Chris While is an award-winning songwriter, singer and musician, known particularly for her powerful and moving vocals and the quality of her compositions and live performances. She has enjoyed success both as a solo artist, a songwriter and as a member of a number of notable and influential musical duos and groups. Her music is often classified as English folk, but contains strong American influences.

Early career

She was born and grew up in Barrow-in-Furness, then in Lancashire, where her childhood, work and relationships provided a basis to many of her songs. She began to learn to play the guitar at the age of thirteen and was soon performing and singing at local folk clubs. She left Barrow to tour in a duo with her then husband, pianist and songwriter Joe While. After their divorce in 1991 she embarked on a solo career, releasing the albums Still on Fire (1991) and By Request (1992) in tape format. The albums demonstrated English and American folk and country music influences that have all remained important in her career. The tracks included some traditional material and covers of songs by some major songwriters, but also marked her emergence as a songwriter, in particular the track ‘100 Miles’, which has been frequently covered by British and American artists. This song was also on her first CD format album Look at Me Now (1993) with others written with Nigel Stonier and her former husband, but many of the tracks were single compositions indicating a growing confidence in her own songwriting. From 1992-95 she also performed with accomplished guitarist and songwriter Ken Nicol who contributed to the high level of musicianship on Look at Me Now. Their 1994 recording was eventually released as Shadows on the Wall (1995), which included three While-penned tracks from her early solo material.

The Albion Band

In 1993 she joined the Albion Band as lead singer and guitarist, replacing Julie Matthews

Julie Matthews

Julie Matthews is an award-winning singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and record producer. She has been a member of some of the most influential British folk duos and groups and is acknowledged internationally as a major songwriter, with her work being covered by a wide range of artists and...

. She toured and recorded with the band for four years gaining a much wider audience and reputation, both nationally and internationally, honing her stage technique and contributing individually or collectively to most of the songs on three group albums. The first, Acousticity (1993), included five of her collaborations as writer or arranger with other members of the group. In 1994 Julie Matthews rejoined the band and the 1995 release Albion Heart

Albion Heart

Albion Heart, released in 1995, was the second album of the long running Albion Band's acoustic phase and the first to contain both Chris While and Julie Matthews, marking the beginning of their highly successful collaboration...

included two tracks penned by Chris, as well as the While/Matthews collaborations of ‘Man in the Bottle’ (with Ashley Hutchings

Ashley Hutchings

Ashley Stephen Hutchings is an English bassist, vocalist, songwriter, arranger, band leader, writer and record producer. He was a founder member of three of the most noteworthy English folk-rock bands in the history of the genre; Fairport Convention, Steeleye Span and The Albion Band...

) and together on the title track, which became something of a group anthem and was the first evidence of a fruitful musical collaboration. During this time she co-wrote (along with Ashley Hutchings and Phil Beer

Phil Beer

Phil Beer is an English multi-instrumentalist, composer, producer, and one half of English acoustic roots duo Show of Hands.-Biography:...

) over forty new English folk songs for the TV series The Ridge Riders, which resulted in the release of a sixteen-track CD Ridgeriders (1999), seven of which were jointly written by Chris.

In 1995 Chris and Julie toured Canada as The Women of Albion. The intention was a one-off project, however, audience reception and their growing musical partnership led them towards pursuing joint projects. They released an EP Blue Moon on the Rise with five jointly penned tracks, including the since much recorded reworking of a traditional theme as ‘Young Man Cut Down in His Prime’. In 1996 they joined with Christine Collister

Christine Collister

Christine Collister is a Manx folk, blues and jazz singer-songwriter. She was born and grew up on the Isle of Man and first came to public attention in 1986 as the singer of the theme song for the BBC's television adaptation of Fay Weldon's book The Life and Loves of a She-Devil.Prior to this, in...

, Melanie Harrold and Helen Watson

Helen Watson (singer-songwriter)

Helen Watson is an English singer-songwriter. Her music encompasses blues, soul, jazz, pop and folk.-Biography:Watson began performing on the folk-club circuit during the late 1960s whilst working as a teacher in Manchester...

 to form Daphne’s Flight

Daphne’s Flight

Daphne’s Flight was an album that resulted from a collaboration between five of the most highly regarded female vocalists, instrumentalist and songwriters in the British folk and root music scene: Christine Collister, Melanie Harrold, Julie Matthews, Helen Watson and Chris While. The collaboration...

. They produced an eponymous record that showcased the formidable vocal talent in the group and included another song by Chris that would become an audience favourite "Circle Round the Sun". The last Albion album with Chris and Julie, Demi Paradise, was released in 1996. With more polished production than was often the Albion style, most of Chris’s contributions had already been showcased elsewhere and the band was perhaps no longer the primary focus for either performer. Their last gig with the band was the 1997 Cropredy Festival

Cropredy Festival

Fairport's Cropredy Convention is an annual festival of folk and rock music held on the edge of the village of Cropredy in Oxfordshire, England. It has taken place in August since 1976....

 in August.

In the Big Room to Stages

In 1997 Chris and Julie left the Albion Band to pursue their individual and joint projects and Chris released her fourth solo album, In the Big Room. Two of the songs had writing credits for Julie; she made instrumental contributions on every track and was joint producer with Chris. As well as containing some notable covers, it included one track, ‘Sister Moon’, from early in Chris’s career, but was dominated by Chris’ new writing. This was followed by what was formally Chris and Julie’s first album as a duo, Piecework, in 1998. This included what are often considered some of Chris and Julie’s most powerful songs and marking the emergence of their distinctive and highly polished sound. Chris contributed her vocal and instrumental skills to Julie’s songs as well as penning the powerful title track, which recalls her time in factory work in Barrow. A busy recording schedule resulted in their second album Higher Potential in October 1999, which showcased their diverse influences, from the bluesy "Tire Tracks in the Snow" to the poignant "Love has Gone to War". It also included Chris’s "Light in My Mothers Eye", dedicated to her own mother, which was nominated for best song in the first BBC Radio 2's prestigious Folk Music Awards. The following year there was the much anticipated double live album, Stages, which managed to capture some of the duo’s outstanding live sound and stagecraft, as well as many of their best songs to date.

Quest to Stage 2

Their third joint studio album, Quest (2001), was produced by acclaimed Ghanaian musician Kwame Yeboah of e2K

Edward II (band)

Edward II is an English band named for King Edward II, which play a fusion of world music, English folk and reggae. Active from 1985, the band broke up after losing several key members in 1999, relaunching as "e2K" in 2000...

 and featured his multi-instrumental skills. It was hailed as their best album to date, and as cementing their position "as two of Britain's most important singer/songwriters". It included ‘Shadow of my former self’ featuring a consummate While vocal performance and the live favourite ‘Bruccianni’s Café’. In this period Chris and Julie began to tour frequently in the UK, Europe, Africa, North America and Australia. They are particularly well regarded in the last of these, where they fill large concert halls and attend the major festivals. The 2004 release Perfect Mistake contained fewer of her writing contributions, but some of her most stunning vocals. In 2005 they released Here and Now, recorded at the Worden Arts Centre in Leyland Lancashire, with a more acoustic and stripped-down sound. The live vibe may explain its very positive reception in the music press, especially among more traditional folk commentators. The retrospective The Best of While and Matthews (2006) and Stage 2: Live at the Firehouse (2007), a second live album containing some fan favourites and songs written since 2000, summarised their partnership to that point.

Rosella Red to Together Alone

Chris’s first solo album for ten years, Rosella Red, was released in 2007, with her song writing, instrumental playing and vocals enhanced by strong arrangements and playing by Joe Broughton. Her own songs covered the now familiar subjects of family, youth and relationships, but there were also some stunning covers including the haunting ‘Pennyweight Hill’ written by Michael Kennedy and revisited Chris’s musical roots with a fine version of Joni Mitchell

Joni Mitchell

Joni Mitchell, CC is a Canadian musician, singer songwriter, and painter. Mitchell began singing in small nightclubs in her native Saskatchewan and Western Canada and then busking in the streets and dives of Toronto...

’s "Both Sides Now

Both Sides Now (song)

"Both Sides, Now" is a single by Joni Mitchell. Her recording first appeared on the album Clouds, released in 1969. She re-recorded the song in a jazz style for the album of the same name, released in 2000....

". The album received perhaps the greatest critical acclaim to date, receiving five stars from Maverick magazine, which described ‘a quite superb album from one of the most notable women, currently living up to the reputation she has quite painstakingly built over a number of years in the contemporary folk scene.’ In 2008 Chris and Julie released their sixth studio album Together Alone to further critical acclaim, with Propaganda magazine describing the duo as ‘dealing so very tenderly with simple universal truths, they achieve their impact by an astute economy of expression allied to warmly accessible melodies and arrangements’.

Diverse projects

While pursuing a career based around her work with Julie and her solo endeavours Chris has been able to fit a number of diverse projects into a busy schedule of touring and recording.

St Agnes Fountain
In December 2001 Chris and Julie joined forces with Chris Leslie and David Hughes

David Hughes

David Hughes may refer to:*David Hughes , interim president and CEO of Amtrak, 2005–2006*David Hughes , English astronomer specialising in comets*David Hughes , Swedish bass guitarist...

 to form the Christmas project St Agnes Fountain, which combined original music, unique arrangements of classic seasonal songs, with a good deal of humour. They have toured in the pre-Christmas season every year since and released Acoustic Carols for Christmas in 2001 to critical acclaim and have produced five subsequent albums: Comfort and Joy (2002), The Show (2003), Three Ships (2003), The White Xmas Album (2006), Soul Cake (2008) and The Spirit of Christmas (2010).

Blue Tapestry
In 2002 the duo collaborated with outstanding instrumentalists Martin Allcock, Pete Zorn

Pete Zorn

Pete Zorn is an American multi-instrumentalist who plays roots music. He is best known as a longstanding member of Richard Thompson's touring band, where he serves as backing vocalist and plays acoustic guitar, mandolin, saxophone, flute, and tin whistle.Although he frequently tours with Thompson,...

 and Neil Marshall for a series of live performances under the title 'Blue Tapestry', which cumulated in a rapturous reception by 20,000 fans at the Cropredy Festival

Cropredy Festival

Fairport's Cropredy Convention is an annual festival of folk and rock music held on the edge of the village of Cropredy in Oxfordshire, England. It has taken place in August since 1976....

 that year. The show featured the music of Carole King

Carole King

Carole King is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. King and her former husband Gerry Goffin wrote more than two dozen chart hits for numerous artists during the 1960s, many of which have become standards. As a singer, King had an album, Tapestry, top the U.S...

 and Joni Mitchell

Joni Mitchell

Joni Mitchell, CC is a Canadian musician, singer songwriter, and painter. Mitchell began singing in small nightclubs in her native Saskatchewan and Western Canada and then busking in the streets and dives of Toronto...

 and resulted in a subsequent release of the highly regarded album Blue Tapestry Live (2003), on which Chris was described as having a ‘fluid, fabulous voice just eats up those complex vocal pyrotechnics with pure joy and ease.'

Chris and Kellie While
Chris’s eventual replacement in the Albion Band was her daughter Kellie

Kellie While

Kellie While is a British singer-songwriter considered to have one of the outstanding voices of her generation. She has been a member of some of the most influential and innovative British folk groups of her era, is a much sought after contributor to the work of major artists and has emerged in...

, also a highly talented singer and guitarist. From the age of thirteen Kellie had accompanied her mother to folk clubs to sing. They revisited this era with an album entitled Chris and Kellie While in 2004, notable for its strong harmonies and emotional delivery of standards and some of Chris’s best songs. Since then they have toured together frequently, producing a second album, Too Few Songs, in 2006, which showcased some of the best songwriting available and a version of the previously unavailable While/Matthews track ‘36 Miles Away from the Sea’. The album received widespread critical acclaim, as the review in the Daily Telegraph put it ‘each song remains a showcase for the delicate, complementary powers of expression of two expert vocalists, truly living up to the “more like sisters” description of one admirer, Ralph McTell’.

Radio work
As a duo While and Matthews have worked on several musical projects for the BBC including Tales of the Towpath (2005), a radio documentary about the building of the Manchester Ship Canal, and the 2006 Radio Ballads.

Party on the Lawn
While and Matthews customarily hold an annual festival 'Party on the Lawn' which takes place at:
Prebendal Farm, Bishopstone, Wiltshire in June, however, other commitments in 2009 have meant that it has not take place.

Rejoice the Voice
Chris and Julie, along with fellow Daphne's Flight member Helen Watson, also tour with their woman’s vocal workshop 'Rejoice the Voice', providing women with an opportunity to sing collectively and improve their vocal technique. In 2009 Julie, Chris and Helen released Bare Bones, featuring some of the songs they worked on at the 'Rejoice the Voice' workshops.

Liege and Lief Reunion
Over the years Chris has made many appearances with Fairport Convention

Fairport Convention

Fairport Convention are an English folk rock and later electric folk band, formed in 1967 who are still recording and touring today. They are widely regarded as the most important single group in the English folk rock movement...

 including singing 'Matty Groves

Matty Groves

"Matty Groves" is an English folk ballad that describes an adulterous tryst between a man and a woman that is ended when the woman's husband discovers and kills them. It dates to at least the 17th century, and is one of the Child Ballads collected by 19th-century American scholar Francis James Child...

' at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards

BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards

The BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards celebrate outstanding achievement during the previous year within the field of folk music. The awards have been given annually since 2000 by British radio station BBC Radio 2....

 2006, when they received the award for 'Most Influential Folk Album of All Time'. There may be no higher compliment in the English folk music community than when Chris was asked to take the place of the late Sandy Denny

Sandy Denny

Sandy Denny , born Alexandra Elene Maclean Denny, was an English singer and songwriter, perhaps best known as the lead singer for the folk rock band Fairport Convention...

 to re-create the classic Fairport album Liege & Lief

Liege & Lief

Liege & Lief is the fourth album by the English rock band Fairport Convention. It is the third and final album the group released in the UK in 1969, all of which prominently feature Sandy Denny as lead female vocalist...

with the original 1969 line-up at the 2007 Cropredy Festival

Cropredy Festival

Fairport's Cropredy Convention is an annual festival of folk and rock music held on the edge of the village of Cropredy in Oxfordshire, England. It has taken place in August since 1976....

 in front of 20,000 fans, in a performance described as ‘sublime’.

Awards

Chris won the FAETA award for best female vocalist in 2007. Chris and Julie have been nominated as best duo in the BBC Radio 2 Folk awards seven times and as best live act twice and won the 'Best Duo' award in 2009.

Solo Albums

• Still on Fire (1991)
• By Request (1992)
• Look at me Now (1993)
• In the Big Room (1997)
• Rosella Red (2007)
• Still on Fire/By Request rerelease (2009)

With the Albion Band

• Acousticity (1993)
• Albion Heart
  Albion Heart
  Albion Heart, released in 1995, was the second album of the long running Albion Band's acoustic phase and the first to contain both Chris While and Julie Matthews, marking the beginning of their highly successful collaboration...
  
  (1995)
• Demi Paradise (1996)
• The Acoustic Years 1993-97 (1997)
• Albion Heart On Tour (2004)
• Acousticity On Tour (2004)

With Julie Matthews

• Blue Moon on the Rise EP (1995)
• Piecework (1998)
• Higher Potential (1999)
• Stages (2000)
• Quest (2001)
• Perfect Mistake (2004)
• Here and Now (2005)
• The Best of While and Matthews (2006)
• Stage 2: Live at the Firehouse (2007)
• Together Alone (2008)
• Hitting the Ground Running (2010)

With Phil Beer and Ashley Hutchings

• Ridgeriders (1999)
• Ridgeriders in Concert (2001)

With St Agnes Fountain

• Acoustic Carols for Christmas (2001)
• Comfort and Joy (2002)
• The Show (2003)
• Three Ships (2003)
• The White Xmas Album (2006)
• Soul Cake (2008)
• The Spirit of Christmas (2010)