About Catherine Howe: A Halifax lass
Catherine was sent to London at the age of twelve to be a pupil and later
graduate of the original Corona Stage School. In the late sixties she appeared
in many classic TV shows such as Dr Who, Z Cars, Dixon of Dock Green before
deciding in 1970 to follow a career in music. She recorded four now classic
albums winning an Ivor Novello award along the way for her song 'Harry.’
About Vo Fletcher: In a long and varied career Vo has played, recorded
and toured with: Nigel Kennedy, Fairport Convention, the Ric Sanders Group, Rik
Mayall, Touch & Go, The Albion Morris Band and Brent Ford & The Nylons to name
but a few.
Catherine Howe & Vo Fletcher started working together in 2007, just after the reissue of Howe’s legendary album 'What A Beautiful Place’ produced by the late Bobby Scott. Catherine knew Vo as a musician and songwriter and admired his work and from the very outset there was a musical rapport and understanding between them. It naturally followed that as a duo they should perform some local concerts together and start recording.
Catherine says, 'We decided to record as 'live’ an album as possible so the basic performances of guitar and voice were recorded together and without separation. We chose to record this way, 'knee-to-knee' as it were, because we wanted to retain all spontaneity for these songs. The recordings have been enhanced wonderfully by Ric Sander’s fiddle playing, and we later laid down some harmonies too. We’ve called the album English Tale because, in essence that’s exactly what it is, a collection of songs inspired by people either Vo or I have known and loved, others we wish we’d known, and others we’ve welcomed to England. There are no co-written songs here, each comes from the pen of either Vo or me. The guitar pieces, which punctuate the set nicely I think, are, of course, Vo’s compositions. Nevertheless, you can hear how much of a collaborative piece of work English Tale is in the performance and choice of song.'