About

After their sellout 'A Yuletide Ramble' at the Malthouse in December, Devon-based songwriter and composer Chris Hoban once again teams up with renowned actor Martin Reeve in a performance blending original and traditional songs, interspersed with riverine poetry and prose.

The songs range from folk ballads about navvies, wreckers' laments and rollicking river shanties to plangent songs of parting, separation and emigration, with some especially written for the event. Poems featured include those by Devon's Alice Oswald, Cornwall's Charles Causley, John Clare, Fredegond Shove and Ivor Gurney, while the prose swings between the highs of Jerome K. Jerome's 'Three Men In A Boat' and the pastoral idylls of Kenneth Grahame's 'A Wind In The Willows'.

Chris is a songwriter, composer, lyricist, arranger and singer who plays guitar, piano, piano accordion, cello and mandocello. He has performed and worked alongside many artists including Billy Bragg, Jarvis Cocker (Pulp), KT Tunstall, Jerry Dammers (The Specials), Kate Rusby, Chris Difford (Squeeze), Steve Knightley, Phil Beer, Miranda Sykes and Jim Causley. Indeed, Chris has written regularly and performed/recorded occasionally with the Knightley/Beer/Sykes Devonian folk roots trio ‘Show of Hands’, adding songs such as Hallows’ Eve, The Old Lych Way, Katrina and The Padre to their repertoire. He is also a highly regarded choral composer and arranger for amateur, community and professional choirs.

Most recently, Chris co-wrote the RNLI bicentennial 2024 Christmas single ‘Pull Away’ with James Studholme of ‘Police Dog Hogan’. He is currently an Arts and Culture Creative Fellow at the University of Exeter, writing songs in a variety of genres for the History Department's four year project 'The Material Culture of Wills, 1540-1790'. Having taught music & drama in schools for over two decades, he continues to work as a music educator privately, as well as within neurodevelopmental (SEN/early years) and neurodegenerative communities (residential care homes, as a 1:1 music therapist).

Martin is a West Country actor who has appeared in many TV shows including ‘Emmerdale’, ‘Coronation Street’, ‘Phoenix Nights’, and ‘Downton Abbey’; he is also often to be found recording ‘Talking Books’ for the RNIB. In 2008, he wrote and presented a documentary for BBC Radio 4 about Punch and Judy, ‘Mr Punch Says “That’s the way to Do it”’, and has earned a doctorate for his thesis exploring both the tradition and modern cultural status of Punch and Judy shows. He continues to research in the field, writing articles and academic papers at conferences.

Find out more about Chris Hoban at:
www.chrishoban.com
www.facebook.com/chrishobanmusic
www.youtube.com/@chrishobanmusic