9. Other Musical Collaborations

I must sincerely apologise for the awkwardly unspecific title for this page, but I could not think of a better one!

It struck me that I have been privileged to have played music alongside a number of extremely talented people who have not so far been mentioned, but certainly deserve to be.

Nic Lucas

Nic Lucas is a notable singer, musician and story-teller in the East Kent area. Pre-Lockdown we frequently performed together as members of the Old Lone Gin Band or the company of Dover Tales (see the pages above on these). Alongside these groupings, Nic and I have joined forces on a number of other musical projects and these have always been rewarding (for me at least!) and seem to have been well-received by audiences.

This picture comes from the Dover Tales performance at the Arden Theatre, as part of the Faversham Hop Festival Fringe Events, September 2017, where Nic and I concluded the performance with this dulcimer and melodeon duo. Thanks to Christopher Briggs for the photo.

Nic and Bill in full chorus!

(By the way, we received no sponsorship for the 'product placement' here!)

This is a shot from a successful evening's entertainment that Nic and I provided at Crabble Mill, near Dover, September 2018 for the Acoustic Music Club. Thanks to Eddie Higham for skilfully capturing this moment.

Alongside Nic's Musical skills is his remarkable story-telling ability. It has been great to accompany some of his stories on dulcimer. One particular recording that is specially relevant for dulcimer players is the Taoist tale of the unfortunate incident with a dulcimer suffered by a relation of Nic's and recounted in Septimus Godley Lightstone's Story. This tale is essential listening for accident-prone dulcimer players though it may cause some to review their personal injury liability insurance (listen to the story to find out why!).

Follow this link to Septimus Godley Lightsone's Story on Soundcloud.

Thanks to Carol for this perfectly timed shot of Nic in storytelling mode: however fantastic the story has to be believed!

Eddie Higham

Eddie Higham is a skilled guitarist and singer with whom I have been pleased to collaborate in many different line ups over the years, including the Jumbles and the Old Lone Gin Band (see above on these). We also venture out from time to time as a duo dubbed The 'Eddie-Bills' and have worked together on split screen recordings recently (see below on this).

I don't recall what the joke was here, but we clearly are in the midst of an exchange of banter in this shot from a charity concert at St Leonard's Church, Deal, October 2017. Thanks to Stepehen Wakeford for capturing the moment perfectly,

This is a shot from the Winterval Festival at Hacklinge, near Deal, January 2018, skilfully taken by Jan Croucher.

Below are some links to Youtube Videos of the Eddie-Bills performing at Crabble Mill near Dover, August 2017.

Bright Lights Tonight (Richard Thompson)

Tom Paine's Bones (Graham Moore)

Four Green Fields (Tommy Makem)

St Pauls's Song (Pierce Pettis)

The Wall of Death (Richard Thompson)

Dulci-Gurdy

Dulci-Gurdy are Mike Greenwood (Hurdy Gurdy) Dave Prothero (Fiddle) and Bill Howarth (Dulcimer and Mouth Organ.

We assembled this trio to produce a 'mediaeval' sound for a set of music which we performed at Brogdale Apple Festival in 2018. The performance was extremely well received and we hoped to do more music making together, but this has not been possible due to difficulties of logistics - Mike spends quite a lot of time touring Europe with his Hurdy-Gurdy. Anyway, when the time is right, I hope that the band will reconvene to reproduce its seriously distinctive sound.

The How-High-Hoods

This shows the Dulci-Gurdys performing at Brogdale Apple Festival, near Faversham, August 2018. I think that we have Phil, the sound engineer, to thank for this shot.

The How-High-Hoods are Bill Howarth, Eddie Higham and Grahame Hood.

The trio arose from concerts that Grahame organised at the Orpington Liberal Club, entitled Dulcimer Decorum. As the name suggests, the events were for the purpose of promoting dulcimers (both hammered and mountain dulcimers) to folk club audiences in north Kent and beyond. The original idea was to combine the sounds of both kinds of dulcimer in playing a range of music from American, Celtic and English Traditions. Grahame is an extremely skilful mountain dulcimer player and the two instruments combined to produce a very sweet sound, with Eddie adding a bedrock guitar part. On the night of the second of the Dulcimer Decorum concerts, Night of the Living Dulcimers, in March 2020 we were fortunate to be joined by Steven Taylor on fiddle.

Sadly, soon after our debut performance, the Lockdown was imposed and it has not been possible to reconvene since to fulfil various bookings, but we hope to be back out just as soon as conditions permit.

Thanks to Carol for this photo of the How-High-Hoods - which attracted the comment, out standing in their field!

Thanks for Carol for the 'back of the hall' video of the How High Hoods (with Steve Taylor on fiddle) performing Flash Company at the Dulcimer Decorum concert. the Night of the Living Dulcimers, at Orpington Liberal Club, March 2020.

We have to thank Steve Lillywhite for this expertly filmed and produced Youtube video of our version of Roo Rum Ra (Seventeen Come Sunday) from the same set.

This is a final shot of three good musical friends; Adrian O (here recounting an unbelievable tale!) and Jon and Elaine Dean, entertaining at one of Adrian and Sue's lovely Open Garden events at Hacklinge, near Deal, April 2019.

Link to 10. Pandemic Postscript

For links to other pages, use the drop down menu at the top right of the page.

Please feel free to email me at bill.howarth54@gmail.com with any comments on the website.

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