Welcome to the folking.com review section.
The folking review team is a small, dedicated group of people with a passion and a commitment for the folk, acoustic and Americana music scene. They review the latest releases, each in their own inimitable style…
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DAN PENN – The Inside Track On Bobby Purify (LMCD231)
Dan Penn’s The Inside Track On Bobby Purify is released on February 16th. When the option to review the album came up the Editor said, in terms, that he wasn’t sure how this album fitted with the core work of folking.com and I offered to find out. He was, as ...
KITEWING – Kitewing (own label)
Kitewing’s self-titled album avoids Joni Mitchell’s warning about “putting all the trees in a tree museum” (more about that later!). That said, this album is superb British (all the way from Norwich!) folk music with strong vocals, acoustic guitars, harmonies, fiddles, a banjo, and the occasional tenor guitar. The (great!) ...
SINGLES BAR 98 – A round-up of recent EPs and singles
We first encountered CERYS HAFANA back in 2022 when her second album, Edyf, appeared and then when she released ‘The Wife Of Usher’s Well’ as a single. That track was recorded during lockdown for the podcast, Old Tunes Fresh Takes and it reappears now as part of The Bitter EP, ...
TOPETTE!! – ON – Live At The Jam Jar (TPT006)
Topette!! released ON - Live at the Jam Jar on January 19th. The Jam Jar is in Bristol, “one of those wonderful venues where magic happens” as the publicity puts it. Such venues are increasingly rare; capturing the vibrancy of the magic on album is even rarer, but this album ...
HANNAH WHITE – Sweet Revolution (Last Music Company)
Garnering substantial praise throughout the year for her previous musical works, London-based singer-songwriter, Hannah White concluded her 2023 with a brand new offering of Americana-infused tunes in the form of Sweet Revolution. Sweet Revolution is notable in that it is a project which works on multiple levels. The songs themselves ...
MATTHEW ROBB – History Before It Happens (own label)
UK-born, but based in Germany, musically trading in blues/folk style with a propensity for protest, Robb’s been likened to van Zandt and early Dylan in his sensibilities, but there’s something in his voice and songs that puts me in mind of Martyn Joseph. You can hear it in the opener ...
THE WEST COAST FOLK FESTIVAL – Damian Liptrot reports
The West Coast Folk Festival 2024 proved to be a mesmerizing celebration of musical diversity, fostering a sense of community and unity among folk enthusiasts. Hosted in the fabulous setting of Blackpool’s Winter Gardens, the festival's eclectic lineup and welcoming atmosphere left attendees with lasting memories and hopes for a ...
MATT MITCHELL MUSIC CO – Obvious Euphoria (American Standard Time Records)
Obvious Euphoria is released in the UK on January 26th and is the third full length release by Matt Mitchell Music Co. It was recorded in Astoria, Oregon – the home of The Hackles, two of whom feature on this album. Which rather lets you know what to expect – ...
FAREFELD – Game Of Halves (own label)
Having previously traded under individual names as Chris Elliot and Caitlin Jones, the Staffordshire duo have now restyled themselves Farefeld, a conflation of the old spellings of their Staffordshire home towns, KinFARE (her) and LichFELD (him), but still drawing on the folklore and history of the region, a mix of ...
MISERABLE RICH – Overcome (Rags To Riches Records)
John Lennon sang about “sitting in an English garden”, and the new Miserable Rich album, Overcome, waters those Brighton flowers with folk-pop acoustic endlessly enjoyable melodies. The band has been labelled “chamber pop” – which should not be confused with the music of parallel universes known as “indie pop”, “Baroque ...
ELIJAH JAMES AND THE NIGHTMARES – The Hellish Bending Towards the Light (Golden Believers Records)
The story of Elijah James and the Nightmares’ second album, The Hellish Bending Towards The Light, is yet another in which the lockdowns play a big part. Rewind to 2019 and Elijah, with his eight-piece band, had just released a debut double album, Because I’m A Giant, and were planning ...
GILLIAN FLEETWOOD – Together With Yourself At Sea Level (own label)
Together With Yourself At Sea Level brings together elements of folk, jazz and even rock in one rather astonishing package. Gillian Fleetwood is a Scottish harper, composer and singer, all of which combine in this album. The music was originally composed for Grecian harp and small harp and a solo ...
THIS IS THE KIT – Careful Of Your Keepers (Rough Trade)
This Is The Kit’s new album, Careful Of Your Keepers, asks (and while Hamlet’s dilemma is admittedly both a bit more literary and tragic) the very modern query: “To be folk music, or not to be folk, that is the question” -- with or without a nod to the finger-in-your-ear ...
HIRONDELLE – Hirondelle (own label)
Hirondelle is a collaborative world folk music project, led by those Northumbrian “troubadours”, the Brothers Gillespie, that survived the Covid pandemic, and now flies freely (the title is French for “swallow”!) “From the heartland of Africa to the Mediterranean and beyond to the fringes of the Atlantic islands of Britain ...
ALUN PARRY – Speak Easy, Sing Hard (own label)
A trauma therapist in his day job, recorded at his hometown Liverpool’s Prohibition Studio in front of a live audience, Speak Easy, Sing Hard marked Parry’s return to the stage after almost five years with a set that, split into solo acoustic and full band, pretty much represents a best ...
CHRISTOPHER CROMPTON – The Darkness And The Dust (own label)
Happy New Year – and what a splendid start to 2024. The Darkness And The Dust is Christopher Crompton’s second album and was released on December 10th but I’ve only had chance to listen to it properly in the gap between Christmas and New Year. Jolly good it is too ...
MARTYN JOSEPH – This Is What I Want To Say (Pipe Records PRCD039)
Martyn Joseph has had a great deal to say over the years and said it very eloquently. This Is What I Want To Say is, extraordinarily, his twenty-seventh studio album over a forty year career. If you’re familiar with Martyn’s work you’ll know that his writing embraces a large number ...
BROWN HORSE – Reservoir (Loose Music)
Brown Horse’s Reservoir is a brilliant collection (all the way from Norfolk, England!) of tunes sung by anyone who has “just pulled into Nazareth” and is “feelin’ about half past dead”. That’s a huge compliment, indeed, but this band plays with an off-hand folk-rock ‘n’ lovely roll toss that swirls ...
CIARAN RYAN BAND – Occupational Hazards (own label CRB001)
If you’re looking for a chill out album for the New Year, Occupational Hazards from Ciaran Ryan Band won’t fit the bill. But if you want to blow away the Winter blues with some pounding instrumental Irish folk rock, this will be perfect. It’s good on the car stereo too, ...
AL LEWIS – Fifteen Years (own label ALM040)
So titled because that’s how long it took to come about, the initial impetus for the Welsh singer-songwriter’s album was his decision during lockdown to finally got through his late father’s possessions, stored in the attic of his bungalow after his death and untouched, for fifteen years. Sorting through the ...
STEVE LOGAN – Psych Ward (SLOG 027)
First things first: Psych Ward isn’t folk. Apart from the odd track, Logan largely left that behind a few albums ago. It’s pretty damn good though. Press play and you’re instantly hit by a rock-band explosion accompanying Logan’s vocal. Psych Ward is perhaps more of a Neil-Young-cum-Manic-Street-Preachers arrangement than his earlier ...
LAUREN COLLIER – Uddevalla (own label CPRCD001)
Uddevalla is a beautiful album and, in its own way, delightfully unconventional. Lauren is a fiddle player and singer, originally from Irvine – just across the water from Arran – now living in Glasgow and this record, named after a town in Sweden, is her debut album. She is supported ...
SINGLES BAR 97 – A round-up of recent EPs and singles
Singer/songwriter STEFFAN LEWIS has a new EP, Look For Me In The New Horizon, released this month. The opening track, ‘Nightingale Sing’, characterised by ringing acoustic guitar, conjures up Steffan’s time living in London with his late sister. It’s very much her style we hear, a pretty delicate sound. More ...
TIM EDEY – A Celtic Christmas Volume 1 (GBR023)
Hot off the press is Tim Edey’s new CD A Celtic Christmas (Volume 1). You’d expect some gloriously played music from Tim Edey and this won’t disappoint. As well as Tim’s virtuosity, he’s accompanied by a who’s who of Celtic performers: piper Ross Ainslie, Donald Shaw from Capercaillie, Mark Kelso ...
SHIRLEY COLLINS –Archangel Hill (Domino Recording Company)
Shirley Collins’ Archangel Hill is a beautiful album that’s an arboreal memory with deep roots that fuel regeneration of common folk song foliage. Put simply: As Shakespeare’s Caliban once said, “Be not afeard. This isle is full of noises, sounds, and sweet airs, that give delight, and hurt not”. Now, ...
NICK HART & TOM MOORE – The Colour Of Amber (Slow Worm Records SWR005CD)
When did you last hear a Viola da Gamba in a folk club? Exactly. The instrument in question is played on The Colour Of Amber by Nick Hart who sings and plays harmonium alongside Tom Moore on viola and harmonium. It’s traditional folk music but not as we know it ...
HARBOTTLE & JONAS with THE CLEAVES – Live @ The Great Hall (own label)
Well, here’s an unexpected early Christmas gift. Recorded in summer 2019 when they led the folk course at The International Summer School in Dartington, they recently came across the recording and decided to share the memories. Live, unabridged and complete with song introductions explaining the songs, as anyone who’s seen ...
YULATRAKTORS – Solstice Wyrd (own label)
I am developing a theory and it is this. The worse the world’s situation gets the more people look to celebrations as an anchorage, particularly in the dark days of winter: Christmas, Hanukkah, Diwali, Saturnalia, whatever. I can think of no better reason for Lunatraktors sorry, Yulatraktors to release a ...
KEEPING IT LIVE – Merry Hell in Melbourne December 2023
“I miss you like a world cup penalty” – what an image. Only one band could get away with that and make it melodic, vibrant and tender in a song with a thumping rhythm that makes you want to sing along. And I went to see them last weekend (though ...
SLOW TOWN CLOCK – Crossing Tides (own label)
Slow Town Clock is the nom de plume of Jamie Leven (no relation), originally from Glasgow but now resident in northern England. Crossing Tides is collection of songs begun almost ten years ago and inspired by a journey to the western isles. Jamie plays guitar and harmonica and is supported ...
ALL THE BEES – All The Bees (own label ATB001CD)
For her first album since 2019’s The Deafening Sounds Of Stars with HoboPop Kirsty McGee has joined forces with Gitika Partington, a singer-songwriter, composer and choral director with seven albums of her own for a musical apiary focused on nature themes and cycles of loss, death and rebirth. Sharing vocals ...
ROBB JOHNSON & THE XMAS IRREGULARS – Murder At The Grange (Irregular Records IRR127)
Murder At The Grange is a show I haven’t seen, although it was premiered last Christmas and will be on the road again very soon. This is the soundtrack album and I wondered how comprehensible it would be without the context of the stage presentation. Then I thought: Robb Johnson ...
TIM READMAN & ANDY COOKE – The 12 Hits Of Christmas (Big City)
You have to laugh sometimes. Well, I did when I read the somewhat tongue in cheek notes that came with The 12 Hits Of Christmas, a new album of festive songs by musician/producers Tim Readman from Vancouver and Andy Cooke from Portland ME. The story goes like this – bear ...
KATE RUSBY – Light Years (Pure PRCD50)
As she turns 50, Light Years marks Rusby’s seventh Christmas album, her 22nd in total, and again features a mix of (mostly) originals and her distinctive take on seasonal favourites, produced as ever by Damien O’Kane, who contributes vocals and guitars, and accompanied by her regular assemblage of musicians along ...
DAVID BENJAMIN BLOWER – Kindness Is Solid Stone Violence Is A Heavy Loan To Pay (own label download)
The Birmingham-based theological agitator and singer-songwriter, takes time off from his Messianic Folklore podcast to release a new album, Kindness Is Solid Stone Violence Is A Heavy Loan To Pay, that might be best musically described as a cross between Beans On Toast and Hurt era Johnny Cash, a heady ...
McHALE’S PERMANENT BREW – Lessons From The Darkest Storms… (109 Records)
Where does classic blues-rock intersect with traditional folk music? That’s the question I asked myself when I first listened to Lessons From The Darkest Storms…, the second album by McHale’s Permanent Brew. Superficially it doesn’t but you could take any of these songs and rearrange them in a more acoustic ...
LEWIS BARFOOT – Home (own label – LCB01CD)
Home is the second album from English-Irish singer, songwriter, and musician – as well as a former actor and NHS doctor – Lewis Barfoot. Born in England, Lewis is now based in East Cork, where she has set out to explore the history and legacy of her mother’s family. She ...
SINGLES BAR 96 – A round-up of recent EPs and singles
THE DEADLY WINTERS began work on Ever Onwards four years ago but all sorts of problems beset them. The title of the EP proved apposite and they pressed on with the project, difficult when trying to keep a six-piece band together. Earlier this year they released ‘The Cuckoo’ which sits ...
ELIZA CARTHY & JON BODEN – Glad Christmas Comes (Hudson HUD045)
Another seasonal collection on traditionals old and new, familiar and obscure, joined by Yorkshire’s Backstage Brass ensemble with Emily Portman and Tim van Eyken on harmonies, and generally arranged for fiddle and concertina, Glad Christmas Comes is a splendid addition to the folk Christmas baubles to hang on the musical ...
JOHN KIRKPATRICK – Joy & Jubilation (Fledg’ling FLED 3112)
This album has been available for a while but I have an aversion to reviewing Christmas records before the clocks go back. I’ve held out for as long as I could. Joy And Jubilation is the latest in a long line of John Kirkpatrick’s themed albums – the theme being, ...
MARTYN JOSEPH – Live At St. David’s Hall (Pipe PRCD038)
Live At St. David’s Hall is a low key release prior to the new studio album next year, recorded in Cardiff on February 7 this year at the sell-out 122nd and final, homecoming, show for his 1960 world tour. I don’t need to tell anyone who’s ever seen him that ...
BILL JACKSON – 1965 (Wayside Records)
Banjo, slide guitar, songs that conjure up wide horizons or tough frontier towns: 1965 is pure Americana. Except that Bill Jackson is Australian and although some of his songs are flights of fancy about the old west others stay closer to home. It’s a nice mixture. The songs are all ...
ABIGAIL LAPELL – Lullabies (Outside Music)
Well, here’s something a bit different. Based in Toronto, Lapell’s preceding three albums have all won her Canadian Folk Music Awards. Those were all original material, but here, produced by Michael Timmins of Cowboy Junkies and part inspired by a bout of insomnia during lockdowns and part by the arrival ...
PRIME MINISTER – 10 (digital release)
You’ll be relieved to know that Prime Minister is not Cruella Braverman’s latest project. It is, in fact, a collaboration between The Village (Phil Matthews) and Mark Pearson. 10, their debut release, is a set of, well, ten, self-penned songs. Phil is very much a narrative songwriter who packs a ...
KATIE WHITEHOUSE – Drawing Lines (Want To Know WTK007)
Based in Devon, running an award-winning music management, artist development, booking and promotion agency whose roster includes Reg Meuross, Charlie Dore and Harbottle & Jonas, although she’s written poems, songs and sung harmonies on others’ albums, until now Katie’s never stepped into her own spotlight. However, having just turned 6o, ...
SMOKE FAIRIES – Carried In Sound (Year Seven Records)
Smoke Fairies’ new album, Carried In Sound, sings with a narcotic lure of velvet history and wine-sipped conversation. There’s a mythical Siren song, a psych echo, a Medieval candle lit choral, an edgy solace, and a vital twist to ancient braided folk tunes lit in the always Home-Fired Anthems Of ...
A WINTER UNION – Sooner After Solstice: A Transatlantic Folk Christmas (Sungrazing Records SGR201)
Their first album in seven years, Katriona Gilmore, Jamie Roberts, Hannah Sanders, Ben Savage and Jade Rhiannon from The Willows (of which Gilmore and Savage are also members) reunite, with the added contributions from Ben Nicholls and Dan Day on double bass and drums, to bring Sooner After Solstice, a ...
GEORGIA SHACKLETON – Harry’s Seagull (own label)
Georgia has already made her mark with The Shackleton Trio and her debut solo album, Harry’s Seagull, continues her ongoing exploration of East Anglian songs and tunes. More about the title later but you will be familiar with the names credited as sources of these songs, from Phoebe Smith to ...
DANNY BRITT – All Over The Map (own label)
Based in Austin, Britt’s seventh album, All Over The Map, is succinctly summed up by its title, the genres contained within wandering between jazz, old time country, folk and Americana. It’s country saloon sensibility is set with the dusty voiced, piano waltzer opening track, ‘The Bar Stool’ where “there’s a ...
SHOW OF HANDS – Roots 2 (Hands On Music HMCD52)
As the title says, Roots 2 is the sequel to their first best of collection, one that marks their final tour as a trio with Miranda Sykes, and again trawls their impressive back catalogue for both studio and live recordings, and, while there’s nothing that isn’t already available on previous ...
RÉALTA – Thing Of The Earth (own label)
Belfast band Réalta’s new album, Thing Of The Earth, touches a vinyl stylus into the aged, grooved rings of an old boldly hewn oaken stump that still vibrates with the ever circular melodies of weathered wood caressed with the magic of a wonderful percussive pulse, big drops of bass authority, ...
HONEY AND THE BEAR – Away Beyond The Fret (own label)
Away Beyond The Fret, the third album from Suffolk-based duo Lucy and Jon Hart, continuing the trend set on the previous releases (Aker, Roke), the title comes from an East Anglian term for evening mist or fog drifting in from the sea while the songs, written during lockdown, are inspired ...
THE ROSIE HOOD BAND – A Seed Of Gold (Little Red Recordings LRRCD01)
Following on from her well-received 2017 album debut, joined by Robyn Wallace on melodeon, and Nicola Beazley and Rosie Butler-Hall on fiddles, A Seed Of Gold again features a mix of the traditional, self-penned and covers, drawing inspiration from Hood’s native Wiltshire for its slowly gathering drone intro opening track, ...
HOLLY & THE REIVERS – Three Galleys (own label HATR2508)
Holly & The Reivers are a trio from the borderlands around Newcastle. Holly Clarke, Merle Harbron and Bertie Armstrong all enjoy solo careers but came together six years ago. Each has a different style which meld together in the band and Three Galleys is immersed in the darker side of ...
BRYONY GRIFFITH & ALICE JONES – Wesselbobs (Selwyn Music SYNMCD0010)
Getting into the seasonal mood early on, combining fiddle, harmonium, tenor guitar and body percussion, produced by Joe Rusby the duo, generally on alternative lead vocals, offer up a wintery collection of traditional Yorkshire tunes, Wesselbobs referring to a West Yorkshire pastime of the late 1800s whereby decorated, evergreen boughs, ...
KATIE MACFARLANE – An Nighean Sheunta (Viewbank Records VBRCD001)
I’ve said it before but there is something mystical about Gaelic song. I don’t really care what the words mean but the sound is magical. From female vocalists we’ve come to expect haunting delicate vocal, often with light floaty accompaniments. On her debut album, An Nighean Sheunta (The Enchanted Girl), ...
TONY WINN – Blue Speck (Freefall FF016D)
Blue Speck, the eighth album by the Suffolk-based singer-songwriter takes a decided environmental course on the opening ‘All We Have’, a spoken track with Helen Mulley on backing vocals about “This pile of microbe infested soil/This tangled mat of vegetation/where insects busy their tiny lives to sustain a host of ...
GUDRUN WALTHER & ANDY CUTTING – Conversations (Artes Records – ARCD 6040)
Some things in life take a long time and Conversations, the debut album from Anglo-German duo Gudrun Walther and Andy Cutting, has taken 28 years to come to fruition. It was in 1995 that they formed an intention to work together after playing a session, but problems with timings and ...
NINA ÅKERBLOM NIELSEN – Nobody Knows This Little Rose (Kakafon Records)
In recent years, there has been quite a swell of artists setting to music the work of celebrated poets. Among these, those of Emily Dickinson have loomed large, both as individual numbers or full albums. The latest, Nobody Knows This Little Rose, comes from the Swedish songstress and composer who, ...
JEFFREY MARTIN – Thank God We Left The Garden (Fluff and Gravy Records via Loose)
Jeffrey Martin’s Thank God We Left The Garden is an acoustic guitar and voice bare bones recording (all the way from Portland, Oregon) that ventures, with ample melody, into a lonely scripture verse that prays with a “lucky recipe of time and place.” Wisdom dances in the late-night fire flames ...
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