Tim Hart | Folk-rock musician, 61

Tim Hart, 61, a founding member of the British folk-rock group Steeleye Span, died last Thursday of lung cancer.

Mr. Hart, died in La Gomera in Spain's Canary Islands, where the Briton had lived since retiring from music.

Mr. Hart was a star of the 1960s folk scene in Britain, first gaining fame in a musical partnership with singer Maddy Prior in 1966. The duo recorded two albums of Folk Songs of Olde England, with the versatile Mr. Hart backing their singing on guitar, mandolin, dulcimer, banjo, and violin.

In 1971, Mr. Hart and Prior joined with Ashley Hutchings, who had left the Fairport Convention to form a band. The new project, at Mr. Hart's suggestion, was named Steeleye Span after a character in a Lincolnshire folk song, "Horkstow Grange."

Mr. Hart left Steeleye Span in 1983 but appeared at a charity concert with the group in 1995. Last year, he appeared with Prior at a BBC concert in London.

Living on La Gomera, Mr. Hart developed his interest in photography. He called the island "my inexhaustible subject" and did his own pictures for his English-language guide to the island, published in 2004. - AP