[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/171989568″ params=”auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=true” width=”100%” height=”450″ iframe=”true” /]

Yorkshire-born Lee Parry has been writing songs and performing for a decade or more, with a sound somewhere between Folk Revival and contemporary indie folk. While he’s currently working on his terrific duo Finch and the Moon with young Scotswoman and legacy folkie Caitlin Gilligan, Lee’s archive at Soundcloud is packed with great covers and traditionals as well as originals which capture everyday life in both its glory and ennui. A standout is ‘No Shaking Hands,’ driven by a dynamite fingerpicking pattern packed with countermelodies to balance Lee’s relaxed but beautiful voice. While Lee considers it a demo, we hope he doesn’t do too much more if he ever revisits it – it sounds pretty perfect to us, intimate and immediate and moving and timeless.

Q & A

What is your goal in recording and sharing music?

I guess my goal is to record my life via the medium of music. Making and recording music is my way of expressing how I’m feeling, be it about personal aspects of my life or issues beyond me. I share what I do to make connections with people, it’s that simple. Folk music has the most power when it comes to connecting people.

Come up with a descriptive, original genre name for your music.

Contemporary, neo-trad, modern country folk. I hope no-one uses that genre name, it’s a bit cumbersome.

Who do you view as a likely audience for your music?

I try not to ‘aim’ my music at anybody, that seems like it would get in the way of what I’d want to say. I think my songs are both generic and esoteric enough to be appealing to a whole heap of people. That’s the dream, anyway!

If trapped on a desert island with only 3 songs, which would they be?

This is tough.

1. Any live version of Pete Seeger singing “Down By The Riverside“. It might just be the perfect song. It’s never the same twice, the key frequently changes but it’s the best song to get a room full of people singing. That’s what it’s all about.

2. B.B. King – “How Blue Can You Get?” – This song never, ever fails to give my goosebumps. I spent a lot of my early teen years listening to electric blues, and when I found this track, something just clicked.

3. Nick Drake – “At The Chime Of A City Clock” – A perfect mixture of Nick’s sombre vocals and those jaunty lyrics. Nods to jazz, blues, folk, classical music and so much more.

Is there an instrument you do not currently play, but you’d like to learn?

Probably clarinet. I’ve always shied away from ‘classical’ instruments due to my distinct lack of formal musical knowledge, but I’ve always dreamed of being able to blow jazz clarinet in a Dixieland sextet.

Who is your musical hero(es), if any?

Pete Seeger, first and foremost. His musical prowess, stubbornness, kindness, warmth, ability to teach and inform – the list is endless. Finding Pete and his music truly changed my life.

Lead Belly. Lead Belly’s music NEEDED to be recorded. I don’t think he, Alan Lomax or anyone else at the time knew just how much it needed to be recorded, but it did. He brought so many priceless folk songs in to public view and became a sort of consequential political musical figure.

John Entwistle of The Who. The first album I bought was Live At Leeds when I was around 13 years old, just at the time I was starting to learn electric bass. John had ways of being really expressive with the bass, something that not a lot of bassists have. I found myself in the songs he wrote for the band and the way he played.”

You can follow Lee on Facebook: Click Here