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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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THE 19TH STREET BAND – Near Perfect (own label)
Named for the street in Arlington where Caolaidhe and Meghan Davis lived, The 19th Street Band play an amalgam of Irish and American folk-rock. Near Perfect (no false modesty here) is their third studio album, mostly original material but including a cover of ‘Livin’ In These Troubled Times’, the number ...
DANIEL RODRIGUEZ – Vast Nothing (CD Baby)
Daniel Rodriguez is a Colorado singer-songwriter, who released Vast Nothing, his second solo full-length album, on July 1st in the UK. It’s a thing of gentle beauty – glorious melodies, gentle picking and arrangements that hold back rather than take over. The album mostly fixes us in the USA “Keep ...
GARETH WILLIAMS – Songs From The Last Page (own label GWC01CD)
Gareth Williams could have called this album Music From Big Pink but it’s been done before although the pink house on the cover gets a mention. In fact, the genesis of Songs From The Last Page is much more complicated. Williams takes a book by a Scottish author and extracts ...
THE JOHN RICHARDS BAND – Hard Times And Heroes (JRB JRB0723)
When John Richards released his most recent solo CD, he expected it to be his last album. When I reviewed that album for this site, I commented that “I can only hope that John has enough songs in him not yet written to lure him back into the studio at ...
PEATBOG FAERIES – I See A World (Peatbog Records CDBOG009)
We know the Peatbog Faeries. From Skye with a sound as big as the Cuillin itself and the ability to generate great excitement on stage. Their line-up has changed recently with the addition of Norman Willmore, drummer Stu Brown and the multi-instrumental talents of Innes Watson. They are principally an ...
JOSHUA BURNELL – Glass Knight (own label MNR23A)
Born in France and raised in Scotland, Burnell is an unpredictable quantity when it comes to his idiosyncratic approach to folk. So it’s hard to say what those who were into his recent two albums featuring reinterpretations of traditional songs are going to make of Glass Knight, an all original, ...
DOT ALLISON – Consciousology (Secret Cathedral)
Dot Allison’s Consciousology is a wispy voiced Scottish singer-songwriter album filled with obtuse and quite beautiful melodies and music that’s doused in madcap electronics and leavened with pliant symphony orchestrated textures. And an always present gently touched acoustic guitar dapples with purity through a funhouse sonic (sort of) folky ride ...
BETH BOMBARA – It All Goes Up (Black Mesa BMR 74)
“There’s a lot of it about.” This was the reply I got some years ago when I asked a friend their views on Americana. The conversation is best left in the depths of time, but I mention it because he was right there was, then, a lot of it about ...
ELIZA CARTHY TRIO – Conversations We’ve Had Before (Hem Hem)
Available only as a Bandcamp download, dedicated to Paul Sartin and featuring long-time collaborator Saul Rose on accordion and reuniting with David Delarre on acoustic guitar, Conversations We’ve Had Before is not, as the title suggests, retreading old material in a new format, but rather a case of coming to ...
JONO WRIGHT – Special Measures (own label digital release)
Jono Wright has another life which I don’t propose to talk about although the title of his debut album may give you a clue. Special Measures is a set of ten guitar instrumentals co-produced with cellist George Shilling who adds bass notes to Jono’s compositions. Self-released albums of guitar music ...
BELLA GAFFNEY – Reflections (own label BGCD01)
Bella Gaffney has risen almost imperceptibly but purposefully through the ranks of British folk music. Playing guitar, banjo and double bass she appears solo, as a duo with Dan Webster and as a member of The Magpies … there she is. Her new album is called Reflections – it’s at ...
NORMAN PATERSON – Torn (own label NP2023CD)
Making his recording debut at 65, Stornoway-born Paterson reflects on life well-lived and characters met along the way with the traditional folk-informed collection of self-penned numbers, Torn, on which he’s accompanied by Anna Massie on guitar, banjo and mandolin, pedal steel player Allan Train, Angus Lyon from Blazin’ Fiddles on ...
SEAN TAYLOR – Short Stories (STCD118)
Sean Taylor has been making music for 20 years now, and with his latest release, Short Stories, shows that he's at the top of his game. Sean is a troubadour, normally playing over 100 live shows a year across the UK and abroad and picking up awards along the way ...
ANNIE BARTHOLOMEW – Sisters Of White Chapel (Klondike Gold Rush Songs)
The concept was intriguing enough but then I heard the single, ‘White Chapel Woman’, and I was hooked. Annie Bartholomew is from Juneau, Alaska, plays banjo and is also known as Annie B Good and Annie Where The Sun Don’t Shine, specialising in “dark, bawdy blues”. Sisters Of White Chapel ...
JIM CAUSLEY – Songs Of Dartmoor (Hrōc Music HROC08)
Songs Of Dartmoor is Jim Causley’s fourth album of Devon songs, all packaged in matching sleeves designed by Karen Cater. Having previously ranged across Devon, Jim was commissioned to restrict himself to an area bounded roughly by Okehampton to the north and Buckfastleigh to the south-east and has whittled his ...
SARAH DEERE-JONES – A Little Piece Of Eden (own label FPCD016)
Born in Dorset and now based in Cornwall, Deere-Jones is a pure-voiced, classically trained harpist, a lecturer on the medieval harp in England, Royal Academy Associate, composer and environmentalist with four previous albums and two EPs of both original and traditional music inspired by the landscape and the nature within ...
JON PALMER ACOUSTIC BAND – Vacca Wall (Splid Records SPLID CD31)
Jon Palmer must lead the most electrifying acoustic band in the country – we must stage a battle of the bands between them and M***y H**l to test the theory – but that’s for another time. Their new album is Vacca Wall and we’d better sort out the title before ...
LUCIO BARBARINO –The Blue Evenings (own label)
Singer-songwriter Lucio Barbarino’s album, The Blue Evenings, touches every conceivable folk music port of call (from his native Cape Cod, Massachusetts) yet manages to avoid the usual tourist sights, sounds, and the occasional sing-along stuff of aging Woodstock people who find salvation inn The Eagles’ tuneful song, ‘Take It Easy’ ...
MELTWATER GHOSTS – Stargazing (digital stream)
Stargazing is the debut release from cosmic folk, americana and country group Meltwater Ghosts. With songs written in shepherds’ huts and on black mountain sides, the album features acclaimed songwriters Rev Hammer and his lovely wife Sanchia Ryan. They are wonderfully backed by Ian Jennings on double bass, Rupert McDonald ...
ERIN K – Sink To Swim (own label UPIGO01 CD)
I didn’t know anything about Erin K but a description of her third album, Sink To Swim, intrigued me. And I was right to be intrigued. Erin Kleh is based in London with a taste for Americana. She writes songs and plays guitar and works with international musicians who gravitated ...
IAN BRUCE – Together Forever (Ruglen Record Company LUMSCD0117)
Anyone with even a passing interest in the Scottish folk scene will be aware of Bruce who, since he first dedicated his life to making music professionally back in 1977, has been part of numerous duos and groups as well as releasing several albums, including one interpreting Robert Burns songs ...
ÁED – Leaf (own label)
The route to an album review often begins with an email, usually extolling the virtues of a record that’s the greatest thing since sourdough. The one sent by Illenia Ballacchino, lead vocalist with Áed was rather different asking us to consider the band’s second album, Leaf – diffident, almost apologetic, ...
GWENAN GIBBARD – Hen Ganeuon Newydd (Sain SCD2850)
Hen Ganeuon Newydd, subtitled The Folk-Songs Of Llŷn And Eifionydd for the non-Welsh speakers, is a collection of songs from the late 19th and early 20th centuries collected in north-west Wales. The subjects were frequently local and range from big stories to little jokey ditties, many gleaned from The National ...
SETH LAKEMAN – The Somerset Sessions (Honour Oak Records HNR10)
Originally released as a limited edition for Record Store day and now given a wider distribution on CD and vinyl, The Somerset Sessions was recorded over 10 days late in 2020 at the Bert Jansch Studio in Frome, with Lakeman accompanied by drummer Ethan Johns, keyboard player Jeremy Stacey, John ...
CARRIE MARTIN – Evergreen (Psychotron Records)
Hull singer-songwriter Carrie Martin’s Evergreen rekindles the folk-rock-progressive vibe of the late 70’s, just before punk rock with its spit, safety pins, pogo dancing, and Melody Maker’s “Charles Unpleasant” cartoons laid waste to a whole lot of talent and some pretty great albums. Fans of the later Renaissance and the ...
WESTWARD THE LIGHT – Flow Country (Braw Sailin’ Records CD011BSR)
Westward The Light released their debut album in 2020 to great acclaim. Their second album Flow Country, named after the landscape between Caithness and Sutherland in northern Scotland, was released at the end of March 2023 and has only just come over my desk. There are nine tracks, all tunes, ...
BLUEBYRD – Song And Dance (own label)
Although Bluebyrd don’t want Song And Dance to be seen as a lockdown album, they’re clear that it’s influenced by the thoughts and feelings they went through at that time. It’s no surprise then that this, their third album, is a very thoughtful piece of work. Hailing from Wolverhampton, Bluebyrd ...
JUDE EDWIN-SCOTT – Rambling Rose (Bellyhead 9 Records BH9CD09)
First learning guitar when he was six, now based in Cheshire, alongside his career as an acrylics greeting cards artist) Edwin-Scott has developed a very English intricate fingerpicking style in the tradition of Nic Jones, heard to fine effect on Rambling Rose, his seventh self-released studio album a bringing together ...
RIDERS OF THE CANYON – Riders Of The Canyon (Great Canyon Records GCR-013 CD)
Joana Serrat released her fifth album on June 23rd. Serrat is a Catalonian singer-songwriter and she has combined with Northern-Irish singer-songwriter Matthew McDaid and two other Catalonians, Roger Usart and Victor Partido. The band, the album and one of the tracks are all called Riders Of The Canyon. When you ...
JOSHUA RADIN – Though The World Will Tell Me So (Vol 1 & 2) (Nettwork Music Group)
Joshua Radin’s new album, Though The World Will Tell Me So (Vol 1 & 2), elicits the hyperbolic comment: “One Billion People Love Folk Music!” And that’s a bunch, considering Elvis only had “50,000,000 fans who can’t be wrong!” Now, (especially with those capital letters!) that “Billion” braggadocio certainly sounds ...
PATAKAS – When You’re Ready (WildGoose WGS441CD)
With stunningly unfortunate timing When You’re Ready arrived the day after we put this month’s Singles Bar to bed. A day earlier and it would have taken pride of place so in the circumstances we had to break a few rules. The circumstances are that Patakas are Joe Sartin and ...
SINGLES BAR 91 – A round-up of recent EPs and singles
COHEN BRAITHWAITE-KILCOYNE has moved on from being folk’s latest wunderkind to being a seasoned professional as this EP, Come Make My Bed, testifies. His voice is strong and slightly deeper and his concertina equally powerful. His version of the title song was collected in Passfield, a few scant miles from ...
DÁIMH – Sula (Goat Island Music GIMCD006)
Dáimh’s new album, Sula, travels from Moidart to Mabou and back home again to the island of Bernera off the coast of Lewis (“during a stormy December”), with Scottish folk music filled with fire, melody, and an emotive heart. Dáimh – with three original members Angus MacKenzie, Gabe McVarish, and ...
MALCOLM HOLCOMBE – Bits & Pieces (Proper/Need To Know)
Diagnosed with cancer in 2022, alongside regular collaborator Jared Tyler Holcombe resolved to knock his 18th and potentially swan song album into shape as quickly as possible. However, while the material has been stripped back and simply arranged, Bits & Pieces never sounds a like a rush job. Very much ...
BRENNEN LEIGH – Ain’t Through Honky Tonkin’ Yet (Signature Sounds)
Making her Grand Old Opry debut on June 24th, with her follow up to last year’s Western Swing styled Obsessed With The West, Leigh ably demonstrates why she’s more than worthy of the honour with Ain’t Through Honky Tonkin’ Yet, an outstanding album of more old time country and, as ...
DAVID EDWARD BOOTH – All My Days (The Recording Booth)
David Edward Booth’s All My Days cuts melodic tendons. And, like really nice folk music, it sings with melodies that are etched with Half Moon in Putney tradition. One night, when I was lucky enough to be in the audience, The Strawbs’ lead guy Dave Cousins' brilliant acoustic passion and ...
KASSI VALAZZA – Kassi Valazza Knows Nothing (Loose Music)
Kassi Valazza’s Kassi Valazza Knows Nothing is a lovely Americana folk album that blossoms, like a southwestern cactus flower, from the roots of all the truly great female singer songwriters like Nanci Griffith, Lucinda Williams, Kacy Anderson (of Kacy and Clayton fame!), Gillian Welch, Tish Hinojosa, Emmylou Harris, Sandy Denny, ...
HANNAH ALDRIDGE – Dream Of America (Icons Creating Evil Art / ICEALP446)
American singer / songwriter Hannah Aldridge has grown up surrounded by music. Her father, Walt Aldridge, has written numerous songs including Number 1 country hits and the family home was in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, famed for recording studios that have played host to artists including Paul Simon and Bob Dylan. ...
MERRY HELL – Let The Music Speak For Itself (Merry Hell MHMCD00123)
Recently released Merry Hell’s Let The Music Speak For Itself is a retrospective look at the band’s back catalogue in a double CD and digital release which gives the avid fan and also the newcomer to Merry Hell’s music a superb look into what Merry Hell are all about. 28 ...
AGS CONNOLLY – Siempre (Finstock Music FINST002 CD)
Siempre is Spanish for always and, combined with the cover decoration, it sort of sums up Ags Connolly’s musical philosophy. Ags is a British country singer/songwriter who sounds like a native…of Texas, which is where his heart lies. This album isn’t simply country as the lead track, ‘Headed South For ...
RACHEL HAIR & RON JAPPY – Élan (March Hair Records MHRCD 007)
Celtic harpist Rachel Hair and guitarist Ron Jappy met during a European tour and decided that they clicked, musically. The result of that meeting was the instrumental album Sparks in 2019 and has now been followed by Élan which, to my mind, does exactly what an album like this should. ...
SHOW OF HANDS – High Germany – 900 Miles To Bremen (MIG MIG02732)
I imagine that the Longdogs already own everything that Show Of Hands have ever done but this may just have eluded even them. High Germany – 900 Miles To Bremen is a product of the fruitful relationship between MIG Records and Radio Bremen and is a triple-CD set, reissued last ...
WHAPWEASEL – 7 (Whap Records WW0014)
Renowned Award-Winning English ska-folk fusion ceilidh band Whapweasel have recently released their latest album entitled 7 which is a beautiful collection of dance tunes each of which is different in its own way. Written by band members past and present, this 7-piece band have put together this their fourth studio ...
DALLAHAN – Speak Of The Devil (own label DHLN004CD)
About Dallahan’s new album, Speak Of The Devil: Well, let’s just say (to sort of quote Chuck Berry!), “Roll over Manran and tell Malinky the news”. Truly, I love those bands, but Dallahan, with their fourth record now filled with self-composed songs and tunes, certainly adds to the wonderful tradition ...
KAREN SWAN – Scatterlings (Super Tiny Records)
From Solihull, Birmingham, and currently based in Bristol, Swan lists herself as actor, poet, clown, vegan, writer and singer, and it’s the latter incarnation on display here on Scatterlings, six tracks (mostly compiled from 2021) accompanied by Jack Goodall on electric guitar. With a high pitched voice that perches in the ...
JO MILLER – A’ The Way To Galloway (own label JOM1CD)
I’m always impressed by the number of Scottish singers and musicians who quietly preface their name with Dr. and these are not honorary degrees but hard won. Jo Miller is one such, a researcher and educator whose album A’ The Way To Galloway is a collection of songs and tunes ...
SINGLES BAR 90 – A round-up of recent EPs and singles
One half of the wonderfully named Canadian duo The Goddamsels, MALLORY CHIPMAN steps out solo for As Though I Had Wings (Tunnel Mountain), an EP which, featuring Jon Guenter on drums and both bassist Nico Humby and Esther Forseth on backing vocals, reflects her love of nature, and, specifically, birdcalls ...
THE HACKLES – What A Beautiful Thing I Have Made (Jealous Butcher Records JB 223)
Trajectory - the Collins dictionary defines this as “The trajectory of a moving object is the path that it follows as it moves.” It’s often applied to fast moving objects such as bullets or rockets. The Saturn Five rockets had three stages - the first lifting the crew about 42 ...
TÍR NA NÓG – Love Lost (MIG Music MIG02942 CD)
Older readers will remember Sonny Condell and Leo O’Kelly, otherwise Tír na nÓg. For the young folk, Tír na nÓg formed in Dublin in 1969 and were big in the seventies but in a small way. An acoustic duo, Sonny and Leo never followed Tyrannosaurus Rex and Medicine Head into ...
CAMUS – Out On The Spree (Old Windmill Records – OWR001)
Out On The Spree is the first full album Camus have released in several years, and only the fourth since the band was formed in the 1980s. Prolific they might not be, but this album suggests that while their recorded output might lack quantity, it’s certainly not lacking in quality ...
MAGGIE HOLLAND – The Dust Of Rage (Irregular Records IRR126)
When I first moved to this area I set out to find the local folk scene, which was not as easy then as it is now. The guests at the first club I found were Hot Vultures – Ian A Anderson and Maggie Holland – and that was the first ...
ADY SHAW – Light & Dark (Piper Moon Records)
Ady Shaw may not be a familiar name to many. He made his musical debut more than half a century ago and has been making music ever since while teaching art to earn his living. He moved from dance music to singer-songwriter and has spent the past few years performing ...
BRUCE COCKBURN – O Sun O Moon (True North Records)
Bruce Cockburn once sang, “The trouble with normal is it always gets worse”. But that’s simply not true for his new album, O Sun O Moon, because it is, indeed, a quite “normal” BC album – with brilliant songwriting, idiosyncratic and profound lyricism, a modern universal blues vibe, dexterous acoustic ...
BROOMDASHER – Ingrave Epiphany (Clean Sweep CS0122)
Following on from their Country Diary Of An Edwardian Lady project and released to coincide with their From Pub To Pulpit tour with Coracle and the choirs and organists of assorted churches and cathedrals celebrating Vaughan Williams' 150th birthday and the music he transformed from folk songs into hymns, Ingrave ...
DROPKICK MURPHYS – Okemah Rising (Dummy Luck DLM003LP)
Following on from This Machine Still Kills Fascists, Okemah Rising, the second collection of songs recorded in Tulsa featuring unpublished lyrics by Woody Guthrie they’ve set to music and again with his grandson Cole Quest on dobro and backing vocals, it rolls out with rolling military drums and Tim Brennan’s ...
TERRY EMM – Wish You Were Here (Azez Records/Shellshock)
Terry Emm’s Wish You Were Here is a return, after a seven-year hiatus, with an introspective, melodically addictive, and really nice folk album. Now, perhaps, Ralph McTell summed the soul of all the singer-songwriters with the words from his song, ‘Zimmerman Blues’ as he sang, “As sure as the stars ...
HANNAH ROSE PLATT – Deathbed Confessions (Xtra Mile Recording)
Hannah Rose Platt’s music extolls the peculiar enjoyment of buttered popcorn and a hammer horror film marathon. Her new album, Deathbed Confessions, which comes all the way from her native Liverpool and her new home in Bristol, is filled with “shadowy characters, spooky destinations, and surreal narratives”. And Hannah braves ...
ELLI DE MON – Pagan Blues (Area Pirata Records AP096)
Musician and songwriter Elli de Mon presented Pagan Blues in late April, two years after capturing the attention of audiences throughout Europe and beyond with her previous album, Countin’ The Blues. Brash, bold, and unwavering in its intent, de Mon’s most recent effort is a decidedly unnerving affair, perhaps intentionally ...
GREG ISTOCK – Mr Greg Mr Jones (Blue Gate Records)
Greg Istock releases Mr Greg Mr Jones on May 3rd. Istock has a pedigree to match the best: band leader, singer, songwriter (all the tracks on this album), producer, arranger, self-taught multi-instrumentalist. He has worked in bands across all genres, co-created the sound of 3hattrio and now has this solo ...
UNA MONAGHAN – Aonaracht (own label UMM002CD)
Aonaracht is an album that will divide opinion. The strapline on the sleeve – ‘a collection for traditional musicians and computer’ – is probably enough to make some traditionalists give up on it, but hasty judgments are always best avoided. A fuller reading of the sleeve notes and publicity material ...
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