About
Ten Pence Moon Biography
‘Ten Pence Moon’ are brought together by their shared passion for blues and roots music from both sides of the pond.
Dave Lyons and Leo Morshead draw from traditional and contemporary music, to compose and arrange songs that pay homage to their heroes, while maintaining their own unique voice.
Blending the sound of acoustic guitars, vocals, slide guitar, lap steel and dobro. Their music includes songs of love, loss and everything in between.
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REVIEWS:
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ABERJAZZ FESTIVAL WALES
Leo has played at Aberjazz for many years, initially in the fringe part of the festival and for the last few years as part of the main programme. Our audiences really love his song-writing skills and his performances. More recently he has been joined by Dave as Ten Pence Moon which has been included in our main programme and our audiences have loved it. The guitar picking workshops have always been excellent too and attendees have always been very positive in their reactions and applause and also in their comments . An example is given below of comments about the workshop and then the Ten Pence Moon performance, these comments were made by John Roach, a local musician.
‘Leo and Dave, who ran the workshop were excellent tutors who demonstrated patience with the variety of standards of the guitarists who attended. It was interesting to discover the different styles of picking and the chord structures in roots music. Thank you very much. John Roach’
Re Ten Pence Moon – ‘after attending their finger picking session in the morning I was intrigued to hear their set. Their presentation with such an eclectic mix of styles and genres of music was an absolute delight. Music’s intention is to provide an escape of the senses. Ten Pence Moon certainly took me to an ecstatic location of enjoyment. John Roach’
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SIMPLY FOLK MAGAZINE 2024
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TEN PENCE MOON EP ‘Ten Pence Moon’ Ten Pence Moon consists of Leo Morshead and Dave Lyons. Both are seasoned performers and have been chipping away at the local venue and festival circuit for the past 15 years. The duo were brought together through a shared love of progressive folk, Celtic traditional music and Old time American music. Leo Morshead has released four solo albums since 2006. He has a nostalgic quality to his vocals, often drawing comparison to artists such as John Martyn and Nick Drake. Equally at home behind a standardacoustic or a lap steel/Dobro he displays an proficient command over the instruments technically and musically.
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Dave Lyons previously led a folk fusion band called The Jackalopes. His songs and compositions are inspired by artists such as Lau, Martin Simpson, John Renbourn and Tom Waits. A competent guitarist, he displays an eclectic knowledge of guitar styles ranging from Celtic fingerstyle to Blues slideguitar.
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The self titled 3 track EP (available now) by Ten Pence Moon contains two songs by Leo Morshead and a composition from Dave Lyons. The Ep is very much a calling card of what is to be expected in the upcoming release of the duo’s first full album. Box of Paints (Morshead) is a love letter to a lost friend that stylistically echoes traditional English songwriters, whilst Miles Apart (Morshead) showcases the duo’s love for American roots music. Blend (Lyons) is an instrumental composition which merges an intricate opening of acoustic harmonics and contrasting lap steel guitar lines to a more traditional, yet progressive tune. You can listen to thge EP ‘Ten Pence Moon’ by following this link: https://open.spotify.com/ artist/4ve0a8G1NamCNLTUN4Fzoa