In 2002, James Partridge and Shane Kirk, sometime creative collaborators and band cohorts who had not made music with each other (or indeed, in James’ case, at all) for a decade, decided that

it was time to stop saying, “we really must get together and write

some songs sometime”, and to get together and write some songs. Which they did.

It was meant to be very simple - just two chaps with acoustic

guitars, telling stories. The resulting songs were kind of

bluegrassy., but sort of folky, and then again a bit country.

Then it just grew. First, ‘Gibbon’ was roped in, to add

not just bass lines, but his own unique feel for melody,

harmonies and arrangement as well as brass. One of the songs,

Let’s do it Country, needed a female voice for a verse, so Helen stepped in – and refused to leave, especially once she’d helped to write a good chunk of what turned out to be the second album

‘Too’. James found a mandolin and dobro player at an Asparagus Fair. Tony Winn, a banjo player, offered to fit in gigs between acting engagements and his own ‘Singing in the Bath’ show. Fiddly Richard (that’s not his real name) shyly rosined up the bow and quickly became indispensable. The multi-talented Radar just turned up to one of the early gigs and hung around until he emigrated. And so on…

“Tree” is SftBH’s third album. At the moment, the line up can feature anything from two to nine members, plus a couple of guests here and there. It’s still very hard to pin the band’s ‘sound’ down. But at the end of the day, it’s just two chaps, with acoustic guitars, telling stories.