The Pebbles

A world music singing group from Staffordshire England

The Pebbles
Staffordshire based acappella group The Pebbles have been singing together since 2008. Their repertoire ranges from Africa to Eastern Europe and much more in between so let this group liven up your event. With a wide variety of distinctive songs from around the world you’ll be transported from tranquillity to toe tapping tunes.
 
The Pebbles are Martin Jones, Irene Kingston, Jane Headley, Barbara Wardill, Rob Unsworth, Pam Trafford, Shân Jones, Roger Jackson and Peter Kingston.

Music

The music we sing comes from a wide variety countries and cultures, much of it coming from oral traditions. Songs that we sing include:
 
Erile – A South African freedom song with words in both Sotho and Khosa-talen. This song was important in uniting people from different ethnic backgrounds in the common fight against apartheid.
 
Dream Angus – A lovely traditional Scottish lullaby.
 
I’ll fly away – A popular southern gospel song. This song commonly appears on southern gospel and bluegrass compilation CDs, often sung by different artists. The arrangement we use is based on a version by the ‘Chuck Wagon gang’.
 
Beulahland - A song that we heard on a recording by folk group ‘Swan Arcade’.
 
Steal away – An African American spiritual that is believed to contain hidden meanings about escape. This song was featured in Tippett’s oratorio ‘A child of our time’. Our version was arranged by Ysaye Maria Barnwell from the group ‘Sweet Honey in the Rock’.
 
Tula Baba – A Zulu lullaby that has been featured on CDs by the Soweto Gospel Choir and the Drakensberg boys choir.
 
Kingdom – A modern song following the American shapenote tradition. It was written in 2003 by Don Jamison, and is published and performed by the group ‘Northern Harmony’.
 
Shosholoza – Traditional song about the train that carries migrant workers between their homelands in Zimbabwe and work in South Africa’s diamond and gold mines far from their families.

Click on the following links to hear the Pebbles singing:

Book Us

Regular performers in the Stafford Music Festival and for One World informal concerts The Pebbles also entertain at social evenings and private parties. For more information contact Martin or Jane on 01630 620220 or email martin@woodlandquarter.co.uk.
Share by: