Mary Humphreys and Anahata

(if you were looking for sound clips to download, try the Sound Clips page)

Songs

Mary's vocal style is based on recordings of traditional source singers, and most of her material is from the published works of collectors such as Cecil Sharp, Ralph Vaughan Williams and Percy Grainger. Many of her songs have been pieced together from fragments of words from different sources and in some cases she has invented or adapted tunes to fit the words.

Brought up in North Wales, Mary has learned Welsh and sings some traditional Welsh songs in that language.

Accompaniment

Mary has many years of experience singing unaccompanied, or with banjo or English concertina. Now many of the duo's songs feature Anahata's accompaniments on cello, Anglo concertina, melodeon or pipes.

Tunes

Anahata plays tunes on melodeon, concertina and (recently) bagpipes. His preference is English music but he also likes Bulgarian and Macedonian dance music and takes a perverse delight in adapting this and other unlikely repertoire to the limitations of his instruments.

Mary and Anahata also perform arrangements of tunes and, with Mary on keyboards or English concertina, enjoy playing in pub music sessions. With Dave and Gina Holland they are mambers of the popular Cambridge based ceilidh band Fendragon and also of English Rebellion with Nick and Mary Barber.

For ceilidhs on a smaller budget, Mary and Anahata are also available to play for dances as a duo and can supply their own PA system for this purpose.