Tiger Moth

With their energetic mixture of traditional English country dance music, reggae, blues, rock & roll, jazz, and world music, Tiger Moth, and its successor Orchestra Super Moth, helped to spark a new wave of British trad rock bands in the late '80s. During the six years that it was together, the group rocked the traditional British world with a style of electric music that the Free Press review called, "zany, lively, danceable, and fun." Tiger Moth originated as the English Country Blues Band, a group formed by melodeon wiz Rod Stradling shortly after leaving Old Swan Band in the early '80s. The band changed its name after switching to a more-electric approach. The original members — guitarist Ian A. Anderson, formerly with Hot Vultures and later the editor of Folk Roots; hammered dulcimer player Chris Coe; and bass guitar and banjo player and vocalist Maggie Holland; in addition to Stradling — were subsequently joined by electric guitar and synthesizer player Jon Moore, drummer/percussionist John Maxwell, and keyboards and melodeon player ian Carter.