Magpie Lane
Encyclopedia
Magpie Lane is an English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 folk
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....

 group, based in Oxford
Oxford
The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...

, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

.

The musicians of Magpie Lane first came together in the winter of 1992–93 to record The Oxford Ramble, a collection of songs and tunes from, or about, Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire is a county in the South East region of England, bordering on Warwickshire and Northamptonshire , Buckinghamshire , Berkshire , Wiltshire and Gloucestershire ....

. Although originally conceived as a one-off recording project, the band soon took on a life of its own. The success of The Oxford Ramble led to the release of a second CD, Speed the Plough, a year later; to be followed shortly afterward by Wassail: a Country Christmas and Jack-in-the-Green. The celebration of beer in song A Taste of Ale was commissioned by highly respected author and folksong scholar Roy Palmer, to accompany his book of the same name, and was the first to feature new recruit Benji Kirkpatrick. The band's next recording was Six for Gold with Sophie Polhill and Marguerite Hutchinson in the line-up, alongside Benji Kirkpatrick, and original members Ian Giles, Mat Green and Andy Turner.

Magpie Lane
Magpie Lane, Oxford
Magpie Lane is a narrow historic lane in central Oxford, England. It leads south from the High Street where it is at its narrowest, now completely pedestrianised as a pavement, and north from the cobbled Merton Street....

, the name of a street in central Oxford, is the title of the first tune on the group's first CD The Oxford Ramble.

Discography

  • The Oxford Ramble (Beautiful Jo Records 1993)
  • Speed the Plough (1994)
  • Wassail: A Country Christmas (1995)
  • Jack-in-the-Green (Beautiful Jo Records, 1998)
  • A Taste of Ale (Beautiful Jo Records, 2000)
  • Six for Gold (Beautiful Jo Records, 2002)
  • Knock at the Knocker Ring at the Bell (Beautiful Jo Records, 2006)
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