Maisie Blades

Maisie Blades, despite diverse backgrounds, all four share a love for music that perhaps can best be described as Transatlantic a rich mix of ingredients, including American traditional and bluegrass fiddle tunes, country, folk, blues, Celtic fiddle tunes, a touch of Joni Mitchell, Townes van Zandt, Gillian Welch, Emmylou Harris and Richard Thompson.

Karen Macwhinnie, a Scot, comes from a background of singing jazz, blues and Americana. An accomplished artist, she loves songs that tell a story, and she brings passion and authenticity to all her performances. Philip Rundall played guitar in several Cambridge based bands before taking up bluegrass guitar and mandolin fiddle tunes. In 2018 he and Mike Thompson, a guitarist originally from North Carolina and a fellow academic, formed the duo Free Agents, reviving the name of an earlier band Philip was in, making regular appearances at Black Fen Folk Club and elsewhere. Denise Neapolitan, originally from Chicago, plays fiddle and sings. She is classically trained but she loves traditional and Celtic fiddle tunes and folk music. The band was thrilled to welcome both her and the sounds she makes to the mix that is Maisie Blades.

Philip and Mike began jamming and performing as a duo (as Free Agents) in 2018. Karen joined us after hearing us at CB2, and Denise joined shortly after that to form Maisie Blades. The name of the band is a tribute to a wonderful woman who made a lasting impact on Karen when she was growing up in Glasgow. The band also like the sound of the words.

We performed in August 2019 at the Cambridge Folk Festival representing the Black Fen Folk Club. We've played several times at the BFFC, CB2, the Cambridge Folk Club, St Neot's Folk Club, the Bury Folk Collective, and various pubs in the Cambridge Area, including Hail Weston, Ely, Horningsea and Royston.

Philip and Mike are old rockers influenced by soloists like Eric Clapton and Mark Knopfler and more recently by David Grisman and Tony Rice.

Philip plays an Ellis A5 mandolin, a Northfield 'Big Mon' F5 mandolin and a Bourgeois Aged Tone OM guitar. Mike plays Martin guitars (HD28, M36, OM42). Denise plays a vintage violin.