ABOUT
"A strong folk album of the year contender"
Amy is a Bournemouth-based musician and artist inspired by folklore, fairytales, psychology, nature and the trials of being human. She writes, sings and produces original folk songs, often using thick blankets of harmony, field recordings from nature and folk instruments such as tenor guitar, banjo, accordion and fiddle. She accompanies the songs with handmade drawings, embroidery, needle-felted characters and stop motion animation, allowing her to stitch together both the sounds and the pictures of the stories in her head.
Amy has always been the sort of person who struggles to ignore the elephant in the room, and now, through her songwriting, she is able to sit the elephant down, offer it a cup of tea and have a good old chat. Her playful storytelling might lead her listeners into dark places, but always with warmth, humour or stoicism.
A strong natural thread runs through her work, both in her singing and her musical style (often described as raw, simple, beautiful) and the nature-based elements and symbols she uses in her lyrics and artwork (like bees, wolves, the sea and forests).
Magical characters, sometimes inspired by ancient wisdom or folklore, often make their way into her work, both in her lyrics and as the hand-crafted puppets she animates in her videos. In May 2026 she received an award from Arts Council England and the National Lottery Fund to explore and further develop this much-loved animation practice.
Community and connection are very important to her, to the extent that she likes to include the ideas and even the voices of her audience in the music she creates. Her latest album, released in 2026, is no exception. In the song “Breadcrumbs” you can hear them whispering their favourite proverbs; and on “I’d rather be older (than dead)” and “The closest thing to holding hands” Amy uses a number of the irritations and heirlooms (respectively) that her newsletter subscribers and social media followers suggested to her when she asked them a few questions.
"An absolute joy from start to finish!"
Her influences range from the music of Karine Polwart, Leon Rosselson and Tunng to the poetry of Kahlil Gibran and Mary Oliver and the artwork of Jan Pienkowski and Salley Mavor. While working on her latest album “Gone to flowers”, she was fascinated by the books “The worm at the core” by Solomon, Greenberg and Pyszczynski and “Staring at the sun” by Irvin D Yalom, both about the way humans adapt to their mortality. However, putting all that intellectual stuff aside, it recently dawned on her that probably the most consistent and long-term influence on her work is Bagpuss!
Her disabilities have made a lot of touring unrealistic, but with her new band, the Amy Hopwood Trio, she has had a great summer performing at folk festivals on the south coast. She is joined by Sherida Katerina on fiddle and Siubhan O’Neill on double bass, with both providing harmonies.
Amy’s songs continue to do well on streaming services and are regularly played on local, national and international radio stations including BBC Radio 2, BBC 6 Music, BBC Radio Wales and BBC Radio 3.
Amy also leads various community singing and songwriting projects aimed at reducing social isolation, building confidence and increasing people’s connection with nature. This includes the “Forget-me-not Singing Club” for people living with dementia in the New Forest.
A small number of wonderful people have become patrons of Amy’s work, helping support her to continue making art and music. If you would like to join them you can find out more here on Patreon.
Albums: More or less (2017), All at sea (2019), Into the woods (2022) and Gone to flowers (2026)