User:Irene Shettle

Irene Shettle is a singer of (mostly) traditional English songs and has had an interest in traditional song and customs since childhood. She was born in Guildford, Surrey, and, with the exception of a three year spell at university in Aberystwyth, has lived there for most of her life.

Although she has been singing as a member of many and various choirs since childhood, she only started to perform traditional songs in public in the early 1990's, initially as part of a harmony duo, and then as a solo singer. In 2000 she entered and won the National Folk Music Festival's unaccompanied singing competition, and after attending the first two Folk South West "In the Tradition" Easter schools in Bath in 2001 & 2002 was encouraged by Shirley Collins and Eddie Upton to put on 2 shows with fellow student Mike Bosworth about the lives and work of Lucy Broadwood and Sabine Baring Gould, as part of the Electric Voicesseries of concerts in Guildford in 2004.

As an immediate result of these events, she embarked on more extensive research into the diaries and correspondence of Lucy Broadwood held in the Surrey History Centre in Woking, Surrey, and is currently collaborating in that research with David Gregory from Athabasca, Canada.

She has performed in various concerts in Surrey and Sussex, has started giving a programme of talks on Lucy Broadwood, and currently assists in the running of the The Music Institute Clubin Guildford, Surrey (organised by Lawrence and Linda Heath) where she is the resident singer (and first class raffle ticket seller).

Irene's website