June 2019 will see Fylde Guitars release its long-awaited CD designed to raise funds for charities including MIND, Help Musicians UK, and The Woodland Trust. The CD, whose title Strings That Nimble Leap continues the Shakespearian theme that has inspired the naming of many Fylde guitars over the years, features 52 artists on two CDs with a 128-page booklet with 43 tracks, 20 specially recorded, 16 specially written including instrumentals and songs, many of which are not recorded elsewhere. Six string and twelve string guitars. nylon string and jazz guitars, tenor and baritone guitars. acoustic bass and resonator guitars, mandolins, mandolas, bouzoukis and ukulele are all featured!
The artists included on what must be one of the most enterprising projects ever undertaken by a British musical instrument company, reads like Who’s Who of the contemporary guitar scene, comprising: Eric Bibb. David Buckingham. Adam Bulley and Chas MacKenzie. Hugh Burns. Charlotte Carrivick. Clive Carroll. Martin Carthy. Phil Cool. Graham Coxon. Barbara Dickson. Chris Difford and Boo Hewerdine. Troy Donockley. John Doyle. Dave Pegg and Chris Leslie, Fairport Convention. Archie Fisher. Antonio Forcione. Bob Fox and Stu Luckley. Peter Howarth, Frontm3n. Vin Garbutt. Gordon Giltrap. Lisa Hannigan. Remi Harris. Toby Hay. Megan Henwood. Hobson & Lees. Nick Hooper. Andy Irvine. John James. Nic Jones. Birelli Lagrene and Adam Palma. Jez Lowe. David Mead. Will McNicol and Luke Selby. Elliott Morris. Ken Nicol. Henry Olsen. Tristan Seume. Martin Simpson. John Smith. Ben Walker. Billy Watman. Innes Watson and Chris While.
Fylde’s Roger Bucknall MBE says: ‘This idea for this project has been bubbling away for many years. The original “Fylde Acoustic” Album was made in 1977, but is, sadly, no longer available. I have mentioned the possibility of an “update” many times, and when Chrys Titshall raised it with me in 2018, I realised what a great opportunity we had, with such a long list of artists and friends who might be willing to help.
‘Moira and I have often discussed finding a charity that we could devote some time to, but then life gets in the way and the time simply disappears. Here we had an almost ready-made opportunity to build an exciting project that might raise some decent sums of money for important causes.
‘We all know people who need help. Musicians often work by themselves, and sometimes have less of the support that others have. This was a “moment of clarity” for us, which made sense of the whole idea, it didn’t need to be simply a marketing opportunity or a vanity project. We could raise money for charities that support musicians.
‘Trees are obviously very important to me, to guitar making and to music. The idea of helping to plant trees was the final piece of the jigsaw, the whole project seemed complete, at least in principle.
‘What had not occurred to us was that it would take nine months, and many sleepless nights’.
Released on 7th June the UK price is £22 inc P&P. In Europe it will cost £26 inc P&P and £27 inc P&P for sales to the rest of the world.
