Maggie Holland

Maggie Holland
Maggie Holland on 7 August 1983, playing in the English Country Blues Band at Goodwood Folk Festival, Sussex
Background information
Origin	Alton, Hampshire, England
Genres	Folk music
Years active	Late 1960s–present
Associated acts	Ian A. Anderson, Hot Vultures, English Country Blues Band, Tiger Moth, Orchestre Super Moth, Maggie's Farm, Robb Johnson
Website	Maggieholland.com

Maggie Holland is an English singer and songwriter. She was born and raised in Alton, Hampshire, England, and became involved in the local folk club scene in the late 1960s. She has played in a number of bands and formed a number of collaborations with other artists, but has become well known in recent times as a solo artist and songwriter. She enjoys singing songs with meaningful words and has named her major influences as Bob Dylan, Al Stewart, Dave Evans, Leon Rosselson, Billy Bragg, Bruce Cockburn and Robb Johnson. Several of her own songs have entered the repertoires of notable artists, such as Martin Carthy and June Tabor and, in 2000, Holland received the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards "Best Song of 1999" for her song "A Place Called England".Colin Irwin wrote of her in fRoots magazine: "The proof that outstanding contemporary songs are still being written”. She now lives in Leith, Scotland.

Her first work as a professional musician was as bassist and, later, singer in Hot Vultures, alongside Ian A. Anderson. By this time she had moved to Farnham, Surrey. Hot Vultures toured and recorded from 1973 to 1979.

Hot Vultures became the English Country Blues Band (ECBB) when Holland and Anderson were joined by Rod Stradling and Sue Harris (Sue Harris later being replaced by Chris Coe).

The ECBB expanded to become Tiger Moth, an electric country dance band, which lasted until 1989.

This was a further expansion of the Tiger Moth line-up, including occasional musicians from around the world, and represented a move away from purely English and American traditions to become one of the first "crossover" world music bands. Alongside Holland and the other Tiger Moth members, line-ups have included such respected international musicians as Flaco Jimenez, Dembo Konte, Kausu Kuyateh, Hijaz Mustapha and Abdul Tee-Jay.