MOSSY CHRISTIAN

Singer and Instrumentalist - a young performer for the tradition.

Mossy Christian plays, and teaches, anglo concertina, one-row melodeon, fiddle and song accompaniment. He is certainly an all-rounder, as Pete Coe’s awed description of him dancing the tricky ‘Bacca Pipes Jig’, whilst accompanying himself on the concertina, amply testifies.

For all the instrumental excellence, Mossy sees himself as a singer as much as a musician, and well over half the tracks on his newly-released solo album Come Nobles And Heroes are songs. Here, again, he’s not afraid to draw from source recordings that show a commendable dedication to his locality, a trait also reflected in the tunes he’s chosen. His sources are from Lincolnshire & East Anglia, like Bob Roberts and Harry Cox. His singing style, though, owes more to such folk revivalists as Mike Waterson and Peter Bellamy.

Mossy is already involved in a collaboration that provides another example of his preference for earthy, honest music: a duo with fiddler Jim Eldon. “Jim plays off the arm,” Mossy explains, “resting the fiddle in the crook of the arm, rather than tucked under the chin, which gives our fiddles a very different sound, raucous and scratchy, but a whole lot of fun! We made an album together called Fiddle Duets in 2019.

Mossy says: “I think it would be naïve to expect to make a living solely from performing, but I’ve several strings to my metaphorical bow, one of which is working with children in primary schools, teaching Longsword dancing, songs and music. I think ‘folk music’, however we choose to define it, will always be relevant. It recounts the experiences of our ancestors, both remarkable and routine and, if we turn our backs on the stories they have to tell, we risk losing the knowledge they have to share. This is the music I love, so I hope it will always be part of my life.”