Sue Harris

Sue Harris is unusual in the folk music community as a fully, formally trained musician, fluent in the reading and writing of music and a classically trained musician who switched from her original instrument, the oboe, to the hammered dulcimer in the mi-1970's. In making that switch, she became one of the foremost performers on that folk instrument, though at the time it seemed just a matter of expediency. She was married at the time to John Kirkpatrick, the foremost button accordion virtuoso in England, and was pregnant with her first son and found herself unable to maintain the breath control needed to play the oboe — she brought both instruments to the Albion Country Band on their debut album Battle Of The Field (1973), and also recorded and performed as one half of a duet with Kirkpatrick. Harris has also performed with Richard And Linda Thomson, and has been a composer for the BBC on various broadcast plays, as well as for live theater. She is also a singer and has written music for choral groups.