June Tabor

June Tabor (born 31 December 1947 in Warwick, England) is an English folk singer known for her solo work and her earlier collaborations with Maddy Prior and with Oysterband.

June Tabor was born and grew up in Warwick, England.

Her earliest public performances were in the mid 1960s at the Heart of England Folk Club, in the Fox and Vivian pub in Leamington Spa.

As a young woman of 18, she was inspired to sing by hearing Anne Briggs' EP The Hazards of Love in 1965.

"'I went and locked myself in the bathroom for a fortnight and drove my mother mad. I learned the songs on that EP note for note, twiddle for twiddle. That's how I started singing. If I hadn't heard her I'd have probably done something entirely different.'"

She attended St Hugh's College, Oxford University and appeared on University Challenge in 1968, as captain of the college team.

She joined the Heritage Society at Oxford University and sang with a group called Mistral.

After she performed at Sidmouth Folk Festival, she was booked in folk clubs and contributed to various recordings.

One of her earliest was in 1972 on an anthology called Stagfolk Live.

She is also featured on Rosie Hardman's Firebird (1972) and The First Folk Review Record (1974).

At the time she was singing purely traditional, unaccompanied material.

In 1976 Tabor collaborated with Maddy Prior on the Silly Sisters album and tour, with a full band that included Nic Jones.

It provided the launching pad that same year (1976) for her first album in her own right, Airs and Graces.

She later joined again with Prior, this time using the name Silly Sisters for their duo.

Starting in 1977, Martin Simpson joined Tabor in the recording studio for three albums before he moved to the United States in 1987.

In 1983, Tabor had sung the title song for the BBC TV series Spyship.

In the 1990s she returned to music professionally.

In 1990, Tabor recorded an album with the folk-rock band The Oyster Band titled Freedom and Rain.

She went on tour with the Oyster Band, and the Rykodisc label published a limited-run promotional live album the following year.

Many of her current fans first discovered her through this tour and album with the Oyster Band.

In 1992, Elvis Costello wrote "All This Useless Beauty" specifically for Tabor, and she recorded it for the album Angel Tiger.

(Tabor originally included this song on her 1994 CD Against the Streams.)

Costello did not record it himself until 1996, on his album of the same name.

In 1997 she appeared in Ken Russell's television film, In Search of English Folk Song, which was broadcast on Channel 4.

(Since his return, Simpson has been a guest artist on albums released in the 2000s (decade).) After Simpson's departure, Tabor started working closely with pianist Huw Warren.

After working for decades as a singer, Tabor stopped performing professionally for a time.

She made some guest appearances with Fairport Convention during this period.

She also worked as a librarian.

With her husband David Taylor (they have since divorced), she ran a restaurant called "Passepartout" in Penrith, Cumbria.

Tim Winton, author of the novel Dirt Music (2001), which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, made a selection of music to express the themes of the novel.

The CD Dirt Music (2001) includes "He Fades Away" by Tabor, a tale of the slow death of a miner.

In 2002 Tabor performed at the "Passchendale Peace Concert" in Flanders, appearing with Coope Boyes and Simpson.

Her 2003 album An Echo of Hooves marked a return to the traditional ballad form after she concentrated on other styles for several years.

It was highly acclaimed.

AllMusic described it as, "A stunning jewel in a remarkable career, and one of the best things Tabor's ever released."

On 30 June 2006 BBC Radio 3 broadcast "Night Waves" to commemorate the anniversary of the Battle of the Somme.

It was broadcast live, with Tabor singing World War I-era songs.

There was also a discussion with Michael Morpurgo and Kate Adie.

Tabor has also performed jazz and art song, generally with a sparse and sombre tone to it.

Discussing in a 2008 interview how she developed her characteristic style, she said, "'I have no musical education whatsoever...I just learned the songs and copied the phrasing by playing those records ad nauseam, trying out both [Anne Briggs and Belle Stewart] singers' styles. Then I tried putting the two together, and missing a few bits out – and that's approximately what I've been doing ever since. It's also why I don't do singing workshops, because that's about as much as I can tell anyone.'"