This Wales-based singer-songwriter, harmonium player and occasional journalist earned critical praise for her modernist take on traditional English music, fashioning a gothic indie folk sound which owed as much to cult German singer Nico as it did to revivalists such as Shirley Collins and June Tabor.



Raised in Somerset, England, Greig spent some time in France as a teenager before moving to London and immersing herself in the capital’s nascent hip-hop scene. Despite joining the rap outfit Streetsounds, Greig also retained her love for the folk music she first heard as a child and while still in London she began performing with the Folk City Sisters. Greig moved to Cardiff, Wales in the mid-90s, where she set up a home studio with the intention of pursuing a career as a solo artist. The minimalist sound of her 1998 debut, Night Visiting Songs, was built around the eerie moan of Greig’s Indian harmonium and dulcimer, and a primitive drum machine, with her plaintive vocals complementing the instrumentation perfectly. Her stunning take on the traditional ‘Gathering Rushes’ settled down alongside impressive originals including ‘Vine Leaves’ and ‘Bury Me’.



Phil Moxham of defunct UK indie band Young Marble Giants offered musical assistance on Greig’s follow-up, Down in the Valley. The album repeated the formula of her debut, mixing often startling interpretations of traditional material with Greig originals. The song cycle At Llangennith opted for a less gloomy approach, with Julian Hayman’s guitar proving a bright foil to Greig’s keyboard work. The album even included some folk surf songs and a cover version of Eugene Wilde’s '80s pop soul hit, ‘Gotta Get You Home Tonight’. Her fourth album, 2003’s Winter Woods, marked a return to the gothic atmosphere of Night Visiting Songs but was also her most refined recording yet. The album attracted a string of positive reviews from the mainstream press. Greig also co-hosted the monthly acoustic club alt.Cardiff and contributed to the UK music magazine Mojo. She died on 19 June 2014, nine months after a diagnosis of breast cancer.