On March 18th 2011, eight artists—Steve Knightley, Jackie Oates, Andy Cutting, Caroline Herring, Jim Moray, Patsy Reid, Leonard Podolak and Kathryn Roberts -- gathered together at Henley Farmhouse in Shropshire for a seven day residential, with an artistic brief to create new works that have a 'resonance and relevance' to legendary song collector Cecil Sharp, and, in particular, the Appalachian travels and song collecting he undertook in America between 1915-1918. Cecil Sharp was, as Colin Irwin attests in his major feature on the project in The Guardian newspaper, Friday 25 March 2011) ' the great song collector whose work in the early years of the 20th century helped lay the foundations of the modern folk revival.'

The creative process may be much as in Sharp's day but also changed by modern times. The Guardian again 'in the space of (the first night) Steve wrote three songs one after another," says singer, writer and multi-instrumentalist Jim Moray in wonder. "He'd play a chord and off the top of his head sing something, anything, and say: 'I'll just record that on my phone.' Some of the words are nonsense and don't gel, but he goes back and develops it. I can't do that. I can't sit there free-associating nonsense, because I feel so self-conscious about it. But Steve has that confidence in his own ability to do that."

The residential was immediately followed by three concerts (one in Shrewsbury, and two in London; the latter at Cecil Sharp House in Camden). These performances were recorded, and then mixed and produced by Stu Hanna (of folk duo Megson). The result is the brand new CD 'Cecil Sharp Project'.