Fay Hield

Fay Hield
Fay Hield at the Warwick Folk Festival, July 2011
Background information
Born	(1978-02-04) 4 February 1978 (age 39)
Genres	Folk
Occupation(s)	Folk singer University Lecturer
Instruments	Vocals
Years active	1999–present
Associated acts	Fay Hield Trio
Website	Official Site

Fay Hield is a traditional English folk singer.

Looking Glass, released September 2010, was Hield's debut solo album. The material consists mainly of traditional songs and ballads. She started gigging her new album as the Fay Hield Trio, made up of Rob Harbron (English Acoustic Collective) and Sam Sweeney (Bellowhead). Hield was nominated for the Horizon Award at the 2010 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards.

Hield was part of The Witches of Elswick, with whom she recorded two CDs in their six years together.

As an academic, Hield is a Teaching Associate in ethnomusicology at the University of Sheffield. Hield completed her PhD thesis "English Folk Singing and the Construction of Community" in 2010 at Sheffield. She began lecturing at Sheffield in spring 2012. She is also a consultant for the AHRC-funded 'Music Communities' research project conducted at the University of Manchester. Hield also guest lectures at other educational establishments, including the Leeds College of Music.

Hield runs events as well. Along with her partner Jon Boden she runs two folk clubs – Royal Traditions (Dungworth) and helps to run Bright Phoebus (Sheffield). She also established a community music organisation in 2010, and ran the first Soundpost Singing Weekend in 2011.

Orfeo, released May 2012, is Hield's second album, and sees the launch of a new line-up, Fay Hield & The Hurricane Party (Jon Boden, Rob Harbron, Sam Sweeney & Andy Cutting).

In 2013 Hield in conjunction with the English Folk Dance and Song Society put together The Full English Band to promote the launch of the society's on-line publication of their archive search engine. The band issued an eponymous album and toured providing a showcase for both the band and the archive.