Folk’s favourite former farmer and secret hit maker Ian W Brown goes back to his roots to play Ringwood Folk Club later this month.

It’s more than 30 years since Ian decided he stood a better chance of making a living farming pigs in Hampshire than saving the world with a song and drew a veil on a fledgling career in music that began with performances at Ringwood Folk Club’s singaround nights.

But he kept his hand in writing songs and playing folk clubs when he could so by the time farming had become as precarious as the record business Ian was able to answer the call for Britain’s farmers to diversify by going into the music industry full time with his own record label and artist management company.

In his day job Ian has since sold ten million albums worldwide, with another four million sales as a songwriter. As well as co-writing the lead song in the West End musical ‘Dreamboats and Petticoats’ and Sandi Thom’s number one ‘I Wish I Was A Punk Rocker’ Ian has penned songs for Fisherman’s Friends and Show Of Hands; D-Side, Simon Webbe and Pixie Lott; Drumsound & Bassline Smith and Don Diablo; and for various films.

As an artist in his own right he has supported 10cc, Steve Harley, Rita Coolidge, Julie Felix, Martin Simpson and Martin Cathy and has played many festivals including Glastonbury, Cornbury, Purbeck and Greenwich and is returning to Ringwood Folk Club at The Wathen-Bartlett in Burley on 26 June.

Ian says his proudest moment was being able to perform his anthem to his wife ‘The Five Foot Two Inch Giant’ on the model village stage at the Wimborne Minster Folk Festival – you could make it up, but he really doesn’t have to!

Having released his first EP ‘Don’t Give Up the Day Job’ last year and readied its follow up, ‘The Frog Kisser’s Lament’, this summer Ian returns to the road to play a few of his songs that have graced the charts and so many more that haven’t. His finely honed everyman tales and self-deprecating musical outings are interspersed with tall tales from the music business, life, love and the universe.

Ian W Brown is the only known pig farmer to be nominated for an Ivor Novello Award.