“Hilary Spencer and Grant Baynham are ‘QuickSilver’, a duo that is rapidly becoming one of the most in-demand acts on the folk scene”   Mike Jones, organiser, Boston Folk Club UK

“After four years on BBC1’s “That’s Life!” Grant Baynham became a household name. He is a formidable songwriter and has an energy and enthusiasm which create a high-powered performance of material from virtually every genre you can imagine. He’s also one of the funniest people I have ever met. Is it possible to be formidable and hilarious at the same time? With Grant anything is possible!”

“Hilary has one of the most staggering voices in British acoustic music. Most folk fans will know it well from her work with top trio Artisan. If you haven’t yet heard her live, then the CDs will be, firstly, a quite-possibly-life-changing treat and, secondly, a demonstration of her breath-taking range of tone and mood. And now I get to play and write for her.  Yahoo!”

To have QuickSilver play the Arts Centre was nothing short of a privilege. I have been to many gigs over the years and I have to say that you are by far the most awesomely talented performers. Your bottomless pit of diverse material has such a quality and purity like no other, and it quite took my breath away. You both exuded such warmth and spirit that it felt like having an evening in the company of really good friends.  Thank you so much for coming to us.
Linda Biggs, Arts Centre Administrator, Chesterfield College, UK

Our Live ‘Folkstage’ artistes, from England, were QuickSilver, who are Hilary Spencer (once of Artisan) and Grant Baynham.  They are an incredibly talented duo with rollicking performance and dramatic voices who really put on a show. The audience continued applauding so loudly at the conclusion that I could barely get the show off the air. What a vivacious duo.
Rich Warren, presenter, Midnight Special, Radio WFMT -FM Chicago IL

Hilary and Grant are individually top-class entertainers, so put the two of them together and you really have a performance to send you home with a smile on your face plus the feel-good factor. Their sets cater for every taste - folky, bluesy, jazzy - all laced with energy and boundless humour. Cottingham-Live thoroughly recommend them.
Cottingham-Live, UK

With QuickSilver you get double talents! There’s the fantastic voice of Hilary and the incredible guitar-playing of Grant. Then add great songs, wit and humour and you have the recipe for an amazing, entertaining evening. Book ‘em now!
Dartford Folk Club UK

QuickSilver’s visit to the club proved to be what entertainment is all about. Blues, ballads, traditional and contemporary songs all delivered as only a master (mistress?) of her art can, with a voice that sends shivers up your spine and excitement to your toes. All this accompanied by the cleverest guitar work we’ve heard in a very long time and peppered with a healthy dose of humour. Hilary and Grant really know what the word ‘performance’ means. Everyone is still talking about what a fabulous unforgettable evening it was!
Faversham Folk Club UK

That was the best night we’ve had at the club this year. Everyone came out on SUCH a high! WOW!
Monmouth Folk Club UK

Superb musicianship and brilliant entertainment, the dazzling combination of Hilary Spencer and Grant Baynham. Probably the best singer and one of the most talented guitarists on the scene today. Fast, witty, lyrical, cutting and highly amusing are just a few words to describe this exceptional duo.
Hambledon Folk Club UK



I first saw QuickSilver in July 2005 at the Festival up in Stonehaven, Scotland. I was intensely curious because I knew Hilary and Grant to be stunning performers individually, and when I heard they had teamed up, well I had a hard time imagining what the collective entity would be like.
Given that I was due onstage myself shortly after their performance my attention was significally diverted, although it was impossible to mistake Grant’s masterful guitar playing and Hilary’s commanding voice.

I had a much better opportunity to immerse myself in QuickSilver, so to speak, a couple of months later at the Cuckoo’s Nest Folk Club in London Ontario, a small and intimate venue that suited both my mood and their performance, by happy coincidence. There in the warm and familiar confines of Chaucer’s Pub I was able to hear QuickSilver at what is likely their best. I’ve been through sufficient personnel changes in my own musical career to know that one plus one doesn’t always add up to two. When it comes to ensemble performance chemistry is everything. You can’t necessarily stick two virtuosi together and expect good things to happen. Often, nothing much happens at all.

But exception proves the rule so they say. The chemistry was evident from the outset. Both Hilary Spencer and Grant Baynham are seasoned performers - exceptionally witty, clever and outgoing and they complement each other wonderfully in the pacing and timing of their comments and intra-song banter. They have the same confident co-existence on the musical side. Either Hilary’s voice or Grant’s instrumental proficiency could easily overwhelm a lesser partner, but each makes room for the other in a liquid ebb and flow that held me in delight for two hours. Their material, whether original or previously extant is literate, clever and varied showing Hilary and Grant at their best both individually and together., and every now and then one or the other would cut loose and treat us to a display of firepower, whether it be the dazzling intricacy of Grant’s guitar arrangements, or the effortless liquid crystal that is Hilary’s voice.

QuickSilver is high entertainment, and I’ll be very surprised if their reputation as such does not proliferate through the folk/roots community on both sides of the Atlantic.
Steve Ritchie, Tanglefoot Canada

I usually shy away from reviewing a guest performance at the club because it can seem to imply that the other guests have been inferior to it and we rarely have anything but truly excellent guest nights at the club. However, every now and then an exception must be made when superb musicianship, entertaining presentation and exceptional quality of material combine to provide one of those nights that you know you are going to remember for a long time.  Such was the first guest night of the new year back in January.

Grant Baynham has been a popular guest at the club many times before, stunning everyone with his guitar virtuosity, songwriting skills and humour.  A whole generation now know him for these skills as opposed to his previous incarnation as a BBC1 TV That’s Life! presenter. Hilary Spencer was also making a welcome return, having previously visited as both a solo performer and member of Artisan.  However many times we hear her sing, the strength and power of her voice and her wholehearted delivery of a song is always a revelation once more.

So, when the opportunity came along to book the pair in the guise of QuickSilver, a newly-formed duo, the portents were good and expectations were high.  Surely the “sum of the parts” wouldn’t be “greater than the whole” as has been the case in some collaborations?  We need not have worried. . . .The combination was a perfect match.

Half the songs of the evening were written by Grant, a consummate wordsmith, whose lyrics often demand a tempo and clarity of diction that Hilary takes effortlessly in her stride.  “Sing In The Day” and the “Halls Of Meroniel” provided rousing openers for each half.  Grant’s songs have, in the past, been likened to those of Jake Thackray and a performance of “The Hair Of The Widow Of Bridlington” (probably the best version I’ve ever heard of the song, including Jake’s!) was a moving and fitting tribute to the writer who had so recently died.

Hilary seems to “live” each song in order to present it to an audience and because of this engages the listener fully.  Donagh Long’s  “Never Be The Sun” and Piaf’s immortal “La Vie En Rose”  elicited that end-of-song silence that comes when no-one wants to be the first to break the spell that’s been cast.  And if anyone had told me that “Tam Lin” would hold my interest yet again after all these years of being involved in the folk scene I’d have laughed! And talking of laughing. . .Peter and Lou Berrymans’ “Double Yodel” cannot ever have been performed better.  Grant’s only problem seemed to be calming everyone’s laughter down enough at the end of it to introduce the next gem.

We all knew we were part of a very special night as the consummate musicianship and performance skills shown by these two great entertainers, obviously enjoying each other’s company and working in such harmonious humour, ensured a spiralling atmosphere of enjoyment.  The sheer divergence of the material, drawn from so many different genres of song, never allowed the momentum to be lost.  All too soon it was at an end.

To any club, concert or festival organisers out there reading this:- you’d be mad not to book them!
To anyone who goes to those clubs, concerts or festivals:- you’d be even madder not to make sure you see them.
I can provide contact details if required.  After all - I’ll be buying the first ticket!

Marilyn Campbell, Organiser

Recorded at the Heron Theatre, Beetham, Cumbria in front of a live audience this CD has been cued up specifically for the iPod generation. All the ‘links’ are cued separately which means that you can, if you prefer, simply upload the songs on your ‘shuffle’ programme. Otherwise, the entire CD can, of course be played straight through without spoiling the continuity.

Design by Steve Ritchie, Tanglefoot, Canada