Tom and Barbara's first CD, Where Umber Flows, was released on the Wild Goose label in May 2000. Their second album, Prevailing Winds, May 2002.  Only a few copies of these CDs now remain, but the most recent CD Tide of Change was released in March 2006. For each CD they have drawn together additional musicians and chorus singers to record very varied albums that have been well received by the critics. Extracts from various reviews are shown below.

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And so, preamble over, what of this album? Two minutes into the CD, I would have put a wager on me saying no [because] they’d kicked-off the album with what must be the worst song the great Eric Bogle ever wrote.  But guess what? At the end of the album I felt that it had more than overcome the hurdles it had imposed on itself.  And, getting into the album now, let’s actually deal with those two seminal songs of the Folk Revival [Lowlands of Holland & Barbara Allen] and tell you that they were triumphs, especially Barbara’s Barbara Allen. When tackling them they apply a real INTENSITY that surprised me. Veteran singers making the songs sound [as though] they were written just yesterday. Not an easy thing to do.   The real success of the album are the two music hall-type ballads. Bread & Cheese & Cider and When Mother & Me Joined In [which] is from the writing of the now almost forgotten Devon dialect writer AJ Coles, who under the pen name of Jan Stewer was almost as famous in his day as William Barnes was in the adjoining county of Dorset.  The liner notes, as you would expect from WildGoose, are a model in how things should be done. With In Friendship’s Name, they end the CD by doing a version of a song from the singing of the great Borders shepherd, Willie Scott. But they refused to do a cod Scots Border accent! They insisted it be translated out of dialect, and into RP English. I salute them both.  BACK

Tom and Barbara mainly alternate on lead vocals. The song that gives the CD its title laments rather than welcomes what we amusingly know as progress. This is the default position of folk music when it comes to change.  Tom’s own lyric, Exe, Barle and Bray addresses them with vitriol, based on the chorus of an Exmoor hunting song, the song leaves no doubt as to the depth of the anger out there.

Some would ask: Why call an album Tide of Change then include a very traditional version of Barbara Allen, surely a song that everyone knows by heart from school? Er, no, they don’t. It’s perhaps embarrassing to say this but despite having a few hundred folk recordings from the past 30 year - this is the first time it’s appeared on any recording I own. It’s sung by Barbara - and it’s magnificent. There are a couple of fair songs - Bampton Fair and Bridgwater Fair. Sources and writers are credited. Also of note is the concluding In Friendship’s Name, a great singing song from a Scots original which bookends the album with Eric Bogle’s opener Sound of Singing. In between there’s the whole range of folk: comic, sad, protest, ballad, chorus, music hall. You couldn’t really want more. BACK

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I've always rated Tom & Barbara Brown highly as singers, but have only heard them do a few songs during an evening, never as guests. This CD, therefore, came as something of a surprise, and an absolutely delightful one at that! The album, with a definite West Country bias, is a superb selection of songs which do justice to their versatility... It's quite unusual to declare that I enjoyed every track on an album, but this is genuinely the case here.   BACK

You'll find some real gems here, Cornish versions of the Ox-driver's Song titled 'Cornish Ploughboys' and the White Cockade titled 'The Green Cockade'. There is also a Baring-Gould version of 'The Keenly Lode' and a couple of songs, 'The Wives of St. Ives' (Tom) and 'Take Your Time' (Barbara), learned from Mervyn (Farewell Shanty) Vincent who would have been pleased to know that he can still promote the battle of the sexes even from the grave! The CD has comprehensive notes on the songs and their origins as one would expect from such knowledgeable folk as these and is attractively produced by Doug & Co. at Wild Goose. Anything else? Oh yes, of course Tom and Barbara's singing - bloody marvelous - well, what else would you expect?     BACK

Never mind folk's brat-pack: here come the wrinklies. This turned out to be a treat... There are interesting variants on familiar songs - Unquiet Grave, The Flying Cloud, The Green Cockade, some with specially composed tunes - a song composed by Bob Cann and some fine tunes. If you like the recent Baring Gould collection and the whole ethos of Thomas Hardy-style music, risk a few quid on this.     BACK

Many will welcome this overdue CD. What we get on the 14 tracks included is a rundown of the things that have motivated Tom & Barbara's approach to music - west country songs, ballads, harmonising with friends, and love of a good tune... Tom & Barbara deliver their strong, clear, vocals throughout, giving us good honest singing without affectation. Would we had more of it in the self-conscious and starstruck folk scene of today. The Browns have been worthy of recording for a long time now. Well spotted, Wildgoose       BACK

Songs, and a couple of tunes out of the West Country from Silbury Hill down to St Ives. Tom and Barbara sing very naturally and put their material over well. An all female chorus is unusual and effective in 'The Green Cockade' and the sentimental 'Take your Time.' Tom's songs include the humorous 'Wives of St Ives' and 'Mortal Unlucky 'Ol Chap' which is sung in dialect with clodhopping melodeon and must be guaranteed to scatter any listening teenagers! (But also includes fine fiddle accompaniment by Chris Bartram.) These are unadorned but effective performances that leave any distinction between tradition and revival happily blurred.   BACK

Tom and Barbara Brown are fine singers who specialize in the songs of England's West Country. While some of the songs showcase their solo voices, more of them feature lovely vocal harmonies. Voice, or rather, song, is the focus of this recording. The instrumental work is understated. It is there to support the singing and never interferes with the telling of the song lyrics. No one gets fancy, and they would sound out of place if they did. If you love English song or fine vocal harmonizing, you'll want to hear this.    BACK

This is a delightful album featuring a couple from the English west country... They have warm, moving voices and are often accompanied by some fine singers on choruses. Accompaniment includes melodeon, concertina and fiddle along with more modern instruments such as guitar and mandola, and the unusual but effective bass trombone. Songs on the album range from music hall through the humorous to sorrowful; but their version of "The Flying Cloud" is devastating, one of the best I've ever heard of this song.   BACK

Settle down with a glass in hand and enjoy listening to Tom and Barbara as if they're actually with you, performing musical tales of the West Country in a refreshing and straightforward style. The CD demonstrates a delightfully clean and light production touch with spot-on chorus and instrumental support by a host of friends. Tom & Barbara sing here with an infectious love and fervor which lifted this listener's spirits: try, if you can, to resist singing along with the joyous 'Norton New Bell Wake'! A great finisher, too, with T & B's many friends stomping away with 'Centenary March', rounding off a wide- ranging mix of traditional-style music of land, sea and 'air'!    BACK

Tom and Barbara Brown have recorded a CD of their own after, at least, 25 years of activity on the folk scene. Many people will be saying "About time too" and thanking them for inspiration and encouragement given at some time during those years, for the Browns are that kind of people. As for this album, well it's a good one, full of handsome songs and tunes with something of a West country bias, not surprisingly, sung with the honest straightforwardness that is a Brown characteristic. They know when they have a good set of words and they let them do their work... Another nice touch among a whole album full of nice touches is that the title tune 'Where Umber Flows', played by Tom Brown, Keith Kendrick, and Chris Bartram, is named after a local river, and was written by Barbara.   BACK

Tom and Barbara have been stalwarts on the folk scene for ages. Then a couple of years ago they left London (wise) for Exmoor and this CD basically reflects their love of and interest in the traditional music of Devon, Cornwall and the West.  Good, solid singing and playing and a good variety of songs from Bob Cann's Dartmoor Song to a very nice version of The White Cockade (this time it's green) from Moe Keast of Bodmin which has Barbara with an all-girl chorus (countered later by Tom and all-male backing on The Wives of St. Ives from Mervyn Vincent of N. Cornwall)... It's all good, and with backing musicians like Dave Webber and Anni Fentiman, Keith Kendrick, Charlie Yarwood and Chris Bartram et al, it would be.    BACK

Many of the titles on this collection will be familiar to anyone who enjoys a good sing. Tom and Barbara approach each song in a lusty, traditional, well-rounded style - as anyone who has heard them would expect... All the tracks are well presented and of equal merit... Nice songs, well sung - but don't take my word for it. Buy the CD and find out for yourself.    BACK

A treat - a real treat. Tom and Barbara have an unerring touch with a traditional song, and here they've assembled a fine repertoire with an even finer supporting cast for backing choruses. The words on the album are crystal clear, so no need to print them as well. It's a joy to listen to such good singing and such a good range of material, from songs that are fairly familiar to songs that are much less so. Highly recommended to anyone who has forgotten what good English folk music sounds like without electronic gimmickry and a drumbeat.    BACK

Tom and Barbara are familiar names to many folk enthusiasts. Here they present us with what is (incredibly) their debut release full of fine songs (and a couple of tunes), which mostly originate from Devon and Cornwall and represent the fruits of many years of research. Both Tom and Barbara sing well with plenty of character, and their lead vocals are supplemented by equally strong backing chorus and instrumental support from some of the cream of the English traditional folk scene - need I say more?! An immensely enjoyable 51 minutes.    BACK

When one considers the speed with which artists put out CDs these days it's a little surprising that this duo have only just produced their first CD and have not got a back catalogue of vinyl waiting in the wings. However, as one might expect from an album that has been thirty something years in the making, the craftsmanship and quality shine through. In performance, Tom and Barbara set out to entertain with material firmly rooted in the tradition, and succeed in making their music accessible to a wide-ranging audience, through their infectious enthusiasm and love of the songs they sing, and this quality has successfully been captured on their recording. The singing is pleasantly powerful and Tom's accompaniment complementary but unobtrusive. I particularly like the guitar Tom puts beneath Barbara's super rendition of 'Jordan' - spine tingling stuff.  All in all a commendable showcase long overdue.    BACK

Where Umber Flows, provides a glimpse of what the folk revival looks like refracted through a strong local tradition. The songs here include local versions of widespread traditional songs, like 'The Green Cockade' and 'The Unquiet Grave', both unusual texts set to handsome tunes. There are also purely local songs like the ballad of tin speculation called 'The Keenly Lode', and the humorous ditty known as 'The Wives of St. Ives', which, as the Browns point out, could be about either the 'scourge of chattering wives', or the complete insignificance of husbands - you'll have to hear it and work it out for yourself. The Browns employ a full retinue of their friends, including Keith Holloway, Dave Webber, Anni Fentiman, Chris Bartram and Brenda Burnside (among others), ensuring that a full chorus and proper band of squeezeboxes, strings, and brass are on hand to back them up, which makes for both richness and variety in their settings.    BACK

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This is a delightful album, which neatly gives the lie to the theory that all folk songs have to be miserable.  A well balanced selection from across the genre - from light hearted to serious, traditional to contemporary and all of them superbly well crafted.  The closing number is ‘Pleasant and Delightful’ (which some will know as ‘The Larks they sang Melodious/Melodeons’ - delete as required). Half way through the first chorus I suddenly discovered I was singing along at the top of my voice  - which says it all, I feel.  For me, this album captures the essence of a really good night in a Folk Club, with nothing pretentious or gimmicky about it - and what a refreshing change that is.  BACK

This CD is full of warmth and homeliness as the opening tracks ‘Coming-in Song’ (Barrie Temple) and the traditional ‘A Cottage Well Thatched With Straw’ confirm.  Their continuing Battle of the Sexes is well represented both in the sleeve notes and the song ‘The Farmer and His Wife’ where Barbara maintains that men have problems with multi-tasking.  Rubbish (the concept, not the song), of course.  As with their first album many of the tracks are accompanied by Tom’s excellent guitar, mandola or English concertina arrangements and backed by a chorus.  There are also extra accompaniments on some tracks.  Even one of our ex-local lassies, champion clogger Melanie Barber, gets to step on ‘The Tithe Pig’!  All in all a fine follow up to their debut CD. BACK

Tom and Barbara are a delightful duo to MC for: to say that this CD is pleasant would be an insult.  They’ve gone as far as possible to recreate, in a recording studio, the atmosphere of a live club performance.  With the first track, Barrie Temple’s ‘Coming-In Song’, the introductory chorus is sung by just the two of them.  Then the support singers start joining in, first one, next chorus two or three, until the whole ensemble are in and harmonising.  Just like a club learning a new refrain.  Tom and Barbara have called on an impressive line-up in support, not only for choruses, but also musicians to add to Tom’s accompaniments, especially effective on the link from ‘Sir Francis Drake’ to ‘The Bold Privateer’.  I particularly liked ‘Louisa’s Journey’, a true story of how a lifeboat from Lynmouth had to be dragged to a safe launching site, to pull of a successful rescue.  Thumbs up for this CD!  BACK

Dirty Linen. Feb/March 2003. Steve Winick     

Tom and Barbara Brown have been singing West Country songs for donkey's years. Their latest album, Prevailing Winds, brings to bear all their experience in selecting and arranging some of the region's best and most interesting songs. Apocryphal lyrics like "The Bitter Withy" were rarely collected but make great performance pieces, and Tom's rich voice and concertina do an unusually satisfying version. Barbara does a similarly round‑voiced rendition of "The Tithe Pig," the tale of a parson demanding a pig from a farmer, and the hilarity that ensues. With a few friends to add harmonies and instrumental accompaniments, the Browns handle it all with style, producing a simple but delightful folk album.  BACK

This CD contains a well thought out order of songs, with a good variety of solo, duo and chorus voices. I just feel at times that some of the spontaneity and enthusiasm for the songs, which is so much a part of Tom & Barbara's live performances, is missing from this studio recording. The raw edge of traditional music has been smoothed a little too much for my liking. BACK