I’m very excited to announce I’ll be performing at Maryland Renaissance Festival this September/October! There’ll be a few other concerts in the North East US whilst I’m over – I’ll update when they’re confirmed. The festival dates are – 28 and 29 September5 and 6 October I’ll be performing with Jon Banks on santouri and…

Photos from on stage at Valhalla Viking Festival! This was such a lovely place to perform – wonderful sound team, organisers and an epic audience! Photos by Chris Brody and Andrew Merritt

I’m excited to be booking several tours in Autumn 2023, first in the Eastern USA, then Scandinavia (Denmark, Sweden, and Norway) followed shortly afterwards by concerts in Belgium, Netherlands and Northern Germany. I’ll be performing at the Maryland Renaissance Festival the weekends of 7–8 and 14–15 October and am planning to give concerts in New…

Here’s a new tune ‘Virginia’ written whilst on tour in the US – please enjoy it and let me know if you play it 🙂 It’s for nyckelharpa, fiddle or anything else that wants to. Anna xx

UK tour dates announced for the launch of my new album Hatching Hares! Ticket links are here and please tell all your friends and family! See you on the road!Anna xx

Here’s a tune I’ve written for Thanksgiving. I was thinking of the peace, calm and gratitude felt after gathering in the harvest; so this is a gentle, lilting waltz. It was written with bass viol in mind, as you’ll hear on the recording, though I expect it would transpose for other viola da gambas and…

I’m delighted to be performing seven concerts in the Netherlands this Nov/Dec! It will be a such a treat to be back on the road – book tickets here!

One of my wonderful supporters on patreon – Amedee Van Gasse – suggested this tune to me and I cannot think of it without dancing, it is so happy. I’ve made a few variations for nyckelharpa so please download the file below if you would like to play them – and let me know if…

I’m delighted to be asked for an interview with Michele Mele of Bright Young Folk here’s a transcript and you can see it on their website here. After the rapturous response received both by her web series Folk from the Boat and her work with Wilde Roses, multi-instrumentalist and singer Anna Tam recently released her…

Really lovely review by Nigel Schofield in the Summer/Autumn 2021 Tykes Stirrings Magazine! And I’m more than delighted with the description: ‘one could almost be listening to vintage Kate Bush gone folkie’! ‘Anna shines a new light on these songs’‘Her voice is pure, with an astonishing and very precise range’‘the interpretations are fresh and fascinating’

‘I was becoming entranced by her arrangements and her voice’ Alan Castle, Around Kent Folk Delighted with the kind words in the June/July 2021 edition of Around Kent Folk! The whole magazine is here: https://issuu.com/tente…/docs/2021-06_around_kent_folk_web

‘The compelling quality of Anna’s confident storytelling-in-song is apparent right from the outset’ A lovely review from David Kidman for Folk London in the June/July 2021 magazine! Anna Tam – Anchoress – Tam Records TAM002 You’ll have come across the Mediaeval Baebes, an all-female early music ensemble with occasional folk leanings. Once upon a time…

An absolutely lovely review of Anchoress from Northern Sky Magazine, and I’m particularly delighted to be compared to one of my favourite groups Dead Can Dance! Anna Tam – Anchoress | Tam Records | Review by Marc Higgins Folk singer and multi-instrumentalist Anna Tam, member of The Mediaeval Baebes and more recently Wilde Roses, has…

A brilliant suggestion from one of my patrons – to set Blow, northerne wynd, a beautiful medieval love lyric. It is written in a manuscript dating to the first half of the 14th century – MS Harley 2253, now in the British Library – which contains most of the love lyrics that survive before Chaucer.…

I’m delighted to announce that Anchoress is released and available on both CD and download here! ‘a ghostly set of British traditionals’ Jude Rogers, The Guardian **** ‘where minimal instrumentation and perfectly judged vocals come beautifully and dramatically together’ Dave Haslam, RnR Magazine ‘one of those albums where the voice and the singing linger in…

Here’s one of the original tunes on the upcoming album Anchoress – Fairy Boat Hornpipe. Played on the first instrument I learned (if we don’t count voice), the cello. This was so much fun to film – beautifully shot by Chris Brody who also built this website (and took many of the photos on it)!…

Very excited this week to get the first review of my new album Anchoress, by Billy Rough of Folk Radio! You can read the whole review here and I put a few excerpts below. This week Eliza Carthy played the manx track ‘Arrane Saveenagh’ on her show for Radio Scarborough too, I’m a big fan…

Willie’s Lady is one of those age old love stories… young man comes of age, sails across the sea, meets girl, falls in love, gets married, brings her home – so far so good – except for the mother-in-law. Willie’s mother doesn’t quite approve of the girl, and since she’s a witch, she curses her…

A new piece for viola da gamba – as featured on Folk from the Boat! One of those pieces that occur when you’ve been messing around for a bit – slightly out of guilt because I thought I’d been neglecting the gamba! It has so many double stops (playing two strings at the same time)…

I have a special release for this Valentine’s Day! Featuring some beautiful shots from across the British Isles (filmed in the North Highlands of Scotland and the South coast of England). Whittingham Fair is a love song with a difference between a couple who demand the impossible of each other – and whether or not…

This week’s episode of Folk from the Boat took us on an historical adventure to a hill site in Harlow by the River Stort where the remains of a bronze age pond barrow, a Celtic Temple, a Roman Temple and Saxon buildings are found. Quite an extraordinary place that has been the focal point of…

This week I’ve written two new tunes but they need names! Can you help name them? I’ll change the name of the video and announce them on next week’s episode – Thursday 14th at 7pm! The first tune is an 18th century inspired 3/2 Hornpipe with a bit of Scandi influence, and the second a…

I thought I’d share this beautiful song this morning that I was fortunate enough to sing with my lovely friend Emily Ovenden. There’s something really nurturing about it that I can’t quite explain – a sort of comfort-spiritual-food folk song. The words were written by Robert Tannahill (1774-1810), a Scottish poet from Balquhidder (braes are…

I’ve written a new tune! My wonderful friend, fiddle player Geoff Irwin, gave me a pewter goblet (I can’t wait to take it to medieval festivals) so I needed to come up with a good way of saying thank you. And if you’re a folk musician… you write a tune. So, introducing ‘The Goblet’, and…

A lovely surprise today! My performance of Arrane Saveenagh – a lullaby from the Isle of Man, sung in Manx Gaelic – was featured in The Manx Independent in an article by Dr Chloë Woolley. Here’s the full article describing the musicians who, like me, have been inspired by the beautiful Manx repertoire: www.iomtoday.co.im Arrane…

Today I’m spending a sunny time filming one of the sunniest folk songs ‘Tarry Trousers’. This is often the opener in my set (especially if I’m playing somewhere scary!) because it just always makes me happy.

Hello, hope you’re very well! During lockdown I’ve been busy creating a YouTube series ‘Folk from the Boat’. In each episode we have a little adventure on my boat (currently on the river Lee near London) and then…

Such a special evening at Colindale Folk Club on Monday – a huge thank you to everyone who came. I’m just writing to let you know the wonderful Chris Brody filmed the evening so I’ve been putting up some videos – take a look here! I’ll be at Colindale again on December 12th to lead…

So it was time my Renaissance brain caught up with the 21st century and, wonderful as my little old website was, it didn’t seem to work very well on these modern devices we’re required to carry around today. I am very grateful to Chris at www.cbrody.com for bringing me up to date with this beautiful…

Dear all, hope you’re very well and enjoying the spring! I’ve been recording for a lovely composer – Clive Leslie – and the song ‘When Love Flies Away’ is just out in two versions. Please check them out: When Love Flies Away (Orchestral version) Words and music by Clive Leslie. Vocals by Anna Tam. When…

This is a little over a week sorry – I will try to catch up! But it’s a good one – yesterday I performed live with the nyckelharpa on Resonance 104.4FM! It was for the show Renaissance FM presented by Stephanie Feeney. She interviewed me on the history of the nyckelharpa, my experience discovering it…

It’s been one of those weeks where you realise the work is paying off. I’m finding my muscles are matching up to the nyckelharpa now so I can play for a long time (when I get a chance!) and my fingers seem to know where to go. There’s still lots to learn but I can…

This week with the Rosamunde Quartet I have given six concerts in as many days, each with a different programme. It’s wonderful work, some of the highlights have been Schubert and Haydn quartets – more on them in the next post! – and I’ve had the opportunity to visit many interesting places… Our last port…

This week I have made some connections with other nyckelharpa enthusiasts and am excited to be a new member of the UK Nyckelharpa Society who seem very friendly and have lots of useful information to share as does Vicki Swan who has a wonderfully informative website. I’m planning to go to the Nyckelharpa Festival in…

It’s been an exciting week exploring the nyckelharpa – as ever in the context of modern life! I’ve spent the week on a cruise ship with the wonderful Rosamunde Quartet: violinists Xandria and Nina Kopparhed, violist Chris Brody and myself on cello. We’ve had a lovely time preparing three concerts of classical, baroque and film…

Is anybody learning to play an instrument at the moment? I would love to hear about your experiences. I was exploring the Loxwood Joust Festival last summer before a performance with the Mediaeval Baebes when I met a Scandinavian string instrument maker – Jeff Swann in the artisan and reenactment area. He showed me several…