“With each song, crowspeak lures us into her enchanting world of darkness and folkloric wonder.”*

crowspeak is the dark folk project of solitary singer songwriter, Jane Buttery. Marked by haunting vocals and sparse, intimate arrangements, crowspeak’s songs weave stark, poetic lyricism with influences drawn from an eclectic mix of genres.

“Refusal to be confined by genre is one of crowspeak’s greatest superpowers”.**

A self-taught guitarist, Jane spent her late teens and early twenties playing open-mic nights around her hometown of Stoke-on-Trent, developing her skills as a musician. Collaborations and jam sessions with other local musicians meant not only exposure to many different genres of music, but learning to play those different genres using a variety of styles of guitar playing.

Singing was always part of Jane’s life. She was exposed to all kinds of music from a very young age by her father, a music enthusiast. Singing was natural to Jane immediately, recalling learning all the words to Peggy Lee’s Fever, at around age 5. This early exposure to blues music in particular perhaps explains the inherent mournfulness and soul of her voice.

The crowspeak sound really started to develop once Jane began learning the fingerpicking style of playing acoustic guitar. Learning songs by artists like Bert Jansch, Joni Mitchell, CSNY, John Martyn, Nick Drake, and Jackson C. Frank opened up new channels to explore within her own writing.

Fast forward to December 2022 and the release of the debut crowspeak EP servants of flesh. This was recorded after ex-Stoke promoter Steve ‘Wrongpop’ Clarke put a call out for music to go on a charity album that he was putting out. The single ‘Then and now (…and then)’ was released under the artist name, ‘Eli’ on the Wrongpop compilation. After that, crowspeak was born, and the rest of the EP was recorded in readiness for release.

“My friend Steve Wrongpop was releasing a charity album. I had loads of songs that no one had ever heard, and I thought, if I don’t do it now, I never will.”

Since the release of her debut EP, crowspeak has shared the stage with a wide variety of artists including Dawn Ray’d, Jeffrey Alexander and The Heavy Lidders, Poppycock, and Scott Lavene.

* - The Buzz, ** - The Leopheard

A woman is singing into a microphone while playing an acoustic guitar on a stage with blue and purple lighting and decorative greenery. crowspeak performing live with a tangle wood acoustic guitar and singing.
A black and white photo of a woman with dark hair and striped shirt, looking over her shoulder, with blurred lights in the background. Promotional photograph of acoustic dark folk artist, crowspeak.

“When I listen to her music I find myself stood alone at the crossroads between pain and beauty, and don’t want to be anywhere else.”

- The Night Tripper

“Twisting together a mixture of harmonic and dissonant melodies using both her voice and her acoustic guitar, crowspeak generates a haunting forest of sound that is somehow disconcerting and comforting in equal measure...”

- Band on the Wall

“With its haunting melodies, soulful vocals, and evocative instrumentation, crowspeak has crafted a sound that is both ethereal and grounded with S W A N (S), which serves as a mesmerising introduction to the album that is to come.”

- The Leopheard

“crowspeak's songs leave you feeling utterly enchanted.”

- Visit Stoke