The School of Trobar

Buy our album Love Songs & Trance Hymns
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On 9 track CD by mail order with free P&P . .
(See Blog above for more details & contact for alternative payment methods)
The music of the School of Trobar unites the distinct musical voices of two innovative & highly adept young acoustic artists;
Phillip Henry & Tobias ben Jacob.
Phillip Henry is one of the countries finest young roots musicians. Phillip plays fingerstyle guitar, banjo and bottleneck slide guitar to a very high standard, however it is his exciting and highly innovative dobro/lap steel and harmonica playing that have been making waves in the British acoustic scene. On his dobro Phillip combines his strong blues and folk roots with elements of bluegrass, Indian classical music, minimalism and trance music. He is becoming known as one of the counrties finest lap slide players."Phillip Henry's dedication and originality has made him one of the most exciting newcomers to the British acoustic scene, he is probably one of the finest lap players to have recently emerged. Wonderfull noises emenate from this humble northerner": Kevin Brown - renowned slide guitarist and songwriter.His harmonica playing is equaly as exciting and innovative fusing his strong blues roots with various folk styles and more contemporary styles such as minimalism, dub-reggae, electronica and dance/trance music.

Tobias Ben Jacob is a guitar songwriter with a unique and enchanting vocal style and an original and contemporary acoustic fingerstyle guitar sound. He is influenced by a great and abiding lineage of guitar songwriters, floor singers, fingerstyle guitarists and composers, such as; Bob Dylan, Bob Marley, Martin Carthy, Nick Drake, Davy Graham, David Sylvian and Claude Debussy. English and Irish folk, blues & American roots music, soul, world fusion and contemporary classical have all been influences, as have the writings of poets and mystics and archaic volumes of ballads, adages, parables and fairy tales.
Tobias’ style ranges from a Guthrie style ‘down-home’ guitar, protest lyrics and English soul/blues/rock holler to the more experimental trance-like invocations heard on ‘Love Songs & Trance Hymns.’

The musical rapport of these two artists has developed over ten years of acquaintance since their first meeting amidst hazy college jams and late night campfire sessions, when Phil was playing Hendrix and Led Zep solos on his Les Paul and Tobias was belting out Dylan songs on his Dad’s old Eko acoustic.
They went on to search back through their musical roots whilst each forging a unique and original sound, recording solo albums and honing their talents. They formed ‘The School of Trobar’ in 2006, recorded the album ‘Love Songs & Trance Hymns’ (PDCD01) and went on to tour the material throughout 2007.
As well as pursuing solo careers they are set to continue collaborating in spring 2008, upon Phil’s return from Bhattacharya’s School of Universal Music in Kolkata, India.
The live shows offer a rich tapestry of music & song; threads of folk, roots and Indian music, songs of love, life & mystery are woven into & around the fresh & innovative acoustic trance sound that Phil & Tobias are working on.
The dynamic nature of the band means they are as at home playing to highly charged festival crowds in the height of summer as they are playing in candlelit bars & smoky backrooms.
Our song 'See My Brother's a Sailor Too' is rated high amongst a list of over 1700 war protest songs posted on Neil Young's 'Living With War' website. Go check it out at www.neilyoung.com. It's also available on MP3 from the Boothill Site.
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We are associated with Exeter based independent label Boothill Records
Please visit the site for MP3 downloads, event listings and more:
All music is Recorded, Engineered & Produced by
Martyn Hutchings
at Pure Definition Music, Devon