# June Tabor
**June Tabor** (born 1947 in Warwick, England) is an English folk singer regarded as one of the foremost voices of the British folk revival, known for an austere, dark contralto delivery and a repertoire stretching from traditional ballads to contemporary songwriters, jazz, and art song.[1](https://www.liverate.com/artists/june-tabor) • [2](https://musiccritic.com/june-tabor/ashore/) Aside from a long solo career, she has recorded with [Maddy Prior](https://www.edgepedia.org/maddy-prior) as the Silly Sisters and with the folk-rock band Oysterband.[3](https://www.allmusic.com/artist/june-tabor-mn0000838414)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Born | 1947, Warwick, England[1](https://www.liverate.com/artists/june-tabor) |
| First album | *Airs and Graces* (Topic, 1976), her solo debut, featuring her version of *And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda*[4](https://mainlynorfolk.info/june.tabor/records/) • [5](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2011/feb/10/june-tabor-ashore-interview) |
| Collaborations | Silly Sisters with Maddy Prior (1976); Oysterband on *Freedom and Rain* (1990) and *Ragged Kingdom* (2011)[3](https://www.allmusic.com/artist/june-tabor-mn0000838414) • [6](https://www.oysterband.co.uk/biog/index.html) |
| Longtime accompanists | Pianist Huw Warren (from *Aqaba*, 1988, onward) and accordion player Andy Cutting[5](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2011/feb/10/june-tabor-ashore-interview) • [2](https://musiccritic.com/june-tabor/ashore/) |
| 2012 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards | Folk Singer of the Year; with Oysterband, Best Album and Best Group for *Ragged Kingdom* and Best Traditional Track for *Bonnie Bunch of Roses*[7](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2012/feb/09/june-tabor-bbc-folk-awards) |
| Repertoire reach | Traditional ballads, songs by Elvis Costello, Richard Thompson, Cyril Tawney, and Les Barker, and art song set to texts from Shakespeare and A. E. Housman[8](https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/june-tabor-aleyn-topic-1.97050) • [3](https://www.allmusic.com/artist/june-tabor-mn0000838414) |
| Recognition by peers | Elvis Costello: "If you don't like listening to June Tabor, you should stop listening to music"[5](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2011/feb/10/june-tabor-ashore-interview) |
## Early life and folk clubs
Tabor grew up in a Warwick house with no family singalongs and no songs handed down through generations; by her own account, the idea of being a folk singer took hold long before she had a repertoire.[5](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2011/feb/10/june-tabor-ashore-interview) After seeing Martin Carthy on BBC1's Sunday evening slot, she and her best friend went to a new folk club in nearby [Leamington Spa](https://www.edgepedia.org/leamington-spa); at 16, underage in a pub, she sang *Michael Row the Boat Ashore* and *Kumbaya*.[5](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2011/feb/10/june-tabor-ashore-interview) Her first paid gig, in the same year, brought "£4 and a train fare" to play the Fighting Cocks in Kingston.[5](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2011/feb/10/june-tabor-ashore-interview)
She went to Oxford, reading modern and medieval languages at St Hugh's College and becoming the first person in her family to attend university.[5](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2011/feb/10/june-tabor-ashore-interview) A photograph shows her captaining St Hugh's College on a 1968 *University Challenge* broadcast.[5](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2011/feb/10/june-tabor-ashore-interview) As treasurer of the university's Heritage Society she immersed herself in traditional music, meeting in a room above a pub with an Aunt Sally skittle alley underneath, where visiting singers included Anne Briggs, whose vibrato-free style of English understatement shaped Tabor's own sensibility.[5](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2011/feb/10/june-tabor-ashore-interview)
## Recording career
**The 1970s.** After moving to London and working as a librarian in Haringey, Tabor entered a studio for the first time in 1976, when Maddy Prior of Steeleye Span agreed to record a Chrysalis solo album only on condition that she share the billing; the duo named themselves the Silly Sisters, backed by folk-scene figures including Martin Carthy, Nic Jones, and Andy Irvine.[5](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2011/feb/10/june-tabor-ashore-interview) • [3](https://www.allmusic.com/artist/june-tabor-mn0000838414) Her solo debut, *Airs and Graces*, appeared on Topic Records the same year, followed by *Ashes and Diamonds* in 1977 and a collaboration with guitarist Martin Simpson, *A Cut Above*, in 1980.[4](https://mainlynorfolk.info/june.tabor/records/) In 1978 she also supplied vocals for a television advert for the margarine Golden Vale, an episode she has retold with amusement since.[5](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2011/feb/10/june-tabor-ashore-interview)
**A late start in earnest.** Tabor left music for a time to open a restaurant in Penrith, losing what she called a considerable sum of money.[5](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2011/feb/10/june-tabor-ashore-interview) She has said she began a full-time music career only at 40, describing the transition as terrifying; *Aqaba* (1988), with songs such as *The King of Rome*, began what one interviewer called an imperial phase.[9](https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/music/june-tabor-will-i-ever-write-a-song-i-would-say-the-answer-is-no-1.2443480) • [5](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2011/feb/10/june-tabor-ashore-interview) From *Aqaba* onward, Huw Warren's piano has been a fixture on her records.[5](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2011/feb/10/june-tabor-ashore-interview)
**Oysterband.** Tabor's first collaboration with Oysterband, a folk-rock band that had risen from ceilidh-band roots to become one of the UK's biggest folk acts, produced *Freedom and Rain* in 1990, a well-received album received particularly warmly in the United States.[10](https://klofmag.com/2012/06/an-interview-with-the-oysterband/) • [6](https://www.oysterband.co.uk/biog/index.html) The partnership renewed 21 years later with *Ragged Kingdom* (2011), described by KLOF Mag as one of the best-selling folk-rock albums of the new millennium.[11](https://klofmag.com/2024/02/oysterband-tour-with-june-tabor/) At the 2012 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards, held at Salford's Lowry theater, Tabor and Oysterband won four prizes: best group, best album for *Ragged Kingdom*, best traditional track for their brooding arrangement of the Napoleonic ballad *Bonnie Bunch of Roses*, and folk singer of the year for Tabor, who beat a shortlist of younger nominees Jackie Oates, Emily Smith, and Jon Boden.[7](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2012/feb/09/june-tabor-bbc-folk-awards)
**Solo maturity.** Critics describe her albums since 1988 as growing slower, darker, and more introspective, moving beyond the British traditional songbook into art song.[2](https://musiccritic.com/june-tabor/ashore/) *Aleyn* (1997), recorded live and stripped of audience noise, ranged from the traditional ballad *Johnny O'Bredislee* to Richard Thompson's *The Great Valerio* and the Yiddish song *Di Nakht*.[8](https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/june-tabor-aleyn-topic-1.97050) *An Echo of Hooves* (2003) gathered ballads, and *Rosa Mundi* (2001) built a set around roses.[5](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2011/feb/10/june-tabor-ashore-interview) In 2011 she released two albums: *Ashore*, a concept set of songs about the sea including Costello's *Shipbuilding* and Cyril Tawney's *The Grey Funnel Line*, and *Ragged Kingdom* with Oysterband.[12](https://www.the-independent.com/arts-entertainment/music/reviews/album-june-tabor-ashore-topic-2213671.html) • [3](https://www.allmusic.com/artist/june-tabor-mn0000838414) In 2013 she collaborated with saxophonist Iain Ballamy and pianist Huw Warren on *Quercus*, released on ECM.[3](https://www.allmusic.com/artist/june-tabor-mn0000838414)
## Singing style and repertoire
Tabor sings in a low tenor-range voice (described in reviews as a grainy contralto) that combines close musical control with spare ornamentation; reviews note her use of silence as emphasis and a delivery compared at various times to European art song.[13](https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/crossing-the-tabor-folk-music-with-attitude-you-got-it-1441363.html) • [14](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-03-29-ca-16470-story.html) She regards herself as an interpreter of existing songs rather than a writer; asked whether she would ever write a song, she answered no.[9](https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/music/june-tabor-will-i-ever-write-a-song-i-would-say-the-answer-is-no-1.2443480) Her repertoire spans more than three centuries of song, from John Playford's 1651 collection *The Dancing Master* to contemporary writers, and she keeps material by [Elvis Costello](https://www.edgepedia.org/elvis-costello), who has written songs for her, and Richard Thompson alongside Border ballads such as *Hughie Graeme* and the doom-laden sailor narrative *Sir Patrick Spens*.[14](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-03-29-ca-16470-story.html) • [15](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/reviews/june-tabor-huntingdon-hall-worcester-528564.html)
A 1993 Los Angeles Times review described her concerts as closer to a trip to the museum than an average pop show, audiences sitting nearly motionless through a 90-minute set.[14](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-03-29-ca-16470-story.html) [John Peel](https://www.edgepedia.org/john-peel), after playing a Tabor track on his show, commented that she was "a woman who needs to have her neck bitten"; at her next session for him she asked him to remove his teeth first.[5](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2011/feb/10/june-tabor-ashore-interview)
## Influence
A generation of folk singers, in particular Emily Portman and Rachel Unthank of the Unthanks, is described by critics as carrying Tabor's stark storytelling style forward.[5](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2011/feb/10/june-tabor-ashore-interview) The Unthanks performed a brass-band arrangement of her signature song *The King of Rome* at the 2012 Folk Awards.[7](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2012/feb/09/june-tabor-bbc-folk-awards) In February 2024, Oysterband announced a farewell tour, A Long Long Goodbye, revisiting their catalog including the Tabor collaborations, and a 2024 report framed the tour as a farewell to June Tabor as well.[11](https://klofmag.com/2024/02/oysterband-tour-with-june-tabor/) • [16](https://salutfolk.com/2024/10/23/farewell-to-oysterband-1and-to-june-tabor/)
## References
1. [June Tabor: Live Tour & Concert Review Consensus, LiveRate](https://www.liverate.com/artists/june-tabor)
2. [June Tabor: Ashore Review, MusicCritic](https://musiccritic.com/june-tabor/ashore/)
3. [June Tabor: Biography, Discography, Albums & Expert Reviews, AllMusic (Richie Unterberger)](https://www.allmusic.com/artist/june-tabor-mn0000838414)
4. [June Tabor: Chronological Discography, Mainly Norfolk](https://mainlynorfolk.info/june.tabor/records/)
5. [June Tabor: watery, not grave, The Guardian (Peter Paphides, 10 February 2011)](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2011/feb/10/june-tabor-ashore-interview)
6. [Oysterband Biography, oysterband.co.uk](https://www.oysterband.co.uk/biog/index.html)
7. [June Tabor triumphs at BBC Radio 2 Folk awards, The Guardian (Colin Irwin, 9 February 2012)](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2012/feb/09/june-tabor-bbc-folk-awards)
8. [June Tabor: Aleyn (Topic), The Irish Times (Joe Breen, 15 August 1997)](https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/june-tabor-aleyn-topic-1.97050)
9. [June Tabor: Will I ever write a song? I would say the answer is no, The Irish Times (Ian Maleney, 26 November 2015)](https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/music/june-tabor-will-i-ever-write-a-song-i-would-say-the-answer-is-no-1.2443480)
10. [An Interview with the Oysterband, KLOF Mag (June 2012)](https://klofmag.com/2012/06/an-interview-with-the-oysterband/)
11. [Oysterband call time and announce tour with June Tabor, KLOF Mag (February 2024)](https://klofmag.com/2024/02/oysterband-tour-with-june-tabor/)
12. [Album: June Tabor, Ashore (Topic), The Independent (Nick Coleman, 12 February 2011)](https://www.the-independent.com/arts-entertainment/music/reviews/album-june-tabor-ashore-topic-2213671.html)
13. [Crossing the Tabor: Folk music with attitude? You got it, The Independent](https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/crossing-the-tabor-folk-music-with-attitude-you-got-it-1441363.html)
14. [POP MUSIC REVIEW: June Tabor at McCabes, Los Angeles Times (Jean Rosenbluth, 29 March 1993)](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-03-29-ca-16470-story.html)
15. [June Tabor, Huntingdon Hall, Worcester, The Independent (Roderic Dunnett, 16 March 2005)](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/reviews/june-tabor-huntingdon-hall-worcester-528564.html)
16. [Farewell to Oysterband (2) and to June Tabor, Salut! Folk (23 October 2024)](https://salutfolk.com/2024/10/23/farewell-to-oysterband-1and-to-june-tabor/)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Music › Musicians and ensembles › Individual musical biographies › Blues, folk, and roots musicians › Contemporary folk singer-songwriters › 1970s to 1990s singer-songwriters*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 19, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Sep 19, 2026; Oct 12, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license