Buy the limited edition CD of Folk Songs for Double Bass

On his debut album Folk Songs for Double Bass, Neal Heppleston takes a selection of popular folk songs with strong lyrical content, stripping them back to the basic melody to create worlds in which the lyrics live through the instrumentation. With contributions from Jim Ghedi , Sharron Krauss and Nick Jonah Davis , Folk Songs for Double Bass transposes traditional folk melodies onto the double bass and created soundscapes around them, building different worlds for them to live in.

Featuring string quartet, brass, flutes, piano, harmonium, electric guitar, dulcimer, banjo, lap steel, singing saw, two drummers and other bits and pieces, the undercurrent mood of the album was created by drones that crop up throughout the album, with each track shifting in different tangents. “I wanted each song to have its own character, but to capture a similar mood running through the whole album,” says Neal.​

Neal plays upright and electric bass for Jim Ghedi, Sharron Kraus and Big Eyes Family Players. A double bass maker and repairer by trade, Neal studies at the Newark School of Violin Making, and briefly with master luthiers in France and England. In 2016, he set up his workshop in central Sheffield, before relocating in 2019 to Mirfield in West Yorkshire.