Nigel Foote grew up in Sydney, Australia, in a home filled with laughter, music and candlelight. Although he played piano as a child, he fell in love with the guitar at sixteen, listening to his mother's Andre Segovia records.

But instead of following a classical path, he was drawn into the embrace of folk music in the 1960's and the sound of the steel- string guitar. The instrument has been his constant companion ever since.

Nigel began writing songs in 1972 while running a candle-making business in the inner city, shortly before moving out to Avalon on Sydney's northern beaches.

In 1980 he married Dawn Egan, and they moved west to the Blue Mountains three years later with her six-year-old son Damien.

During the International Year of Peace in 1986, Nigel released an anti-nuclear single in association with Greenpeace. Both songs on the single won songwriting awards and on the strength of that critical acclaim Nigel released his debut album, Dangerous Game, the following year.

Since then, Nigel has lived and worked in the Blue Mountains as resident guitarist at resorts and guesthouses in the region, and as a duo with Dawn who plays the Celtic harp.

Nigel has also built a reputation as a teacher of folk-blues guitar, both at home and for the Mitchell Conservatorium of Music. He has now given over 10,000 lessons. (Yes, he counted them!).

Nigel and Dawn now have two more sons, Martin and Lachlan, (who both play guitar).

Aside from songwriting and playing guitar, other interests include photography and tennis.

Nigel's latest album, Home By Dark, was officially launched at the Clarendon Theatre, Katoomba, on the 26th November, 2006 and is the first release on the Folksinger Label (Cat' No. F1)

Songwriting Awards