Chris and Siobhan joined the team of Bothy residents in 2005. They perform songs from a wide range of sources, both contemporary and traditional, accompanied by Chris on fiddle, octave mandola, viola or tenor guitar, or performed a capella. Chris also plays a fiddle tune or two, and will accompany anyone who asks him!

Siobhan is a Londoner, and Chris was born in Yorkshire and raised in Hertfordshire. They first got together (musically) in the mid-1980s, when they were in the 'rogue folk' band Cluster of Nuts. Having been in various bands since then, they are currently leading a much quieter life as a duo (however, they are now doing occasional gigs with a revamped Cluster of Nuts)! They have released two albums as a duo, Tomorrow's Sun (2004) and Day Has Dawned (2006). They have also released an album, Ebb and Flow (February 2008), with their long-time musical collaborator, songwriter/guitarist Barry Wake, as the trio Nelsons Wake.

Chris:
My musical influences include Dave Swarbrick, The Seekers, Jack the Lad, The Volo Bogtrotters and Steeleye Span. I gave up the violin in my late teens, and took up the fiddle instead!
•1st musical memory: Handel's Messiah on my dad's record player
•1st record I ever owned: Beatles 1962-1966
•1st gig attended: Jack the Lad at the Marquee Club, London, 1976
•All-time favourite folkie album tracks: Hanging Song by Fairport; No Man's Land by June Tabor; Harper's Frolic/Bonny Kate by the New Victory Band; Uncle Bernard's/Jenny Lind by the Albion Dance Band; anything by Steeleye Span

Siobhan:
•My musical influences include Maddy Prior, the Dransfields, Sandy Denny, the BBC radio schools' programmes 'Singing Together' & 'Making Music', The Seekers, my mum (a Bothy regular) and Georgia Brown
•I first demonstrated my love of singing when I used to keep the family awake at night by singing the entire score of 'Oliver!' [Chris: Just don't start her off... please!]
•1st record I ever owned: 'Ramblin' Jack Elliott's 'Kid Stuff' EP
•1st record I ever bought for myself: Bowie's 'Ziggy Stardust'
•1st gig attended: T. Rex, Fairfield Halls, Croydon, c.1971
•All-time favourite folkie album tracks: The New Jigs by Blowzabella; John the Gun by Sandy Denny; almost everything by the Home Service; One Misty Moisty Morning by Steeleye; Banks of the Sweet Dundee by Barry Dransfield.

Apart from their shared love of folk music, their musical tastes do not always coincide. Siobhan describes some of what Chris listens to as yawn-inducing, while he thinks a lot of her listeining material is downright weird. (Chris puts her, sometimes strange, musical tastes down to an obsession with a particular Ivor Cutler EP during her pre-school years.)

You can find out more about Chris and Siobhan at www.cnelson.plus.com.website link

They also have a presence on Myspace
You can contact them by e-mail - chris@niddart.co.uk - or come to the Bothy!