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Autumn Tour - fiddlers three

Another tour over, a few more miles covered and nineteen dates along the way. Some new clubs in there along with some old favourites and all the venues excellent.
One again a chance to meet old friends and make some new ones. Lovely to get some help from a few brilliant players: Tom Leary’s fiddle and Ray Jackson’s harmonica blowing along at Banbury, Tom McConville (Doug’s old Magna Carta mate) fiddling with us at The Bridge in Newcastle. We were also delighted to see Ian Telfer at Hadleigh - alas he didn’t bring his fiddle along.

Many thanks as always to the clubs who booked us back, and to those who took a chance on us for the first time. We hope to see you all again before too long.

It’s hibernation time for Muskett now until we venture out again in the new year, although there will be a couple of solo/duo ventures in the meantime. All future band dates will be listed opposite as and when they come in.

Denmark

Muskett defying the elements at Bølgen (The Wave), Svendborg Harbour

Back again from some excellent gigs in the state of Denmark (two of them with al fresco and his orchestra).
Good to see old friends once more and have the chance to play with the brilliant Henrick Vestergaard again.
Huge thanks go to Nynne, Doug and JJ for hospitality above and beyond, and thumbs up to the weather for behaving itself.

Spring Tour - Phantom Snapper Exposed and Muskett Man Reappears

As always a splendid time was had by all. Another few miles chalked up and five new venues under our belt.
Huge thanks go to the venues who took a chance on us this time round, and to those who continue to welcome us back. Appreciation as always to the audiences who came along to support us. Talking of which:
In 2012 whilst playing at the Great British Folk Festival in Skegness a photograph was left for us on the stage. It showed the band playing at The Royal Festival Hall in 1973 (see the gallery on this site). Quite who left it and how it was taken remained a mystery until Graham Warren appeared at our recent Croydon gig to take the credit. Apparently he had snapped us on a whim and left the photo anonymously 39 years later. Many thanks, Graham for a reminder of a great day. Good to meet you at last.
Meanwhile at Redruth we were delighted to meet up with another old friend, Dave Luck. It was Dave who suggested the name Hunter Muskett whilst at college with Terry, Chris and Doug. (Well no one else was going to).

New Muskett album - Roll On

We are happy to announce that the new Muskett album 'Roll On' is ready and available, both at our gigs and from this site (via the link is at the foot of this page).
Once again we have been joined by some notable musicians: Paul Burgess (drums), BJ Cole (pedal steel) and Henrick Vestergaard (harmonica). We have also included two of Doug's earlier recordings (suitably Muskettised) which include performances by Jerry Donahue. One of these, 'Old Boy', may be Jerry's last recorded work.

Previous Muskett Albums - availability

Of our previous records only the Bradley's album 'Hunter Muskett', remains officially out there as a physical product. This is now on CD (with three additional Bradleys-era tracks) on the Wasabi label available from Airmail Recordings, Tokyo.
Both 'That Was Then This Is Now' and 'Unafraid and Sober' can be downloaded via Bandcamp. (Unfortunately, for copyright reasons,'Walk Away Renee' and 'The Scarecrow' are not included.)

Muskett - Dutch Folk Pioneers

Back in the day Tom Steenbergen booked a host of UK 'folk' acts onto tours of Holland. We stayed with Tom whilst over there playing the usual places: De Toverbal in Maassluis, Theater De Lantaren in Rotterdam, The Paradiso in Amsterdam... Back in the UK Tom caught up with us in Island studios during our recording sessions with Keith Relf.
After rising to the dizzy heights of marketing director at Polygram Tom has finally taken time out to write down his memories from those early days. His book, 'Folk Pioneers - Roots & Singer-Songwriters', contains a wealth of detail on the visiting acts - Hunter Muskett included. Exactly what Tom says about us is unclear as, despite the English title, the book is in Dutch!

Muskett CD released in Japan

Our 1973 album Hunter Muskett has been re-released in Japan by Air Mail Recordings of Tokyo. The CD using the original 70s artwork features 12 tracks: the original nine tracks, the John Blair single and, for the first time since the 1970s, the two tracks from 'Bradleys live at the Marquee'.

Muskett in WH Smith

Michael Bjorn’s article on the band is now available in ‘Shindig’ magazine issue #133. The article, to be found under the ‘The Vinyl Clicks’ section, covers Muskett in the Bradleys era and includes the photo of the band performing at the Festival Hall London in, 1973.  Shindig magazine is available on the shelves of all good news-agents.

Tending the Pale Bloom – on-line interview

Texas retrospective website ‘Tending the Pale Bloom’ approached the band for an on-line interview on the Hunter Muskett story. For those with an hour and a half to spare Roger’s exhaustive (not to say exhausting) conversation with Greg Chance is now available on:
Muskett interview – Tending the Pale Bloom

The French Connection
Bradley’s CD to coincide with Keith Relf Biography

A Heart Full of Soul: The Life of the Yardbird’s Keith Relf written by US author David French and published by McFarland Books is now available in the UK.  This is the first full biography of the singer and harmonica player.

As Keith produced our 1973 album ‘Hunter Muskett’ David asked us to help him with a few memories from those times, both in the studio and later on tour with the Bradley’s Roadshow. Sadly we were unable to provide a photo of us with Keith (as far as we know none were taken), but David has kindly included the album sleeve in his book.

Many thanks to Yardbird expert Josh Cicek who also helped with the book. Josh contacted us from Australia with some Muskett tracks copied from Keith’s personal tapes – including an alternative version of Laze Around All Day.

The Hunter Muskett CD re-released to coincide with the book is now sold out.

Leave It With Mine – Archie Fisher

After performing Terry’s song ‘Leave It With Mine’ at the Edinburgh Fringe, Archie Fisher has now released a live version. It appears on the CD ‘The Best Times After All’ recorded in Canada by Archie along with Garnett Rogers. There is also a projected studio version in the pipeline. This is in keeping with Archie’s habit of recording Terry’s songs twice – he recorded two versions of ‘Silver Coin’ some years ago.

As always, if you would like to get in touch do feel free to use our e-mail link on the ‘Contact Us’ page. 

Best Wishes

Hunter Muskett