John Kirkpatrick (musician)

John Kirkpatrick
Kirkpatrick performing at Lewes, 2008
Background information
Born	(1947-08-08) 8 August 1947 (age 69)
Origin	London, England
Genres	Folk
Occupation(s)	Musician
Instruments	Button Accordion, Anglo Concertina, Melodeon
Years active	1972–present
Associated acts	Steeleye Span, Albion Band, Thea Gilmore, Richard Thompson, Brass Monkey

John Kirkpatrick (born 8 August 1947) is an English player of free reed instruments.

John Kirkpatrick was born in 1947 in Chiswick, west London. As a child he sang in the choir and played piano. In 1959 he joined the Hammersmith Morris Men, in the second week of their existence, beginning a career-long love of folk music. In 1970 he became a regular at a folk club in the Roebuck pub in Tottenham Court Road and led the resident group, Dingle's Chillybom Band. The club hosted a film show of Morris dancing and Ashley Hutchings turned up. It was the beginning of a long musical relationship. In 1972 John recorded his first solo album Jump at the Sun which included Richard Thompson on acoustic guitar.

In 1973 Kirkpatrick moved to Shropshire and married Sue Harris. After seeing a dance team called Gloucestershire Old Spot Morris Morris Dancers he formed Shropshire Bedlams to perform local dances, in the so-called Border Morris style. In the early weeks some girls turned up and rather than have a mixed morris team, Harris took the girls aside to form Martha Rhoden's Tuppenny Dish; both teams are still flourishing. By this time John Kirkpatrick was an expert player of melodeon, Anglo concertina, and button accordion. Ashley Hutchings' project Battle of the Field floundered when the Albion Country Band broke up. They had recorded not quite enough material for an album. John had appeared on several of the tracks with Martin Carthy and offered to record two extra tracks with his wife in 1973. It was not released until 1976 but is highly regarded. Harris sang and played oboe and hammered dulcimer, an unusual combination. In 1974 John Kirkpatrick and Ashley Hutchings produced a themed album The Compleat Dancing Master, a history of English country dancing. He 1976 he teamed up with Martin Carthy for Plain Capers, a collection of morris dance tunes.