A. L. Lloyd

A. L. "Bert" Lloyd (1908-1982) was a British folksinger and collector of folk songs, and as such was a key figure in the folk music revival of the 1950s and 1960s.

Lloyd was born in London and was brought up in a musical household, his father being a fisherman well versed in songs of that trade and his mother a formally trained musician. Orphaned at the age of 14, he emigrated to Australia where he became a sheep herder in New South Wales. It was during this time that he began to write down folksongs he learned. When he returned to the UK in the 1930s he took on a more formal study of folk music, doing much of his research at the British Museum, when not earning a living on whaling ships in the antarctic.

In 1938 the BBC hired him to write a radio documentary about seafaring life, and from then on he worked as a journalist and singer. He has recorded many albums of English folk music, most notably several albums of the Child Ballads with Ewan MacColl.

While Lloyd is most widely known for his work with British folk music, he had a keen interest in the music of Spain, Latin America, and Southeastern Europe.

External link

Biography of A. L. Lloyd