Jim Causley

In 2015 Jim Causley celebrated over a decade as an acclaimed solo artist and performer with a brand new studio album Forgotten Kingdom, released on the Show of Hands label; Hands On Music. The album was his first album of entirely self-penned material. His first three solo albums all largely comprised traditional songs and his fourth, Cyprus Well (2013) drew on poems written by Jim’s late relative Charles Causley and set to music by Jim. Since the release of Forgotten Kingdom Jim was commissioned by the Bodmin Moor Poetry Festival to create an album of settings of poems by another Cornish poet and close friend of Charles Causley’s; Jack Clemo as 2016 was his centenary. 2017 sees Jim working on yet another album of poetry settings, this year it is Charles Causley’s centenary and as part of the celebrations, Jim will this time be focussing on Charles’ poems for children to coincide with the republishing of his Collected Poems for Children volume. At Port Elliot this year Jim will be performing a concert of his settings of Charles Causley’s poems both old and new with some surprises especially for the centenary. Since the release of his debut album in 2005, Causley’s unique voice and persona have helped him become one of the most well-loved and respected figures of today’s contemporary roots and folk scene. A prolific collaborator, Causley is hugely admired for his work with iconic groups The Devil’s Interval and Mawkin:Causley as well as playing, touring and recording alongside Waterson:Carthy, John McCusker, Eddie Reader, Graham Coxson, Shirley Collins, Michael Morpurgo, Show of Hands, Kate Rusby, David Rotheray of Beautiful South fame and many more. He was described by Mojo Magazine as “the finest singer of his generation” and they put Forgotten Kingdom in their Top Ten Folk Albums of 2016 list. Westcountry father of folk Geoff Lakeman described Causley as possessing “A voice in a million” in a recent interview in the Western Morning News, some accolade indeed! During the past decade Causley has been nominated no less than six times for a BBC Radio 2 Folk Award, won the Spiral Earth Singer of the Year award in 2014, presented his own folk music show on BBC Radio Devon and in 2015 he worked with BBC TV historian Dr Sam Willis to create the music for his show 'Highwaymen, Outlaws and Villains' and was asked to perform his song about Dartmoor tin mining 'Pride of the Moor' on BBC TV's Countryfile - Dartmoor Special. The Daniel O’Donnell of Devon