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Image BorderJoy and Derrick met in 1992 and married three years later. Before then they had been performing individually since the 1970s in folk bands, early music groups and choirs mainly in the North and Midlands. Their music is traditional to Britain and Ireland, played on a variety of instruments.
Derrick Hughes plays Northumbrian Smallpipes, Recorders (ranging from Sopranino to Bass), Whistles (including Low Whistle), Guitar, English Concertina, Appalachian Dulcimer and Crumhorn.
Joy Lewis plays Hammer Dulcimer, Bowed Psaltery, Zither Harp and Guitar.
They perform regularly for a variety of groups and societies as well as at folk clubs, concerts and festivals. They also have a ceilidh band available for barn dances.
They have recorded two albums of their music:-
BRING US IN NO BROWN BREAD Country Branch CBCD 204
A CHARMING DISH OF FISH Country Branch CBCD 211
These albums are available for £9.00 (inc. P & P). Contact us by email
The music included here is taken from these albums. Here are their notes on these items:-
Lord Lovat's Lament / Peacock's March
The Lovat title in Scotland dates back to 1458. This lament may possibly refer to Simon Fraser, brother of the ninth Lord Lovat, who in 1697 kidnapped and forcefully married his brother's widow Amelia. Prosecuted by Amelia's family, the Atholls, he fled the country. He was sentenced to death in absentia and barred from succeeding to the title, but in 1715 he was pardoned after supporting the Government against a Jacobite uprising. Having won his title he lost it again (together with his head) when he changed sides and was executed for treason in 1745.
John Peacock (1754-1817) was a noted player of the Northumbrian smallpipes at a time when they were beginning to die out. He helped to start the process of putting keys on the instrument, commissioning a 4-keyed set from John Dunn. He also produced a book of Favourite Tunes, three copies of which survived.
Northumbrian Smallpipes, Hammer Dulcimer, Whistle, Guitar
The Silver Whistle
A traditional Jacobite song (Co Sheinneas an Fhideag Airgid) from the Hebrides, about the homecoming of Bonnie Prince Charlie and the party to end all parties. One of many such 'praise poems', it was composed at the beginning of the 1745 Rebellion. From the singing of Flora MacNeill of Barra, in the Outer Hebrides.
Whistle, Guitar
Carolan's Draught
Turlough O'Carolan (1670-1738) was an Irish harpist, blinded by smallpox at the age of 18. His patron gave him an education, then a harp, a horse and some money to begin his career as an itinerant harper. For 45 years he travelled throughout Ireland composing tunes for his patrons. This particular tune was collected in County Munster after Carolan's death and is regarded as one of the many tunes composed by him during his stay in that province.
Hammer Dulcimer, Guitar
The Lady o' the Dainty Doon-by
From Scotland, this tells of a laird who, for once in folk song, does the right thing by the girl. It appeared in Herd's manuscript in 1776 as 'The Dainty Doonby',
Bowed Psaltery, Guitar
