Lady Maisery


Lady Maisery are an English folk vocal harmony trio composed of Hannah James Hazel Askew and Rowan Rheingans.
Lady Maisery sing traditional and contemporary folk songs as well as exploring the tradition of diddling or tune singing, which has nearly died out in England, but is still prevalent in Scandinavia and other parts of Europe. They released their first album, Weave & Spin in 2011, and their second, Mayday, in 2013. Their third album, Cycle, was released in October 2016

Name

Lady Maisery's name is based on one that appears in a number of traditional folk songs, most notably the Child ballad "Lady Maisry", but also "The Laily Worm & The Machrel of The Sea".

History

In 2011, Lady Maisery released Weave & Spin and were subsequently nominated for the Horizon Award in the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards, and for Best Debut in the Spiral Awards. The album was also made 'Album of the Week' in The Independent. In 2012 they were featured on BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour and in 2013 they have twice appeared on BBC Radio 3's classical music programme 'In Tune'.
In 2013, they released a charity download single to mark International Women’s Day on 8 March—a version of Kate Bush’s song "This Woman’s Work"--with proceeds donated to the charity coalition . This preceded the release of their second album, Mayday, which was launched in both London and Sheffield.
During 2013, Lady Maisery also gave a number of performances of "Rest", a secular requiem, composed for them by Emily Hall and Toby Litt as the third in the pair's trilogy of song cycles. Performances included the National Portrait Gallery, London, Spittalfields Summer Festival and Deal Festival.

Discography

Albums

Singles

Reviews

Weave & Spin