HILARY JAMES
Biography
Hilary James is a singer par excellence. Her voice easily crosses the
great musical divides and has featured everywhere from Classic FM to
Radio 1. Within a week of its release, her first solo album Burning Sun
was in the top ten airplay on Radio 2. An evocative blend of original
and traditional songs, and a refreshing approach to the classics gained
it immediate and widespread critical acclaim from Philadelphia to
Latvia, Holland, Belgium, Germany, Norway and Ireland. This led to an
offer from MTV award winning editor/producer Dan Lebenthal to make a
video in Hollywood (Dan's previous projects include editing videos for
M C Hammer!).
Apart from her fine singing, Hilary James was also a founder member of
those witty western swingers Slim Panatella and the Mellow Virginians.
She is also an accomplished double bassist and guitarist, but these
days is rarely seen without her amazing mandobass, appearing regularly
with mandolin wizard Simon Mayor both as a duo and with Britain's
first, and ground-breaking modern mandolin quartet, The Mandolinquents.
Hilary James left her native Stoke-on-Trent for Reading at the age of
eighteen to study one of her other passions, Fine Art, but music was
never far away. With the early influences of Ella Fitzgerald and Anne
Briggs, it was no surprise to find her both as featured vocalist with
the University Big Band and running the University Folk Club. A trip to
the Edinburgh Festival with the University Drama Society further
whetted her appetite for performing.
Spending a postgraduate year in teacher training she became aware of
the lack of quality music available in England for children and formed
the Musical Mystery Tour visiting theatres, arts centres and schools
with a mixture of instrumental fun, original narrative and witty songs,
sketches and musical information. In 1979 together with Simon Mayor,
she recorded the first Musical Mystery Tour album on Acoustics Records,
her own label. The enthusiasm of the press brought interest from the
BBC and the James/Mayor team went on to present regular music education
programmes for the next six years. Together they have now written over
60 songs for children and produced 5 albums in their Musical Mystery
Tour series. A Musical Mystery Tour songbook with illustrations by
Hilary is published by Faber Music.
Her talent for witty lyrics hasn't just been confined to children, and
on more than one occasion Hilary found herself writing topical songs
simultaneously for such diverse TV programmes as Play School, Playdays,
Green Claws, and Newsnight!
But for all her talents, it is her versatility as a singer that gives
Hilary James a unique position. For her second album, Love Lust &
Loss, she teamed up with the veteran pianist Beryl Marriott - two
generations taking a daring leap into long unexplored territory,
bringing folksong back to its improvisatory roots. Bluesy, an album of
country-blues, jazz-blues and swing featured a host of supporting
musicians and was once more greeted with wide critical acclaim from the
Yorkshire Post and fRoots to the bikers magazine, Backstreet Heroes. It
was the first time this much applauded side of her stage repertoire had
featured on CD.
Released in late 2004, Laughing with the Moon is Hilary's fourth solo
album, a mix of traditional and original songs and tunes, featuring
Simon Mayor's mandolin on four instrumental tracks (these days their
names are usually mentioned in the same breath). Lullabies With
Mandolins is their first album for children for some years and has met
with unanimous critical acclaim.
Daily Telegraph
“Elegant singing”
Steppin’ Out
“I can’t help but be transfixed by the... exquisite vocals of Hilary
James”
Living Tradition
“'Lovely vocals radiate and delight.”
fRoots
"Songs were never sung as exquisitely"
Acoustics Records
PO Box 350
Reading RG6 7DQ
England
Tel: +44 (0)118 926 8615
www.acousticsrecords.co.uk