Biography All Music Guide Wikipedia
Group Members: Kate Rusby And Kathryn Roberts, Eilidh Shaw, Kate Rusby
All Music Guide:
For over a decade, the British folk band the Poozies has combined innovative arrangements with a love of classic Celtic melodies. The group formed in 1989, when former Sileas members Mary Macmaster (metal-strung and electro harps, percussion, and vocals) and Patsy Seddon (gut and electro harps, percussion, vocals, and fiddle) shared their idea of an all-female folk group with guitarist/vocalist/percussionist Sally Barker. They connected with accordion player/vocalist Karen Tweed and fiddler Jenny Gardner. Though Gardner left shortly after their first few gigs -- which included a performance at the Shetland Folk Festival -- the Poozies continued as a quartet and released 1993's Chantoozies and 1995's Dansoozies with this lineup. Barker left the group in 1996 and was replaced briefly by up-and-coming vocalist Kate Rusby, who recorded the Come Raise Your Head EP and the Infinite Blue album with them before continuing her solo career. By the late '90s, vocalist/fiddler Eilidh Shaw joined the group, and the 2000 release Raise Your Head: A Retrospective celebrated the group's first ten years.
Wikipedia:
The Poozies are an all-women band that produce folk music from the English and Scottish traditions. The band perform traditional and self-composed material. Contemporary songs written by Sally Barker also feature heavily in the current live set. The band recorded a new album, “ Yellow Like Sunshine”, in the Spring of 2009, and launched it at the Acoustic Music Centre at St Brides in Edinburgh on August 18, 2009, as part of the Edinburgh International Festival Fringe
Biography
The Poozies formed in 1990. Mary Macmaster (harp) and Patsy Seddon (harp) were performing together as the duo Sileas and worked with Sally Barker (guitar and vocals) on her solo album. Together they decided that an all-women folk group was a good idea, and when Barker met Karen Tweed in Hong Kong she agreed to join the project. Fiddler Jenny Gardener was the original fifth member of the group but left before the band recorded their first album (on which she appears as a guest on the track 'Foggy Mountain Top').
After the release of Dansoozies (1993) and Chantoozies (1995), Barker left the group in 1996 in order to start a family. Kate Rusby joined the band as lead vocalist, and this lineup released one EP, Come Raise Your Head (1997), and a full-length album, Infinite Blue (1998). However, as Rusby's solo career took off, she was replaced on vocals by Eilidh Shaw, also an accomplished fiddler.
In 2000 the band released Raise your head: A Retrospective to celebrate ten years of The Poozies, and in 2003 released Changed Days Same Roots. In 2006 Barker rejoined the group to make it a five-piece again, and they toured with this lineup until December 2007. Tweed left the band in December 2007, and was replaced by Mairearad Green from the band, the Unusual Suspects.
