Performance

Songs and stories to enlighten and entertain

The songs and stories that David is most interested in feature ordinary people in real and often challenging circumstances, or deal in some mythopoeic way with the existential mystery of being human. For David, singing ballads and telling tales is the ultimate sustainable creative practice - leaving no trace behind except in the listener's mind.

David's material is drawn mainly from the rich mythological, folkloric and historical traditions of both Britain (England, Scotland and Wales) and Ireland. David has been playing acoustic guitars and singing traditional ballads for many decades, taking up oral storytelling as well at the turn of the last millennium. David believes that oral storytelling practice in particular has broad application in life, and that, as well as being performance art and entertainment, storytelling can inspire transformation in people and make a highly beneficial contribution in areas such as education and lifelong learning, psychological wellbeing, organisational improvement and personal development.

Since 2000, David has performed in the Bath area at the Glastonbury Festival (Green Fields), the Priddy Folk Festival, the Bath Literature Festival and the Bath Fringe Festival, as well as at numerous events and venues further afield, from Exeter in the south west to Newcastle-upon-Tyne in the north east. David performs on his own, as part of a loose association of folk musicians and singers (Dark Tarn) or together with his Fire Springs colleagues. Below is a small selection of recordings of David in action. If you are interested either in booking David or in performing with him you can email david@darktarn.co.uk or complete the contact form at the bottom of this page. Thank you.