The folking Store

UK folk and Americana music website folking.comWelcome to the folking store… All articles below contain direct banner links to the relevant Amazon web page for the featured product (usually the CD, Vinyl or download link for the press release or review).

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DARLING WEST – While I Was Asleep (JANSEN 097CD)

Darling West released their third album, While I Was Asleep, in February. The band are from Norway and have been played on that country’s mainstream radio channels and at its biggest festivals. Their previous album won a ‘Norwegian Grammy’ (a Spellemann Award). While I Was Asleep (sung in English) sits ...
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OLD CROW MEDICINE SHOW – Volunteer (Columbia Nashville)

From the opening notes of their latest album, Volunteer, the first to feature electric guitar in 14 years, you know the Grammy award-winning outfit have a good time in store for you, even if the song lyrics aren’t necessarily always as upbeat as the tunes. That said, the footstomping, handclapping ...
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ROBERT LANE – Only A Flight Away (own label RGL 03)

Following his excellent EP/mini-album, Ends And Starts, Robert Lane has been touring and writing and is back with a full length album with a startling cover design. Made on a crowd-funded shoestring with producer Matthew Pinfield again supporting on drums, bass and piano, Only A Flight Away adds one new ...
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PATRICK SWEANY – Ancient Noise (Nine Mile Records NMR0091)

Patrick Sweany has seven critically acclaimed albums to his credit. His latest album Ancient Noise will be released in the UK on July 6th. Sweany began as an acoustic musician, having absorbed his father’s collection of 60’s folk, vintage country, soul and blues – but then moved on from an ...
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FISHERMAN’S FRIENDS – Sole Mates (The Orchard)

Fisherman – Sole. See what they did there. After avoiding groan-inducing puns for five albums, I suppose the Cornish collective can be excused for finally indulging, especially given yet another fine and rousing assemblage of sea shanties. Currently an eight-piece line-up, the most recent addition being veritable youngster Toby Lobb, ...
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GARETH OWEN – Rolling By (own label)

When I first moved to South Shropshire a few years ago, I found myself living just a couple of doors away from writer and broadcaster Gareth Owen. And then I realized that I was also living by country legend-in-his-own-mind Virg Clenthills, Gareth's country-singing alter ego. I even played guitar for ...
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HANNAH SANDERS & BEN SAVAGE – Awake (Sungrazing Records SGR003)

Before The Sun, Hannah and Ben’s debut album as a duo, caused a few ripples in folk circles. I predict that Awake will cause a real splash; from its remarkable cover design to the mix of songs it takes everything that its predecessor had and doubles it. Hannah’s background as ...
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Glymjack’s debut album is on the way

Produced with Show of Hands’ Phil Beer, and featuring Steve Knightley and Miranda Sykes alongside Sam Kelly percussionist Evan Carson and fiddle virtuoso Gemma Gayner, English folk-roots act Glymjack’s debut album Light The Evening Fire is released this month. Previously described as “a dynamic, fiddle driven force to be reckoned ...
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PHIL COOPER – Thoughts & Observations (own label PHILCOOPER13)

Phil Cooper’s singer-songwriting style is firmly in the pop-folk arena: ringing guitar, tight bass and drums and clever use of backing vocals. He turned pro two years ago and Thoughts & Observations is his third studio album. This is an album that I liked more as it went on. There ...
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Hannah Sanders & Ben Savage announce their new album and tour dates

Two years ago, Hannah Sanders & Ben Savage stirred the folk and acoustic world with a stand-out debut album and there’s been little slumbering since. Now they are set to release an arresting second studio album, Awake. The combination of Hannah’s outstandingly pure, clear voice, their perfect fit harmonies and ...
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Gretchen Peters announces new album and tour dates

Described by Uncut magazine as “One of Nashville’s greatest talents”, Gretchen Peters is releasing new album Dancing With The Beast next month. It’s the follow-up to 2016’s acclaimed record Blackbirds, which was named Album of The Year by the Americana Music Association. It’s with some anticipation that the record is ...
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Greg Russell & Ciaran Algar – spring tour dates

It could be their pull no punches songwriting. It could be Russell’s remarkable voice and Algar’s distinctive, fluid fiddle. It could be their inventive takes on traditional songs, their unseen empathy, brilliant tune sets or the way they tackle topical issues. Whatever it is Greg Russell and Ciaran Algar have ...
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MARY CHAPIN CARPENTER – Sometimes Just The Sky (Lambent Light LLR002)

Revisiting is the new Best Of. In recent years, several artists have either gone to their back catalogue and reworked old songs in next contexts or released albums of songs they’d written for others but never recorded themselves. Carpenter takes the former route here with a collection of twelve of ...
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Gareth Owen releases debut album at 81

At 81 years of age, prize-winning poet, novelist, BBC broadcaster and playwright, Gareth Owen released an album of his own country songs last month. Gareth Owen has published some seven volumes of poetry, of which over a hundred have appeared in various anthologies. For a number of years he was ...
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NINEBARROW – The Waters & The Wild (own label)

If music be the food of love, then prepare for indigestion … was the title of a 1967 album by a band I’m not prepared to mention here. It’s not quite appropriate in this case for although The Waters & The Wild serves up some rich fare it is very ...
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Connla on UK Tour to promote Next Chapter album

When they first emerged, Irish Music magazine said of their debut EP: “Consider this your early warning system…there is something serious on the horizon and that creative storm is Connla.” They had already been crowned Best New Group in the Live Ireland 2016 Awards then carried off Best Vocal/Instrumental Album ...
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VARIOUS ARTISTS – Johnny Cash Forever Words (Legacy Recordings)

Johnny Cash: Forever Words (or, according to the physical CD, Johnny Cash The Music Forever Words) is a collaborative album consisting of 16 songs based on Johnny Cash's unpublished poetry, lyrics, and letters. Some of them are drawn directly from Forever Words: The Unknown Poems, described as "a volume of ...
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GREG RUSSELL & CIARAN ALGAR – Utopia And Wasteland (Rootbeat RBRCD40)

The ink is barely dry on Greg and Ciaran’s previous album and they are back with Utopia And Wasteland. The mix is pretty much as before; original songs, judiciously chosen covers and three tune sets. The title isn’t just a randomly chosen three words: it is at the heart of ...
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OPEN THE DOOR FOR THREE – The Joyful Hour (own label OPTD003)

The Joyful Hour is the third album by Irish-American trio Open The Door For Three. They are fiddler Liz Knowles, already known to us a member of String Sisters; American-born piper, flautist and whistle-player Kieran O’Hare and singer/bouzouki player Pat Broaders who is Irish but now lives in Chicago. All ...
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BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards 2018 – Winners Revealed

The winners of the Radio 2 Folk Awards 2018 have been announced in a ceremony broadcast live on BBC Radio 2 and BBC Radio Ulster, from Belfast Waterfront in Northern Ireland. A key highlight of the music calendar – now in its 19th year - the awards produced by 7digital ...
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FINBAR FUREY – Don’t Stop This Now (BMG)

Finbar Furey’s new album, Don’t Stop This Now, is a repackaging of Paddy Dear with new songs and the addition of a DVD recorded at Vicar Street, Dublin. Finbar is 71 now. Initially known as a champion piper he performed as a backing musician with The Clancy Brothers, later forming ...
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The Folking Awards results 2018

Here they are, the results of the 2018 Folking awards. Thanks to all our writers who submitted nominations and to everyone who participated - almost 17,000 votes were cast. Every one of the nominees made an impression on our writers either on record or on stage during 2017. Without further ...
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Le Vent Du Nord bio

The award winning and highly acclaimed band Le Vent du Nord is a leading force in Quebec’s progressive francophone folk movement.  The group’s vast repertoire draws from both traditional sources and original compositions, while enhancing it’s hard-driving soulful music (rooted in the Celtic diaspora) with a broad range of global ...
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The Trials Of Cato bio

Hailing from North Wales and Yorkshire, The Trials of Cato returned to the UK from Beirut, Lebanon in the winter of 2016. Since then their feet have barely touched the ground as their eclectic brand of folk music – encompassing 18th century ballads all the way up to self-penned stomping ...
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Ryan Young bio

Ryan Young is an emerging young fiddle player from Scotland - one of a 'new wave' of young players bringing fresh and inventive ideas to traditional Scottish music. Ryan's fiddle playing is brimming with fresh melodic ideas, an uplifting rhythmic drive and a great depth of dynamics and precision. Ryan ...
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Merry Hell bio

Founded in their native North West of England, Merry Hell is an eight-piece folk-rock band with a history, a pedigree and a bright future. In four short years they have risen to become festival favourites, their first two albums finding favour with critics, broadcasters and music fans alike. They are ...
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Kathryn Roberts & Sean Lakeman bio

Kathryn Roberts and Sean Lakeman have long established themselves as one of the UK folk scene’s most rewardingly enduring partnerships. Duos come and duos go... And some nurture and fine tune their art and watch it grow into something totally original, captivating and award-winning. Bonded by an unseen alchemy, Kathryn ...
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Richard Thompson bio

Named by Rolling Stone Magazine as one of the Top 20 Guitarists of All Time, Richard Thompson is also one of the world’s most critically acclaimed and prolific songwriters. He has received Lifetime Achievement Awards for Songwriting on both sides of the Atlantic - from the Americana Music Association in ...
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FINDLAY NAPIER talks to Folking

Findlay Napier doesn’t look like his publicity photographs. That is to say, he does but that dour, unsmiling image you see above isn’t him. In person he’s affable, chatty to the point of indiscretion and often very funny but also thoughtful, considering some of his answers carefully. He was born ...
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RY COODER – The Prodigal Son

The Prodigal Son, Ry Cooder’s first new solo release in six years, is set for release by Fantasy Records on May 11th, 2018. Listen to the lead track, “Shrinking Man” here: https://rycooder.lnk.to/ShrinkingMan Recorded in Hollywood, CA, and produced by Ry and his chief collaborator, drummer Joachim Cooder, The Prodigal Son ...
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Frank Turner – BE MORE KIND

NEW FRANK TURNER ALBUM ‘BE MORE KIND’ RELEASED MAY 4th 2018 Frank Turner has announced details of his forthcoming seventh studio album. Be More Kind will be released on May 4th through Xtra Mile Recordings/Polydor Records. Months after the release of Songbook, a career-spanning retrospective which also saw reworked versions ...
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3HATTRIO – Lord Of The Desert (own label)

Close the windows, turn off background sound, put headphones on if you want, and just lose yourself in this album. Lord Of The Desert by 3hattrio was released in the UK on March 1st. Good music changes what you feel or do and hearing this album has had me researching ...
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MASON LIVELY – Stronger Ties (own label)

Born in smalltown Texas, Lively wrote his first song at fifteen and, co-produced by Lloyd Maines, cut his first EP a year later. Now, four years on, comes his debut album, Stronger Ties, a genre-ranging collection rooted in different shades of Texas country, opening up in the bluesy alt country ...
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ADY JOHNSON – London Songs (own label)

Ady Johnson released his second album London Songs on February 23rd. Johnson has a degree in classical guitar performance, gave up a career as an antique furniture restorer to become a full time musician and first made his name busking outside BBC6 Music’s 6Fest – where he was so impressive ...
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BEN HARPER AND CHARLIE MUSSELWHITE – No Mercy In This Land (Anti 7561-2)

An overdue follow-up to 2013’s Grammy Award-winning Get Up! sees Ben Harper and Charlie Musselwhite reunite, this time resulting in No Mercy In This Land. With nearly 50 albums between them, the collective credentials of this duo are really quite considerable; Ben Harper’s talents as a prolific singer-songwriter and gifted ...
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THE RHEINGANS SISTERS – Bright Field (Rootbeat RBRCD39)

When I first heard the Rheingans Sisters I hoped that they might bring something new to the folk music of Derbyshire where they grew up. Instead, they have fixed their attention on composition and songwriting and the result is their third album, Bright Field. The sisters are much travelled. Anna ...
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TREMBLING BELLS – Dungeness (Tin Angel)

Drummer and singer Alex Neilson declared that, for ‘Big Nothing’, the 62-second opening track on Dungeness, the band’s seventh album, he wanted the plangent chords “to sound gigantic and degraded, like a building collapsing in slow motion” as well as capturing the parched, flat end of the earth landscapes of the ...
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PORT CITIES – Port Cities (Turtlemusik)

According to the press blurb, a port city is where cultures and histories collide and goods and ideas are imported. Well, this Nova Scotia trio of Carleton Stone, Dylan Guthro and Breagh MacKinnon have certainly taken that to heart, their debut, Port Cities, frequently calling to mind other acts or songs ...
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LEVELLERS – We The Collective (On The Fiddle Recordings, OTFCD029P)

To celebrate their 30th anniversary, We The Collective finds the Levellers’ reaffirming their mission statement, renewing their vows. Recorded at Abbey Road, with renowned producer John Leckie, the album re-imagines eight of their classic songs – from a vast back catalogue - including some singles, plus two new tracks. Played ...
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JOSIENNE CLARKE & BEN WALKER – Seedlings All (Rough Trade RTRADCD898)

It’s long been the case that you don’t come to Clarke and Walker for background music or cheeriness. Their music is sparse but intricate and you have to work at it. It is also almost inevitably suffused with melancholia, delivered at a pace and tempo to suit the mood. But ...
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BOLDWOOD – Glory Of The West (Hobgoblin HOBCD 1018)

Boldwood released their first album ten years ago. Glory Of The West is their second so there have been a few changes in between. The group has slimmed down to a quartet with Matthew Coatsworth joining Becky Price, Daniel Wolverson and Kate Moran. The essence of the line-up is still ...
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Maddy Prior – April/May tour dates

Over the course of her remarkable career, Maddy Prior has made it her mission to work with some of the most exceptional musicians in the world – both within Steeleye Span and beyond. To that noted list she has added accordion player, singer and clog dancer Hannah James and multi-instrumentalist ...
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DON McLEAN – Botanical Gardens (BMG538329932)

Forty-seven years and 19 albums on, McLean’s name is still preceded in reviews by “American Pie singer” and for most people, he’s still probably associated with that and ‘Vincent’. Now 72, Botanical Gardens, his first (and rumouredly last studio recording) in eight years, the first for a major label since ...
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YOU ARE WOLF – Keld (Firecrest Records, FC001P)

Diving down from the avian themes of You Are Wolf’s first album, Hawk To The Hunting Gone, Keld is a set of songs of water, specifically the mysticism of freshwater inland waterways. The word “keld” means “the deep, still, smooth part of a river” – somewhere to swim, to chant ...
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CONNLA – The Next Chapter (Connla)

When you read of the “hottest new band on the scene” you tend to roll your eyes and translate the accolade into “over-egged, fly-by-night, bratpack”. But how wrong I was about this one. The creative storm that is Connla demands attention. Young, vibrant, energised, yes – but more than that, ...
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Korby Lenker – Thousand Springs

For many artists, stepping into a studio to record an album can be challenging enough. But when East Nashvillian Korby Lenker began working on his seventh album, Thousand Springs, he decided to skip the studio altogether and head to his home state of Idaho to record in places that held ...
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PATRICIA VONNE – Top Of The Mountain (MIG 20182 CD)

Patricia Vonne releases Top Of The Mountain, her seventh album on March 23rd. It’s got a variety of styles, which is both its strength and weakness. At times, it’s a little way from the kind of music that is at the core of folking.com but I’ve enjoyed playing the album, ...
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Ben Harper and Charlie Musselwhite – new single and album

BEN HARPER AND CHARLIE MUSSELWHITE RELEASE LIVELY NEW SINGLE 'FOUND THE ONE' FROM FORTHCOMING ALBUM 'NO MERCY IN THIS LAND’ Gearing up for the 30th March release of 'No Mercy in This Land', GRAMMY-Award winning artists BEN HARPER and CHARLIE MUSSELWHITE share a new track from the forthcoming album entitled ...
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Gem Andrews – North

Gem Andrews’ powerful new album ‘North’ is an intimate and stirring collection of songs which tackles themes of mental illness, poverty, community and destitution. In this dark country album, Andrews opens up the murkiest corners of her mind, and tells stories which are in turn despairing, hopeful and furious. Running ...
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JOHNNY CASH: FOREVER WORDS

Legacy Recordings to Release Johnny Cash: Forever Words, an Album of Cash's Unknown Poems & Other Writings Transformed into New Songs by Contemporary Artists Album Features New Performances by Chris Cornell, Ruston Kelly & Kacey Musgraves, Rosanne Cash, Alison Krauss & Union Station, Kris Kristofferson & Willie Nelson, Brad Paisley, ...
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