Allie Fox

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Born in Windsor to a Scottish father and an English mother, Allie’s eclectic musical upbringing exposed her to a wide range of musical styles, particularly classical music and jazz vocalists such as Ella Fitzgerald, Peggy Lee and Nat King Cole. At the age of 11, inspired by the folk boom of the 60’s and her discovery of country blues, she took up the acoustic guitar and taught herself how to play finger-picking style. Heavily influenced by American blues and soul music and folk songwriters such as Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen and Joni Mitchell, Allie was writing and performing her own songs by the age of 13. Her picking style - mainly in open guitar tunings - owes much to her early passion for the music of guitar luminaries John Fahey, Leo Kottke and Robbie Basho. Other key influences during that period include Stefan Grossman, Rory Block, John Renbourn, Bert Jansch & many of the great blues guitar legends such as Mississippi John Hurt, Rev Gary Davis and Big Bill Broonzy.

Allie has been performing professionally and semi-professionally in venues and festivals throughout Britain for over 30 years. In the 70’s and 80’s she performed as a solo singer-songwriter on the folk club and arts centre circuit, mainly in the South-East, guesting in established venues such as the famous Troubadour in London. For a while she sang in the acapella group Grendel’s Ring, whose claim to fame was singing at the Young Tradition farewell concert at Cecil Sharp House.