Shirley Collins
MBE, EFDSS Gold Badge recipient
Shirley Collins has been President of the English Folk Dance and Song Society since 2008.
She first became involved in the folk music scene in the early 1950s meeting the likes of Bob Copper, Ewan McColl and Bert Lloyd. Collaborating with a number of artists including her sister Dolly and Davy Graham, Shirley release a number of albums through the 1960s and 1970s including Anthems in Eden (1969) with Dolly and Early English musician David Munrow, which is considered by many to be her seminal album. During the 1970s she was a member of The Albion Band and the Etchingham Steam Band.
In 2016 she released Lodestar, her first new album in 38 years. A film about her life, The Ballad of Shirley Collins, was released in 2017.
Shirley Collins is without doubt one of England’s greatest cultural treasures – Billy Bragg
