June Tabor

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June Tabor (born 1947) is an English folk singer.

June Tabor was born in Warwick. She worked as a librarian and with her then husband David Taylor, ran a restaurant called "Passepartout" in Penrith, Cumbria, England before finally becoming a full-time singer in the 1990s. Like many others she was inspired to sing by hearing Anne Briggs. In 1965 June heard the EP Hazards of Love. "I went and locked myself in the bathroom for a fortnight and drove my mother mad. I learnt the songs on that EP note for note, twiddle for twiddle. That's how I started singing. If I hadn't heard her I'd have probably done something entirely different." She went to Oxford University and appeared on University Challenge in 1968, as captain of one of the college teams. She joined the Heritage Society and sang with a group called Mistral. One of her earliest recording was in 1972 on an anthology called "Stagfolk Live". Her breakthrough occurred in 1976 when she recorded the album Silly Sisters with Maddy Prior and had her own first album. She later joined again with Prior, this time using the name Silly Sisters for their duo.

Starting in 1977 Martin Simpson joined her in the recording studio for three albums before he moved to America in 1987 to be with his American wife Jessica. In 1992 Elvis Costello wrote "All this Useless Beauty" specifically for June, and she recorded it on "Angel Tiger". Elvis didn't record it until 1996, on his album of the same title. At about this time June moved from Cumbria to Wales, and turned professional. Over the years she has wandered into areas that some might call jazz or art-song, but always with a sparse and sombre tone to it. Her 2003 album An Echo of Hooves marked a return to the traditional ballad after an absence of several years, and was highly acclaimed. "Always" (2005) is a boxed set of 4 CDs, spanning her whole career and containing rare recordings. Martin Simpson has returned from America to be a guest guitarist on recent albums.

In 1990, June Tabor recorded an album with the Irish rock band The Oyster Band titled "Freedom and Rain". She went on tour with the Oyster band, and they Rykodisc published a limited run promotional live album the following year. Many of her current fans first discovered her through this tour and album with the Oyster Band, which has a large international following.

In 2004 she was named Folk Singer of the Year at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards.

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