Reg Meuross

Reg Meuross is an English singer and songwriter based in Somerset.

He has released 15 solo albums.

His song-writing contains narrative, protest and commentary.

He writes about real people and their lives, delivering his songs on stringed instruments – primarily a restored 1944 Martin 017 guitar – that are often played in a fingerpicking style.

His subject matter is varied and his repertoire includes songs about historical characters and events, protest songs, political and social commentary, love songs, and flights of imagination inspired by personal experiences.

Meuross first appeared on the British acoustic music scene in 1986 when he formed The Panic Brothers with comedian Richard Morton.

He made an album called In The Red, produced by Clive Gregson.

"The Brothers" appeared regularly on TV, including on Friday Night Live; and at Edinburgh, Sidmouth, Glastonbury and other festivals.

Following his work with The Panic Brothers, Meuross formed a roots band, The Flamingos, featuring former Graham Parker guitarist Martin Belmont, Bob Loveday from the Penguin Café Orchestra and Bob Geldof's band, and Alison Jones of The Barely Works.

The Flamingos recorded an album, Arrested, in 1991.

Meuross's solo recording and touring career began in 1996.

He has released 15 albums as a solo artist.

In 1996 Meuross released his first solo album, The Goodbye Hat.

It was followed by Short Stories in 2004, and Still in 2006.

Dragonfly was released in July 2008.

One of its songs, "And Jesus Wept", was inspired by the story of Harry Farr, a first World War soldier in the trenches who suffered from shell-shock and was shot for cowardice and desertion.

"Lizzie Loved a Highwayman" was the story of highwayman Dick Turpin, related by his widow.

Meuross toured until 2009 with Hank Wangford and The Lost Cowboys as a member of the band, and also as a solo artist with Hank Wangford on the "No Hall Too Small" tour.

Meuross performed these two songs at the Royal Albert Hall on 25 March, 2009, as part of a concert for the Teenage Cancer Trust.

The title track of the album, "Dragonfly", was written about the events of 9/11 and the 7 July bombings in London.

In 2010, Meuross released All This Longing, an all-acoustic album featuring Paul Sartin (Bellowhead), Andy Cutting on accordion, Jackie Oates on viola, Simon Edwards on bass and Roy Dodds (Fairground Attraction) on percussion.

In 2011, Meuross released The Dreamed and the Drowned, a collection of previously unreleased tracks recorded between 2006 and 2011.

His next two albums were Leaves and Feathers, released in 2013, and England Green and England Grey, released in 2014.

In a review in The Guardian in 2016, Robin Denselow described him as "one of the more versatile, under-sung survivors of the English acoustic scene."

December, released in 2016, was the first in a trilogy of albums on which Meuross sang and played all the instruments (guitar, banjo, dulcimer, tenor guitar and harmonica ) himself.

Martin Chilton of The Telegraph included December in his selection for Best Folk Albums of 2016.

In 2017, Meuross released Faraway People, the title track of which was named "Song of the Year 2017" in Fatea Magazine's annual awards show.

The songs on the album, the product of four years' research, related to England's part in the transatlantic slave trade of the 17th and 18th centuries.

Meuross's work can be described as folk music in the living tradition.

He co-wrote Seth Lakeman's first single, "Divided We Will Fall", from the album The Well Worn Path, released on the Cooking Vinyl label in November 2018.

The album included the song "The Heart Of Ann Lee", which told the story of the Manchester-born, 18th century founder of the Shakers, Ann Lee, who was forced into marriage, bore four live children "taken before they were ten" and four stillborn, and fled to the United States to escape persecution.

Twelve Silk Handerchiefs was released in December 2018: the songs on this album told the story of the 1968 Hull triple trawler tragedy in which 58 men died, and the subsequent campaign for improved safety conditions.

The solo trilogy was completed in November 2019 with the release of RAW.

In October 2021, Meuross released Songs of Love and Death, a collection of traditional folk songs made in collaboration with folk duo Harbottle and Jones.

Meuross said he had played over the years with some of the finest folk musicians in Britain, and folk songs were "in my breath and in my blood", but this was the first time he had thought of recording a folk album.

He toured Songs of Love and Death with Harbottle & Jones in the UK in the Spring of 2022.

His album Stolen from God was released in April 2023.