A master collaborator, songwriter, cellist and artist in her own right, Beth Porter of Marshes is well established in the music world.
The songs are dark, quirky, charming and ethereal Chamber-Pop, and depict themes such as fear, confusion, money, the weather and the odd cheesy love song, all carried by Beth’s pure and unaffected voice. Marshes have been likened to Cat Power, The Beatles, REM, This Is The Kit, Penguin Cafe Orchestra, Radiohead, The Incredible String Band and The Kinks. With a classical background, a venture into folk music, and a love of simple pop songs, there’s nothing quite like Beth’s songwriting.
Picked for her songwriting and cello playing, she is one part of Lost Words Spell Songs (a project inspired by the book Lost Words by Jackie Morris and Robert Macfarlane) with legends of folk including Karine Polwart, Kris Drever and Julie Fowlisha.
She is also one half of literary duo The Bookshop Band who spend much of their time writing songs inspired by books and playing them in bookshops across the UK and more recently in the States.
In the pop world she has toured playing cello and singing backing vocals with Newton Faulkner, The Heavy and Peter Gabriel and has worked with hundreds of producers and engineers such as John Parish, Boo Herwerdine, Tchad Blake and Stuart Bruce for recording sessions over the last 20 years.
She plays with string quartet Red Carousel who write their own compositions and have just gained funding to make a new album. She has also worked on music for film including Far From The Madding Crowd (2015) and BAFTA winning animation The Eagleman Stag (2010) She is currently working on the music for a new Aardman animation with her husband (and other half of The Bookshop Band) Ben.
Beth started writing songs after having collaborated instrumentally with many songwriters. She gained confidence with her voice after having lessons with Yola Carter who then took Beth on as a band member.
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