Chris Miles has been chanting away for most of her life, the first 40 years mostly at the kitchen sink and occasionally a gala performance at a family wedding or Saturday night hooch-up in the family home when the pub tipped out. Discovered at her very first folk club ‘floor spot’ by Sheena Wellington, who happened to be there that night, at the advanced age of 39, she answered Sheena’s question about where she had been for the past 20 years with ‘Hoovering’. A brief way to describe not getting out much while bringing up a family. Overnight she turned into the usual folkie party animal, and once she stopped thinking she was going to be sick before getting on the rostrum at a folk club, she has never touched a Hoover since. When money started changing hands you couldn’t see her for dust…which is what happens when you stop hoovering.
Twenty years were spent singing with other women singers of greater note than herself, as well as solo gigs, mostly in Ireland, where she is greatly adored. Small wonder then that these days she finds herself accompanied by Gearaidh Matthews, a wonderful guitar player from Drogheda in Ireland, with a history of delighting listeners and fellow players for many years without any impact on his bank account whatsoever. They perform mostly traditional songs, but actually any song they like enough to want to share it.