Bill Jones

Sunderland-based folk singer.

The Sunderland-based folk singer returns to the fray with the album Wonderful Fairytale.

If you've not heard of Bill Jones, it's because she's been away for a while. Perhaps you missed her the first time around, when she was coming up with similar bright young British folk hopes at the turn of the century (including Kate Rusby, Kathryn Roberts and Karine Polwart). Or perhaps you caught her at the time, but she's slipped your mind. That slight introverted tinge behind her clear, powerful voice and the unassuming friendly diffidence of her stage presence has sometimes allowed her to slip away like a warm dream And then, from 2004, she took a twelve-year sidestep. Maybe to the outside world, it seemed as if silence had fallen on her career: but any committed folk musician will tell you that even if any recordings don't appear for a while the actual work, the engagement, the involvement, never really stops.That decade-and-a-half (during which Bill concentrated on family and on teaching) has left its own imprint on 'Wonderful Fairytale'. The new album mingles time-tested folk tales about highwaymen, macabre loves, enduring friendships and tragic deaths with subtle singer-songwriter takes on more contemporary and personal concerns (feminist reflections; the re-evaluation of relationships; the ambiguous, sometimes joyful but always deepening effects of domesticity)