Four Red Feet

English traditional morris and other country music. Instrumental, melodeons, fiddle, cello, guitar and double bass.

Chris Bartram (fiddle and cello) and Keith Holloway (melodeons) met as teenagers when playing for Abingdon Morris. There are four morris traditions in the UK who are able to claim a continuous history of dancing from before the turn of the century. Of these, the Abingdon sides are able to claim the longest historically verifiable tradition dating, at least, to the sixteenth century. According to Folk Roots magazine Chris and Keith absorbed the tradition with the commitment and enthusiasm of youth, learning from the old men such as Jack Hyde, Charlie Brett, and Johnny Grimsdale, torch bearers of an unbroken tradition. Chris also regularly walked fifteen miles from Wantage to Bampton to learn from another traditional fiddler, Arnold Woodley. The album contains tunes from the Abingdon and Bampton traditions as well as liberal dollops of stuff from other (English) counties. But above all, confidence born from a profound understanding of and respect for tradition allows Chris and Keith to play with an optimistic, sometimes humorous, edge which makes their interpretations stand out.