Chris Foster

Chris Foster is a master of his trade, recently described as “one of the finest singers and most thoughtful inventive guitar accompanists of English folk songs.” He was at the forefront of the folk revival in the 1970s when he was highly regarded as a cutting edge, serious interpreter of traditional song. He made two fine albums for Topic Records, gigged extensively and then diversified during the ’80s, working as a community artist using a mix of performance and visual media.

In the early 2000’s Chris re-emerged onto the UK folk scene and Colin Irwin wrote in fROOTS magazine “Chris Foster merits legend status, one of the very best in the second wave of the Brit folk revival, as important as Martin Carthy, Dick Gaughan and Nic Jones in the way he modernised and invested traditional songs with inventive guitar arrangements and potent vocal delivery.” ​ Over the past 40 plus years Chris has performed and recorded throughout the UK, Europe, Canada and the USA and even once in China. He now lives in Iceland with his wife Bára Grímsdóttir, where he performs both as a solo and as a duo artist with Bára in the duo Funi.

That his ability is undimmed is confirmed by his 2018 BBC Folk Award nominated album ‘Hadelin’, produced by Jim Moray and featuring among others, Jackie Oates and John Kirkpatrick. Traditional music, a couple of Leon Rosselson items and one song by Chris himself, delivered straight - memorable songs with deft acoustic guitar arrangements.

His aim as an artist working within the folk tradition is to create music whose sense of history is easily matched by an unassuming feel for its current relevance, songs such as “The trees they grow so high”, “The gardener” and “Lord Bateman”. As Chris says, “I find they offer a richness of imagery, insight and music that still speaks to me powerfully in the 21st century.”