The international duo of Cathryn Craig and Brian Willoughby will be in concert for Dartford Folk Club, at the CIU in Essex Road, on Tuesday April 30th.
Cathryn hails from Virginia and settled as a studio musician in Nashville, working with the likes of Garth Brooks and EmmyLou Harris, after touring as a singer with The Righteous Brothers.
Brian has played lead guitar with progressive folk/rock band Strawbs,
Beatles protégée Mary Hopkin, gold-album-winning Punk Rockers The Monks, British icon Joe Brown, Kenyan international entertainer Roger Whittaker, Scottish pop star Jim Diamond and TV and Film comedy team Monty Python.
Both Cathryn and Brian recorded with American rockabilly artist Nanci Griffith.
The duo have released seven albums of their own material and they co-wrote “Alice’s Song”, a BBC Radio Highlight of the Year, which was also recorded by Strawbs and adopted by The National Autistic Society as their theme tune for Autism Awareness.
The Telegraph named Cathryn and Brian as its “Folk Gig Pick” of the year and Folking.com nominated them in their “Best Duo” category.
In August 2023, Cathryn and Brian joined Strawbs for the band’s final live show, at Fairport Convention’s Cropredy Festival, playing to an audience of 20,000 people. An album and a documentary from this performance, are due for release in 2024. Press quotes for the duo … Long live traditional music, even when it’s only just been written (The Living Tradition) / Sublime guitar work and one of the finest voices around (Folking.com) / I love that duo … what a perfect combination … great songs, great singing and of course, there’s Brian’s spellbinding guitar work .. just magic.” Noel Casey (Dublin City FM) www.craigandwilloughby.com