Phoebe Smith

about

Phoebe Smith (1913-2001) is thought by many to have been one of England's greatest traditional singers. She had a style and delivery that stunned an audience into silence, and to hear her in full flight at the end of her CD "The Yellow Handkerchief" is a revelation. She was born in 1913 in Faversham, Kent, and was one of the daughters of Bill Scamp and his wife Ann Jones. She was raised in a large Gypsy family and spent much of her early life picking fruit in Kent. Having married Joe Smith, a scrap dealer, she moved around Kent and Essex before setting in Woodbridge, Suffolk. Phoebe learnt many of her songs as a young girl from her elder sisters. Her uncle, Oliver Scamp, a Kentish horse-dealer, was also an important source of songs. Joe Smith played the fiddle and Phoebe loved to step-dance to her husband's music. Phoebe spent much of her life on the road - Essex for sugar-beeting, Kent for cherries, plums and pears, then up to the Fens for the potatoes and it was there she would meet her own and other families and possibly swap a song or two. Her CD "The Yellow Handkerchief" contains a classic mixture of ballads like 'Green Bushes', A Blacksmith Courted Me' and 'Barbara Allen' as well as the traveller's anthem 'Romany Rye' and even a stepdance to the music of Irish fiddler Martin Byrnes. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.

top songs

albums

Once I Had A True Love

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Songs of the Travelling People

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I'm A Romany Rai

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Three Score And Ten: A Voice To The People

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Voice Of The People Volume 11 - My Father's The King Of The Gypsies

The Incredible Music Of The Gypsies

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Hidden English

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Voice of the People 03: O'er His Grave The Grass Grew Green (Tragic Ballads)

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Good People, Take Warning

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Voice of the People 10: Who's That at My Bed Window?

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Voice of the People 06: Tonight I'll Make You My Bride

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Voice of the People, Vol. 11: My Father's the King of the Gypsies

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