Chris Knowles
Musical biography......
The past.....
From playing electric and acoustic guitars (mainly blues, rock & folk) at the end of the 60's & early '70s, Chris went on to explore various styles of music, and many other instruments including tin whistle, fiddle, tenor recorder, shakuhachi, mandolin, dulcimer, bouzouki, sitar, crwth, bowed psaltery, hammered dulcimer, and others.
In the late 70's -early 80's he played mainly fiddle, whistle and bouzouki, both solo and with appalachian and bluegrass bands and sessions, but was most absorbed in learning traditional Irish music. Eventually taking up the celtic harp in 1986, he decided to concentrate on that as his main instrument, and traditional celtic music in particular- including much old Welsh, Scottish, and some Manx and Cornish folk music, as well as Irish. Over the space of just a few years this evolved into a full-time profession.
During the late 80's & through the 90's Chris played solo harp performances constantly, including private bookings, public recitals and background music at hotels and restaurants, work with theatre productions, and events for CADW at many castles in Wales. He also did recording and performance work for various projects, including working with nature poet and artist Clyde Holmes, (recording, plus live performances at the European Centre for Traditional & Regional Cultures, Llangollen; Chester Arts Festival; and the Garden Festival Wales at Ebbw Vale) plus session recording work for various studios in London & elsewhere, and appearances on TV & radio programs.
For many years Chris also played in a duo with uilleann piper Allan Moller, and they appeared at many folk clubs, folk festivals, arts festivals, arts centres and other venues throughout the UK, and in Ireland.
At the time they were one of very few acts in the world playing the rare combination of uilleann pipes and celtic harp together in a duo; they played mostly Irish music, with some Welsh and other celtic material. Their appearances included headlining at Pontardawe International Music Festival Festival (1989 & 1990) and at the week-long Isle of Islay Celtic Festival for 2 years running (1990 & 1991), and they played privately for H.M. The Queen on her first visit to Conwy Castle in 1991.In the mid- 90's Chris and Allan teamed up with the trio 'Hin Deg' from South Wales (consisting of renowned singer Heather Jones, plus the excellent fiddle & bouzouki player and arranger Mike Lease and fine fiddler, bodhran player & clog dancer Jane Ridout) to form the 5- piece trad. Welsh folk band 'Hafren', which over a period of 3 years or so played concerts, festivals (including Cambridge folk festival) and appeared on radio and several TV programmes for BBC, HTV and S4C. Regrettably this band never recorded a CD, though 2 tracks recorded for a TV programme were later released on Heather's album 'Hwyrnos' (there is also now a retrospective CD of recordings from live performances available-See Recordings page)
Another musical partnership during this time was with Welsh acoustic guitarist Anthony Griffiths, including occasional performances as a harp/guitar duo, and recording several tracks together on Anthony's CD "Ysbryd".
In 1998 Chris and Allan formed a trio called 'Howling at Ravens' with Ben Walker, a strikingly talented jazz multi-instrumentalist from Manchester, who had become involved with trad. Irish music. Ben played flutes, whistle, uilleann pipes, keyboards, saxophone, synth, percussion and other instruments. Although this band was short-lived, they recorded a CD 'Lovely Molly', an intriguing mixture of some pure traditional Irish and other celtic pieces, and some rather surreal arrangements (with a dash of musical humour here and there...) - the album attracted considerable critical acclaim in some trad. folk music circles and was played on radio widely, including Mike Harding's folk programme on BBC Radio2, a 1 hour special feature with live interview on Radio Scotland, and various stations in the USA and Canada. (See Recordings page)
In a temporary departure from trad. celtic music, Chris was also a member of a contemporary folk band called 'Roam' for four years (1999-2003); this band featured the original songs of Colin Rudd and the versatile voice of singer Rachael Anne Davies. Roam recorded two CDs, and played many folk clubs and a few festivals, mainly in the North of England.
Since 2004, Chris has been performing mainly in a duo with Ben Walker, and they have played many private bookings as well as some public venues, festivals etc. including a short tour of concerts in Canada in July 2005.
The present.....
Chris presently plays both public and private bookings; solo, and in the duo with Ben Walker.
He also plays occasionally in a duo with Anthony Griffiths, and often plays for ceilidhs with local North Wales-based ceilidh band Mooncoin , in which he also plays fiddle & whistle.
The duo act with Ben Walker usually consists of trad. celtic instrumental music (largely Irish, but also some Welsh, Scots and Breton) and they play many bookings for weddings, corporate events etc., but in their public performances they usually also include arrangements of Ben's own songs.
In contrast to the traditional celtic music, these songs are more contemporary in style and contain various musical influences including appalachian, jazz, latin and others. In this act Chris plays a lot of bouzouki, and also some guitar.Chris also plays and is available for other types of performance, including early/mediaeval music for mediaeval banquets, and some appalachian and bluegrass music.