Claire Hamill - Travelling Light (The Best of Josephine Claire Hamill Vol. II) (2025)

A pioneering British singer/songwriter, Claire Hamill's restless musical spirit has carried her through eras of folk-rock, progressive rock, new age, and jazz fusion. She debuted in 1971 at the age of 17 and went on to release a series of acclaimed albums for Island Records and Konk, including 1974's Ray Davies-produced Stage Door Johnnies. Tours with acts like Jethro Tull and King Crimson led into a period of collaboration with prog rock and fusion luminaries like Steve Howe, Jon Anderson, and Wishbone Ash. Hamill's re-emergence in the mid-'80s was marked by a shift into more avant-garde territory, from the new wave and art pop of 1984's Touchpaper to 1986's Voices, which explored wordless ambient and new age music. Her output in the 21st century continued to evolve over releases like 2004's The Lost & the Lovers, 2012's The Meeting of the Waters, and 2019's Over Dark Apples. In addition to fronting the Yes-inspired prog rock band Fragile, Hamill has continued to release solo music including 2022's A Pocket Full of Love Songs and 2025's Troubadour.

Hamill was born in Port Clarence, County Durham, on August 4, 1954. The eldest child of a large second-generation Irish Catholic family, she learned to sing and harmonize at a young age and began her music career when she was just a teenager. She was 17 when she signed with Island and moved south to London to record her debut. 1971's One House Left Standing effectively introduced Hamill as a folk singer/songwriter and featured contributions from seasoned veterans like John Martyn, David Lindley, and Paul Buckmaster. Her 1973 album October followed a similar path and was supported by European and American tours. For her third LP, 1974's more uptempo folk-rock set Stage Door Johnnies, Hamill joined Ray Davies' Konk imprint, with Davies himself producing. Released a year later, the self-produced Abracadabra was more eccentric, bearing a mix of prog rock, pop, and jazz influences. It would also be her last album for nearly a decade.

As the musical landscapes changed, Hamill continued to move away from her folk roots, working with artists like Steve Howe and Wishbone Ash, joining the latter as a backing vocalist for several albums in the early '80s. She also appeared on albums by Jon & Vangelis and the jazz fusion group Morrissey Mullen. After marrying Beggars Banquet label founder Nick Austin, Hamill returned to solo work with 1984's cult classic Touchpaper. A dynamic set of new wave and synth-driven art pop, it featured a guest spot from Gary Numan. Now based in East Sussex and raising a family, she shifted gears again, composing an entirely solo collection of densely arranged, wordless vocals that became her biggest success. Released in 1986, Voices topped the new age charts and became a BBC staple after several of its songs were used in the history series The Domesday Book. Other parts of Voices, along with her pastoral arrangement of Pachelbel's "Canon in D," were used widely by Channel 4's series The Art of Landscape.

After 1988's intricate dream-pop set Love in the Afternoon, she remained relatively quiet in the '90s, releasing just one album, a 1998 electro-pop record with DJ and producer Andrew Warren. Her next release was 2004's The Lost & the Lovers, a wide-ranging set that combined the myriad styles from throughout her career. 2012's similarly eclectic The Meeting of the Waters kicked off a creative streak of recording that has continued into the 2020s. In addition to joining the prog rock band Fragile, Hamill issued solo albums at a faster clip, including When Daylight Arrives (2015), Over Dark Apples (2019), and A Pocket Full of Love Songs (2022). Her 2025 album Troubadour marked a new collaboration with her backing group the Claire Hamill Band. ~ Timothy Monger