Promo + Tech

‘annA rydeR is Fairport’s favourite singer/songwriter. When I heard her I was just blown away, she writes such crafted songs, melodies with great feeling, I just had to play with her. ‘ [DAVE PEGG]
annA’s inventive and dynamic trio ‘I O T A‘ with Sally Barker and Marion Fleetwood –
“Three brilliant musicians, singers and writers exuding an infectious joy of music. A force to be reckoned with.” [JULIE MATTHEWS]
[MOJO magazine] ‘A confident and varied singer-songwriter album with depth and integrity with songs that demonstrate a rare originality and that demand your attention.’
‘annA rydeR’s approach to songwriting is fresh and original, her instrumentation surprising and her themes out of the ordinary. I think she’s special.’ [RALPH McTELL]

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS
annA rydeR BIOG FOR PROMOTERS

Anna is an original and inventive singer-songwriter with a musical style that, although based in folk, spans an array of genres. A multi-instrumentalist musical dynamo, she intertwines this fluency with a poetic and intimate lyricism, communicating her unique take on the world around her. Her captivating stage presence is combined with a playful approach to performing which reaches out to the whole audience.

NOW: In 2017 Anna got together with Sally Barker and Marion Fleetwood to form the dynamic trio I O T A writing, recording and performing their own collaborative material sparking interest from promoters and concert-goers everywhere. They released their EP in 2017 and their debut album later that year ‘Oh Yeh Yeh’.

In 2019 Anna started writing, recording and performing with Sally Barker. This duo, Sally Barker & Anna Ryder, is now touring with their original material. They released their debut album ‘When I Wake Up’ in 2019.

Following Anna’s work with musicians from the re-formed Fotheringay initially for the Jerry Donahue Benefit Concert, she helped form ‘The Sandy Denny Project’ with Sally Barker, PJ Wright, Marion Fleetwood, Mat Davies and Mark Stevens. Performing songs from right across Sandy’s career, they merge the obscure with the obvious, the subtly understated with the direct and rocky.

Following her new activity and appearance with IOTA at Shrewsbury Folk Festival, Anna has now been invited to become part of The Ballads of Child Migration which is a tribute to children who were part of the migration schemes in Britain aimed at those who were ‘deprived of a normal family’ – some of whom were sent abroad as recently as 1970. This super group of Chris While & Julie Matthews, Jez Lowe and others will perform in late summer 2020.

Anna also continues to gig solo, and works with various artists as well as to record, arrange and write. These artists include the inimitable Keith Donnelly (as Something A Bit Different doing a set of interesting and diverse covers) and Feast of Fiddles member and Joe Brown mando/fiddler Tom Leary.

At Cropredy Convention 2019 Anna was ‘Fairport Extension’ with Dave Mattacks, PJ Wright, Phil Bond, Sally Barker, Edmond Whitcombe and Fairport; playing piano, accordion, French horn and trumpet as well as singing on 11 songs, 3 of which she arranged brass parts for. She also performed her song The Crowd.

SOME DETAIL: Anna has performed mainly on the folk scene playing all kinds of venues from small clubs to large festivals. She has made six albums including ‘Pockets On Fire’ which was released on the Fairport Convention label ‘Woodworm’ with Fairport playing on eight of the tracks, and, in 2016, the long-awaited The Art of Making Faces was released which is an album of extraordinary beauty and subtle complexity bursting with original songs and littered with lots of interesting musicians and sounds.

MORE DETAIL: Fairport Convention covered and recorded Anna’s songs: ‘Sailing Boat’ in 1997, ‘The Crowd’ in 2002 – which was performed several times at Cropredy as well as on tour dates – and ‘Bring Me Back My Feathers’ in 2015. Anna played the 20,000 strong Cropredy Festival from 1998 to 2005 and then again in 2014 and 2016 – three of these performances being full sets of her own. She also played there on Eddi Reader’s set in 2001 and as part of Deborah Rose’s band in 2014 and, continuing her relationship with Fairport, supported them on their UK Winter Tour in 1999 as well as joining them on several of their acoustic UK tours and recording on five of their albums as well as playing with them at Cropredy Convention 2016.

Attracting various invitations to perform and record with, and for many different artists, Anna is a musician’s musician. She was invited to support Julianne Regan with All About Eve from 2000 to 2002; touring Australia in 2002 she also played again with Eddi Reader (ex-Fairground Attraction) and then performed her own songs with Jacqui McShee (Pentangle) in Germany in 2003. During this time Anna also toured with The Dylan Project and then as part of ‘The Fairport Supporters’ line-up with Steve Tilston and Bob Fox, going on to record on both performers’ albums as well as touring as part of their bands.

RECORDING: Anna’s innovative and ambitious album ‘Paper Girl’ was released in 2004 and features, amongst others, John Rabbit Bundrick (keyboard player The Who), Clive Bunker (drums ex-Jethro Tull) and members of Fairport. Anna then toured this album in Germany with the annA rydeR Band, comprised of Martin Brunsden (Hot House Flowers, Jacqui Dankworth, Cleo Laine) and Clive Bunker. In 2016, her 6th release, a studio album of diverse and enthralling songs ‘The Art Of Making Faces’ again featured Dave Pegg on bass and Clive Bunker on drums, with keyboardist Spencer Cozens (formerly with the John Martyn Band), Chris Leslie, Alan Thomson and others including a 50 strong choir.

Anna became known as a bluegrass accordionist joining a host of other musicians at the famous Didmarton Bluegrass Festival at which she played in 2008, 2009 and, in 2012, with bass player Alan Thomson (formerly with the John Martyn Band and who also plays with the Martin Barre Band and Jacqui McShee’s Pentangle).

Anna is now working on her 7th album.

RowdyMusic, Anna’s own music company was formed in 1993 to encompass all her work as a musician.

For BOOKINGS please go to the contact page.