Over a decade ago, musician Abbey Thomas purchased a mandolin with the help of Take it away.
The Take it away scheme is our long-running, national initiative that enables anyone to purchase a musical instrument – or pay for tuition, equipment and software – by spreading the cost over 10 months with interest-free finance. To date, the scheme has supported more than 96,000 customers, including Abbey, to purchase more than £71.5m worth of musical instruments.
We spoke to Abbey about her journey as a musician and how Take it away helped to support and strengthen her music-making.
“I loved the music like I’d never loved music before”
Can you tell us about your journey as a musician so far?
Throughout my life, I tried a variety of instruments, but it wasn’t until I was fourteen and bought myself my first guitar that I started to take it seriously. Suddenly, I spent every evening learning new chords and working through all my favourite pop songs. I discovered bluegrass music, happening upon a local band, and loved the music like I’d never loved music before. I was immediately hooked and decided to buy myself a new instrument, this time a mandolin, to dig into this new genre.
Soon, I was at every festival and jam session I could get to. I grew up in the far south-west of Cornwall, so this meant my parents drove me all over the country to support my love of music, which I appreciate hugely. In the ten years since then, I completed a degree in folk music at Leeds Conservatoire, and have performed all over the UK, as well as a few times in Austria and France.
Bluegrass isn’t a massively well-known genre, so if the word is new to you, it’s music featuring the banjo and mandolin that came out of Kentucky around the 1950s. It could be described as the commercial combination of Appalachian folk music, blues, and jazz; featuring high speeds, tight vocal harmonies, and a lot of improvisation. Through my degree, I explored British folk music too and found a new love for that, and global folk music, though I can’t claim I know any folk music from outside Britain with any particular expertise. I also love some pop music and have often joked about the potential of learning to play the drums and forming a McFly tribute band. Maybe one day….
Hit Parade of Love – With Old Baby Mackerel
Who inspires your music-making?
My favourite mandolin players include John Reischman, whose improvisation is simple yet so interesting, and Joe K Walsh, who uses imaginative phrasing in his music and plays with great meaning. I also really enjoy the playing of Maddie Witler, Tristan Scroggins and Jake Howard at the moment. Lots of my university tutors also inspire me, including Archie Churchill-Moss, an inventive English folk melodeon player, and Evan Davies, a brilliant mandolin player – both of whom write incredible tunes.
I don’t often perform as a solo folk artist, but I have had an ongoing project where I take folk songs and edit them to make them more feminist, or to make the female side more fair. I think folk musician, Jim Moray was a big inspiration for this work, and for my understanding of how editing traditional folk songs can be just as much of an art as original writing lyrics
What do you like most about making music?
There are so many things I love about making music! I enjoy working with other musicians to arrange songs and instrumental pieces, and I love writing original pieces, mostly instrumentals, inspired by bluegrass, old-time and folk music. I think instrumental music can be overlooked, I love conveying an emotion, a place, or a story just through a melody and chord progression.
I also love to perform, which I something that took time to enjoy as I used to get lots of performance nerves. Now I find so much energy and joy in performing.
“Without Take it away, I couldn’t have bought this instrument, not for a very long time and potentially still not then.”
How did you learn about the Take it away scheme, and how has it impacted your music making?
I was at a music camp, trying out instruments on a seller’s stall and jamming with some of the UK’s top bluegrass musicians, and I suddenly realised I absolutely loved the mandolin I was playing. I wasn’t looking to buy at all but chatted to the seller for a while, daydreaming about the idea of getting it, when he asked how old I was and then suggested I look into the Take it away scheme!* I went home, mentioned it to my parents, and decided not to go for it- until a week later when I completely changed my mind and contacted to buy the instrument. It was with me just a few days later!
It was so easy. The shop I bought the instrument from was part of the scheme, and with my parent’s help too, it was so simple. I would recommend Take it away to other musicians – without it, I couldn’t have bought this instrument, not for a very long time and potentially still not then.
Having a better-quality instrument aids your enjoyment of playing, because of the great quality of the sound, but also the ease of playing. Without Take it away my progress with the mandolin would have been much slower and less enjoyable. Over a decade later, it’s still the only mandolin I own besides my very first one, which I only keep for nostalgia.
* Abbey used the scheme over ten years ago, before Take it away opened up to all. Now, anyone, any age can use the scheme.
How can people find you and your music?
I have three main projects that I work with:
- Blue Lass @bluelassmusic – an all-female contemporary and original bluegrass and old-time band. Blue Lass has just released their debut EP, Skylines & Coal Mines which is available on Bandcamp and Spotify.
- Green Tree @greentreebluegrass – an intricate and dynamic bluegrass duo.
- Old Baby Mackerel @oldbabymackerel – a high-energy, fun bluegrass band.
You can find me on Instagram and Facebook where I post about my various projects. I perform all over the UK so keep an eye out for me or the bands I work with. I also teach mandolin both in person and online, teach at regular Bristol-based workshops, and write for the British Bluegrass News magazine. I like to keep busy!
End of the Night Waltz – Blue Lass (this is an original tune of Abbeys from Blue Lass’ EP Skylines & Coal Mines)