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Spring has sprung

Another tour done and dusted. Eight dates and all of them excellent. As always  big thanks to everyone who turned out to see us, some of whom covered a few miles to be there. We really do appreciate it.
Great to be back in Clitheroe once more playing for Simon who gave us our renion gig at the Aspinall Arms back in 2010. Just astonishing to meet with some of the original crowd who were there at the fabled 'Dog and Partridge' first time round.
Nearer to home great turn-outs at Hoy at Anchor and Green Note - a fitting end.
Next stop the New Forest Folk Festival where the plan is to get Ray Jackson and Tom Leary up on stage with us. Looking forward to it - hope to see you there.

Jenn Butterworth covers Leave It With Mine

Jenn Butterworth, just back from touring with the Fairports followed by a spell at Costa del Folk, has posted an inspired version of Terry's 'Leave It With Mine' on her Facebook page.
Apparenty Jenn heard the song from the singing of Archie Fisher.

Bill Leader 1929 - 2026

Bill Leader, a legend in the field of music recording, has died aged 96. His work from the 1950s into the early 2000s left an epic catalogue of traditional and contemporary material that helped bring both the music and countless performers to pubic notice.

Back in the day we had talked about recording on the Leader label whilst enjoying Bill’s hospitality at 5 North Villas Camden, the house where so many of those early albums had been taped on his trusty Revox. A Muskett record didn’t happen but we kept in touch and he and Helen would come to see us play at Clarences in Halifax after they moved up there.
30-odd years later Bill turned up again, at Lloyd’s Hotel in Manchester, and this time we did record. He produced That Was Then This Is Now at John Ellis’ Limefield Studio. Months later we played at The Met in Bury, where he was presented with the EFDSS Gold Badge Award for his significant contribution to music.

As That Was Then This Is Now was Bill’s last production we recently joined with Colin Harper (biographer of Bert Jansch) to produce a limited edition of 50 CDs signed by us and Bill. This was to help crowd-fund the latest episode of Mike Butler’s Sounding the Century, a ten-part series of books based on Bill’s life.

It was an honour to have known and worked with Bill, he was a great friend to the band and a genuinely nice guy. All our sympathies and best wishes go to his family.

Spring On

A great day out in Salisbury along with Anthony John Clarke, Janet Dowd and Edwina Hayes at our old friend Richard Digance's 'birthday bash'. Doug stayed over in Manchester to record some drums on his forthcoming solo album.
Next up the spring tour...

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 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 - First 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.

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