James Berriman and Sue Moffat

Traditional folksong and tunes. A little blues and acoustic rock. A hint of bluegrass. That's roughly what you can expect from this Stoke-on-Trent based duo. Alongside some original material, James and Sue also tackle songs from such influences as Nic Jones, Lal Waterson, Lyle Lovett, Ewan MacColl, Frankie Armstrong, Richard Thompson and Jimi Hendrix.

Music (128 kbps mp3 files)

Title	Length
She Still Haunts My Memory (song by James Berriman)	4.25
Daniel Hargreaves' Call To Arms (fiddle tune by Sue Moffat)	6:31
Ten Thousand Miles (trad. song)	3:35
Blackberry Blossom (trad. fiddle tune)	1:38
The Last Long Mile (song by Sue Moffat)	4:55

James

James grew up in Cottingham, near Hull. Youthful pleas for a guitar were met with the loan of a ukelele banjo, swiftly retrieved from the loft and refurbished. His father's record collection combined with regular doses of country radio to ensure that by age seventeen James was a big fan of The Man In Black.

In 1981 he discovered the electric guitar and a new world of blues and rock music. A big fan of west coast and Chicago blues, James has been lead singer and guitarist for Stoke band Off The Wall since 1986.

A developing passion for folk-rock and English traditional music has seen James playing guitar and bass in a number of folk and roots bands including Decomposition, Greensward and Run With The Stag.

Sue

Sue Moffat plays the fiddle with flair, always in tune (a deliberate policy) and usually with one foot firmly on top of the other. Her playing is well-grounded through the aid of a stout pair of size 6 DM's, which helps her to maintain good balance as well as an unfaltering tempo.

Born in Liverpool, her playing career began at the tender age of eight with a rendition of the popular Scaffold hit "Lily the Pink". She was swiftly recognised as possessing 'natural ability' and whisked off to the experts who could teach her how to hold onto the bow and violin properly. Receiving an excellent musical grounding at Chetham's School Of Music, she balanced her classical training with traditional music played within the Celtic communities of both Liverpool and Manchester.

Sue moved to the Potteries in the early eighties and began playing with local singer/songwriter John Clifton. She became a member of the band Cut-throat Jake, playing throughout Staffordshire and surrounding counties and regularly into Herefordshire and Mid Wales. As a member of the duo Leaping Tiger she played in the Edinburgh Fringe, at Falkland Palace and at the National Theatre in London.

Sue also plays with the Moody Food Ceilidh Band - music to swing cats to.

As well as enjoying performing, Sue believes that music is an important way in which to promote a sense of identity, community and culture. Through an initiative set up by local composer/poet Phil Colclough she has taken Traditional music of the British Isles into North Staffordshire schools, providing workshops for local schoolchildren. She has written Community Plays in which music has provided a powerful medium, and has provided original scores for theatre productions from Chekhov through to Lorca to Burgess and back again.

Sue's playing reflects the diverse influences of her experience and is always an honest and fresh interpretation of the material. Her style is fluid and responsive, and in her own words "always developing".

Reviews

From Eric Cox's review of a Sally Barker gig at Biddulph folk club:

“... support act, local duo James Berriman and Sue Moffat. They played a well-balanced 25 minute set, which combined some sensitive self- penned material from James with some “demon” fiddle tunes from Sue. They went down so well with an enthusiastic audience who immediately warmed to them, that, by popular demand, they did an encore (which is unheard of for a support group, in all the club's 13-year history) at the end of their set.”

From Nantwich Folk News Issue No.2:

"Shavington leisure centre proved to be a really good venue for Crewe and Nantwich Folk Festival to culminate their mini weekend of fundraising events in April. The chairs were comfy, the room was airy (but the manager said he would sort that out next time... !) and Keith Hancock and Moffat & Berriman gave superb performances, with the whole evening hosted most professionally. THE ATMOSPHERE WAS ELECTRIC"

What mp3.com had to say about us:

Our recording of Ten Thousand Miles was a featured song on mp3.com world traditions for 29th November 1999, as was our version of Blackberry Blossom on the 25th.

Gigs

Contacts

James Berriman james@acoustic.demon.co.uk

Phone: +44 (0)1782 720368