James McCafferty

James McCafferty first picked up a guitar in his teens and discovered a lifelong passion for the traditional folk music of the British Isles and Ireland. He taught himself to play the recorder and slowly built up a collection of reconstructed early instruments from the Medieval and Tudor periods, including cittern, dulcimer, crumhorn, cornamuse and psalteries. He founded the unaccompanied folk song group Solstice and the early music group Milady Clare's Musicke, with whom he recorded the albums Minstrels Gallerie and Pastymes. He danced with Winchester's international folk dance display team Woodfidley, played melodeon for King John's Morris of Southampton and founded the boys' morris dance team the Fryern Morris Minors. Under the banner of Early Music in Schools, he continues to take his demonstrations of early musical instruments to schools and community groups. He is the author of Live Recorder, a series of three workbooks and CDs designed to teach basic musical literacy to complete beginners. James uses acoustic guitar, cittern and melodeon in his traditional music performances. He is also an experienced ceilidh and barn dance caller, working under the name of Barn Dances for Everyone and bringing to life the traditional dances of the English countryside.