40 years of the driving drone folk of Blowzabella

March 14, 2018 9:50 PM

Blowzabella (Wikipedia; official website) was formed in east London in 1978 by two students of musical instrument making at the London College of Furniture, Bill O'Toole and Jon Swayne. They named their band after an English jig (and bawdy drinking song), "Blowzabella My Bouncing Doxie." The band has grown and changed over the decades, but has always included bagpipes, a hurdy-gurdy and an array of acoustic instruments, used to make driving, drone-based sound influenced by British and European traditional dance music. You can hear that sound on Soundcloud, or see a ton of their material on YouTube, from a live performance in three parts from 2013 (live at Cecil Sharp House, where they'll return) to a video of one of their new songs featuring vocals, "Adam Was A Poacher."

The group has released more than a dozen albums in their four decades as a band, featuring tunes from various sources, something that somebody's heard or recorded, or learned from someone at a pub or a festival (scan of an interview with Paul James from 1985; more material of various vintages from the UK Bagpipe Society). You can find five of their albums as official playlists on YouTube, thanks to the reissuing label, Osmosys, Redeye Distribution, and IDOL:

- Bobbityshooty (1984; reissued 1998)
- The Blowzabella Wall of Sound (1986; reissued 1996)
- A Richer Dust (1988; reissued 1996)
- Vanilla (1990)
- Octomenta (2007)

posted by filthy light thief (4 comments total)

Thanks for this! I love this buzzy, homegrown cacophony but I know several people in my life who will distinctly not. Too bad for them.
posted by sleeping bear at 10:46 PM on March 14, 2018 [1 favorite]

You're welcome, and my apologies to your family and friends. You can maybe make them feel better by telling them that Blowzabella has some moments of jazz and klezmer-like sounds.

But yeah, it's a lot of buzzy drones, and that's why it's so good!
posted by filthy light thief at 7:33 AM on March 15, 2018

How have I never heard of these guys!!??
posted by Oh_Bobloblaw at 10:59 AM on March 15, 2018

Excellent. Never heard of them, but it's the perfect music on which to end my day. Thanks.
posted by the sobsister at 8:00 PM on March 15, 2018