“One of the instrumental folk albums of the year” - Bright Young Folk
A Multi-Instrumentalist composer known for his guitar playing with KAN, Baltic Crossing and 422, Ian has battled through cancer treatment and created a tunebook and album chronicling a lifetime of composing.
Highlighting Ian’s deft musicianship on melodeon, guitar, double bass & pipe organ, with contributions from his bandmates in KAN and Baltic Crossing, as well as other musicians like Dreamers Circus, Shetland’s Chris Stout, Young Scots Trad Musician of the year Eryn Rae, and Stalwarts of Northumbrian Folk Music Kathryn Tickell, Alistair Anderson and Emily Stephenson, it has a maturity and quality of playing which showcases Stephenson’s catchy Melodies with interesting (and often moving) arrangements.
In June 2023 Ian was diagnosed with a brain tumour which was then found to be an incurable type of high grade cancer.
Faced with an uncertain future, Ian threw himself into life and appealed to the wider community with a crowdfunding campaign to allow him to create a book of his tunes, drawn from a life spent touring and producing records in the British and Scandinavian folk music scenes.
The campaign raised an astonishing £36,000 and the resulting books and CDs have now been posted out to supporters in all corners of the globe.
The oldest tune in the book comes from 2000 when Ian was just 17 years old and performing with ‘422’, a band which won the BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Award that year. The most recent tune ‘You’ll find me by the ocean’ was written recently during his radiotherapy treatment, and refers to his intended final resting place by the sea.
Ian is resolved to keep playing concerts and enjoying life and has festival gigs lined up with KAN in Ireland and Italy this summer - a welcome reunion and one of the positive things to come out of his illness.
He shows no sign of slowing down and keeps busy playing with Andy May Trio, Rachael McShane, and Alistair Anderson, producing records at his studio in Northumberland, and directing the Rothbury Traditional Music Festival in July!
This month sees the public release of his new album ‘Return from Helsinki and other tunes’ on all streaming platforms, and CDs and tune books are available from his website www.ianstephenson.me - where you can also donate towards his creative projects or commission Ian to compose a tune for you.
Produced, recorded and mixed by Ian Stephenson
Co-Producer: Andrew Cadie
Mastered by: Nick Cooke
Additional Recording by Antti Järvelä, Kevin Lees, Rune Sørensen, Ale Carr.
Ian Stephenson: C#/D Melodeon, Guitar, Double Bass, Harmonium, Pipe Organ, Northumbrian Pipes, Percussion Programming
Brian Finnegan: Flutes & Whistles
Jim Goodwin: Drums
Aidan O’Rourke: Fiddle
Chris Stout: Fiddle
Kathryn Tickell: Fiddle
Alistair Anderson: Concertina
Rune Sørensen: Fiddle
Ale Carr: Cittern
Nikolaj Busk: Piano Accordion
Antti Järvelä: Fiddle, Double Bass
Esko Järvelä: 5-string fiddle
Kristian Bugge: fiddle
Andy May: Piano
Emily Stephenson: Fiddle
Eryn Rae: Fiddle
Erik Rydvall: Nyckelharpa
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