Harris

• The Rose of Britain's Isle (1974)^[10]
• The Bold Navigators (with Jon Raven) (1975)^[11]
• Plain Capers - Morris Dance Tunes From the Cotswolds (1976)^[12]
• Among The Many Attractions at the Show will be a Really High Class Band (1976)^[13]
• The English Canals Songs, Narration, Contemporary Extracts (with Jon Raven) (1976)^[14]
• Shreds and Patches (1977)^[15]
• Facing the Music (1980)^[16][17]
• Ballad Of The Black Country (1981)^[18]
• Stolen Ground (1989)^[19]

In 2009 Topic Records included in their 70-year anniversary boxed set Three Score and Ten The Rose Of Britain’s Isle / Glorishears from The Rose Of Britain’s Isle as track thirteen on the second CD.

Martin Wyndham-Read, Sue Harris and Martin Carthy

• The Old Songs (1984)^[20]
• Across The Line (1986)^[21]

Various artists – Sue Harris, Old Swan Band et al.

• This Label is Not Removable (2007)https://mainlynorfolk.info/folk/records/thislabelisnotremovable.html

Tufty Swift

• Hammers, Tongues And A Bakewell Tart (2007) (CD reissue of Hammers and Tongues)^[22]

See also

• Benji Kirkpatrick