Townes Van Zandt was a remarkable singer/songwriter, much admired by contemporaries such as Bob Dylan, Steve Earle, Lyle Lovett, Emmylou Harris and scores of others.
His erratic career oscillated wildly from moments of brilliance and clear-eyed perceptiveness through to drug-addled, alcohol addicted despair. His was a talent that inspired real love and devotion from his many fans, yet a kind of self-destructive streak hamstrung his progress in music.
Townes could go through periods where he was disciplined and ’together’ – together enough to tour the US and Europe, and this top value double CD set, Down Home & Abroad, captures TVZ in fine form – the first disc features a live show from The Down Home in Johnson City, Tennessee, on April 18th, 1985, and then, on disc two, a show from The Tavastia, in Helsinki, Finland, recorded on June 18th 1993.
The sets include such TVZ classics as ‘Pancho and Lefty’, ‘Lungs’, ‘Tecumseh Valley’, ‘Kathleen’, ‘Flyin’ Shoes’, ‘If I Needed You’, and many others. Townes is in fine voice, the audiences are enthusiastic, and the rich tones of his Gibson Jumbo acoustic guitar are prominent throughout. On disc one, he is accompanied by guitarist Mickey White, and flautist Donny Silverman.
The Helsinki disc just features just TVZ and his guitar, and is no less compelling – gripping stuff from a roots-rock master.
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Although forming in the mid 60s, coming out of the exciting British Folk Movement alongside Fairport Convention, Pentangle, Al Stewart and Roy Harper, this tour will mark the 50th Anniversary of their first major recording, being the first UK band to be signed by the famous Hollywood label A&M, under the guidance of Herb Albert and Jerry Moss.
Major chart success followed with classic albums Dragonfly, Bursting At The Seams, Ghosts, Grave New World and Hero & Heroine earning the band 2 Gold Discs and over 30 weeks in Billboard Charts with seven consecutive albums charting.
Massive coast to coast tours of America swiftly followed, sharing the stage with The Eagles, Santana and Frank Zappa.
From the days of Sandy Denny in the band (pre Fairport Convention) and Sonja Kristina (pre Curved Air), Strawbs have always enjoyed the finest soloists in their ranks. Rick Wakeman and then his son Oliver moving on to join Yes as well as Rick’s other son going on to Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath. Blue Weaver to join the Bee Gees and Don Airey to Deep Purple. The keyboard stool is now being filled by virtuoso Dave Bainbridge of Iona, whose blend of Folk, Rock and Celtic music has endeared them to audiences for over 25 years.
A big influence on bands such as Pink Floyd, Genesis and Yes, the band are constantly producing some of the best and most respected albums since the 70’s.
received rave reviews on both sides of the Atlantic and saw them back in the album charts for the first time in over 30 years. A recent sold out tour of Canada, producing spectacular reviews of the live show has resulted in two major tours of North America for 2019.
The Strawbs of the 21st Century are the constant guiding force, originator and front man Dave Cousins, described by Rolling Stone Magazine, “as the finest Dylan influenced songwriter to come out of the UK”. Long-time Strawbs cohorts since the 70’s, Dave Lambert on guitar, Chas Cronk, bass, driven on by the powerhouse drumming of Tony Fernandez, (regularly with Rick Wakeman’s band), and the aforementioned Dave Bainbridge on keyboards.
If you would like to order a copy of an album (CD or Vinyl format), download a copy or just listen to snippets of selected tracks then click below to be taken to our associated partner Amazon’s website (use the left and right arrows below to scroll along or back to see the full selection).
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After more than three years of careful work and the kind participation of a host of contributors, the first ever George Butterworth documentary film is now complete.
This ninety-five minute feature documentary about the English composer, folk song collector and folk dancer is a fitting account of a great lost talent, full of brilliant music from folk songs and morris dance tunes, solo male voice and piano to full orchestras. The filmmakers like to think that after seeing the documentary, you will never hear George Butterworth’s music in quite the same way again.
After such a long build up and all the support and encouragement the makers have received, they cannot wait to start showing this film and see George’s story connecting with audiences UK-wide. However in order to do this the film requires certain essential technical post production work.
The film makers are therefore inviting contributions through a crowdfunding campaign via IndieGoGo to cover these costs and take the film over the finish line and into cinemas around the UK.
The campaign was live for October and indications are that the financial target has been achieved. The site is still open and support need not necessarily be financial – although every pound will help us towards the goal. Mentioning the campaign on your website or sharing the link for this important and timely film with anyone you think may like to see it will be a massive boost.
Acclaimed singer-songwriter Martyn Joseph returns with new album Here Come The Young released January 25th 2019 via Pipe Records. Produced by Gerry Diver (Tom Robinson, Lisa Knapp, Sam Lee), Martyn was encouraged outside his comfort zone and the result is a career defining record.
Martyn says of his new album, “The songs are exploring uncertainty to varying degrees through different subject matter both in the personal and political. I hope for those who listen it will be the sort of record that takes you on a journey and leaves you buoyed and hopeful at the end, despite the fact that we go to a few tough places.”
Born in Penarth near Cardiff, Martyn is gifted with the rare ability to speak to the soul with his expressive and poignant lyrics and has enjoyed a career spanning 35 years to date, over a half a million record sales and thousands of live performances. He has created his own style and reputation as a stellar songwriter, jaw-dropping guitar player and mesmerising performer, and social justice is an essential part of his music, which has been recognised with various humanitarian awards and plaudits. In 2014, he launched Let Yourself Trust, a not-for-profit organisation which aims to challenge injustice wherever it’s found, educating via advocacy, campaigning for human rights, and raising issues that have been forgotten or ignored, via fundraising initiatives. To date they have raised over a quarter of a million pounds. He’s also Patron of Advantage Africa and Festival Spirit in the UK and Project Somos in Canada/Guatemala.
On Here Come The Young, his songs are imbued with an optimism at a time when it is not easily found. Running throughout the album is a sense of hope and belief in the good of the majority, and that this will overcome the loud, cynical noise that pervades. For Joseph, songs are photographs of moments and visions be they good or bad, his lyrics encourage people to fight fear, cynicism and negativity and the rhetoric of those who hold power.
The title track ‘Here Come The Young’ suggests the young don’t have the same baggage of past generations and are more open and inclusive On ‘Loves Majority’, a protest song of sorts, the greater collective good will always outweigh the bad. There is a heart-breaking tribute to those who work for the betterment of others on ‘This Glass’. Self-doubt is the subject in ‘Oh My Soul’, encouraging belief in one’s journey. Six years ago, Martyn visited the West Bank in Palestine to play a festival and this became a catalyst to him forming a non-profit organisation to work with grassroots projects across the world. It was his experience in Gaza that lead him to write ‘Take Back The Sky’, where young kids fly kites as a symbol of freedom “the wrist that holds the string of dreams for one brief moment takes back the sky”.
Martyn has previously toured with the likes of Art Garfunkel, Jools Holland, Ani DiFranco, Suzanne Vega, Mike and The Mechanics, Joan Armatrading, Celine Dion and Shirley Bassey. In 2016, in addition to playing over 170 shows worldwide, he was asked by the EFDSS and British Parliament to write and perform as part of Sweet Liberties with Nancy Kerr, Sam Carter and Maz O’Connor to mark 800 years of British democracy. One of his songs from this, “Nye” celebrating Nye Bevan, the author of the NHS, has been enthusiastically received by audiences everywhere, as well as having BBC national airplay on Mark Radcliffe’s Folk Show and Tom Robinson’s 6 Music show.
If you would like to order a copy of an album (CD or Vinyl format), download a copy or just listen to snippets of selected tracks then click below to be taken to our associated partner Amazon’s website (use the left and right arrows below to scroll along or back to see the full selection).
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Venom & Faith is the new album from Larkin Poe, to be released November 9, 2018. The Nashville-based sister duo follow the release with a headline European tour, starting in London at Islington Assembly Hall on November 21 and taking in dates in Germany, Austria, Italy and Spain.
In a genre as storied as American roots and blues, Larkin Poe – aka Atlanta, Georgia-born sisters Rebecca and Megan Lovell – make a mark all their own with Venom & Faith. Rather than concede to the history of the canon they hold dear or rest on their laurels, Larkin Poe persist and emerge rattling, stomping, and sliding into a modern-day depiction of what roots rock should sound like… another chapter in an everlasting story.
“It’s a celebration of American roots music as translated by two sisters who are playing the blues in a modern age,” says Rebecca about their new album.
Descendants of celebrated US writer Edgar Allen Poe, since forming Larkin Poe in 2010, Rebecca and Megan have proven a formidable duo both in and out of the studio. In 2014, producer T-Bone Burnett enlisted them for Lost On The River: The New Basement Tapes, a project that also saw contributions from Marcus Mumford (Mumford & Sons), Elvis Costello, Jim James (My Morning Jacket), Taylor Goldsmith (Dawes), and Rhiannon Giddens. The sisters have performed at Glastonbury Festival twice, and were named ‘Best Discovery Of Glastonbury’ in 2014 by The Observer.
They have opened for and been in the backing band of Elvis Costello and Conor Oberst; and supported the likes of Gary Clark Jr. Rebecca and Megan were also members of the all-star backing band for the 2017 MusiCares Person Of The Year tribute honouring Tom Petty (also organised by Burnett) alongside Jakob Dylan, Jackson Browne, Elle King, Lucinda Williams, Gary Clark Jr., Don Henley, and Randy Newman.
The follow-up to their critically acclaimed second album Peach, which was nominated for a Blues Music Award for Best Emerging Artist Album, Venom & Faith was produced by the band and their long-time engineer Roger Alan Nichols, and recorded in Nashville earlier this year in between headline shows and festival dates such as Bonnaroo and Lollapalooza.
Larkin Poe approached Venom & Faith with fierce independence. From Rebecca’s powerful vocals on ‘Ain’t Gonna Cry’ to Megan’s sultry lap steel on ‘Good And Gone,’ the sisters weave their talents into the fabric of their experience and a picture of the American South. ‘Blue Ridge Mountains’ harkens to the sisters’ hometown, “drinking sweet tea every day” with stomping percussion and churning riffs.
Larkin Poe infuse pop sensibilities into their sound, blending old-school elements of rock and soul with drum samples, hip-hop production values and resonant lyrics. Save for two covers (‘Sometimes’ by blues legend Bessie Jones and Skip James’ ‘Hard Time Killing Floor Blues’), the rest of the record’s tracks are Larkin Poe originals. Paired with unique production touches like organic percussion sounds — the thumping of dresser drawers, the slamming of back doors, and stomping on hardwood floors — Venom & Faith bleeds Lovell. The sisters once again perform all instruments on the album except on ‘Mississippi’ which enlists the slide stylings of friend and seasoned guitar legend Tyler Bryant.
The album’s title, ‘Venom & Faith’, is taken from a lyric on ‘Honey Honey’ and, according to the sisters, is intended to conjure a southern gothic image.
“The title of our last album, Peach, was an homage to our Georgia roots. With this album, we wanted a title that would allude to the duality of our art: gritty guitars offset by gentle vocals; musical moments of both tragedy and joy; the sacred and the profane.”
If you would like to order a copy of an album (CD or Vinyl format), download a copy or just listen to snippets of selected tracks then click below to be taken to our associated partner Amazon’s website (use the left and right arrows below to scroll along or back to see the full selection).
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As Katie Melua embarks on her European tour, BMG announce the release of Ultimate Collection on vinyl. Compiled by Katie, this vinyl edition features 23 songs from Katie’s 7 studio albums from 2003’s Call Off The Search to 2016’s In Winter. Katie’s cover of ‘Fields Of Gold’ (the Children In Need 2017 single) and 2 brand new recordings – ‘Bridge Over Troubled Water’ and ‘Diamonds Are Forever’ – complete the set.
‘Bridge Over Troubled Water’ was recorded earlier this year with The Gori Women’s Choir and the Georgian Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Nikoloz Rachveli, and was produced by Katie and Adam ‘Cecil’ Bartlett.
‘Diamonds Are Forever’, which Katie first performed live at the Don Black Songbook concert at London’s The Royal Festival Hall, is produced by legendary American record producer and musician, T Bone Burnett. Katie is the sole performer on the track – on vocals and acoustic guitar – which was recorded at T Bone’s home studio in Los Angeles, on vintage gear and to tape.
It is Katie’s extraordinary voice, and the ability to truly inhabit a song, that has been the constant since the young 19 year-old first appeared in 2003 with her debut single ‘The Closest Thing To Crazy’. One of the UK’s highest-selling female recording artists of all time, Katie has released 7 top-10 studio albums: ‘Call Off The Search’, ‘Piece By Piece’, ‘Pictures’, ‘The House’, ‘Secret Symphony’, ‘Ketevan’ and, most recently, 2016’s self-produced and hugely acclaimed ‘In Winter’.
Ultimate Collection celebrates the singer, the songwriter, the musician and the collaborator while paying tribute to the musicians, arrangers, producers and songwriters with whom Katie has worked. The songs are musical landmarks – in both Katie’s life and those of her fans; classic songs that stand the test of time, chosen for this collection for their musicianship, the quality of the writing and the pure emotions they elicit.
“I’d like to say a big thank you to all of those that I’ve had the great pleasure of working with, even the ones I don’t see very often. You have coloured and filled these recordings with brilliance. May our work together last for many years in the hearts of anyone needing to hear a classic song.”
Katie is now on an extensive autumn/winter European tour 2018, including 13 UK dates, in which she will be joined by a cast of stellar musicians, as well as members of The Gori Women’s Choir. The show will open with a set from up-and-coming Irish-Jordanian artist Keeva.
If you would like to order a copy of an album (CD or Vinyl format), download a copy or just listen to snippets of selected tracks then click below to be taken to our associated partner Amazon’s website (use the left and right arrows below to scroll along or back to see the full selection).
Buying through Amazon on folking.com helps us to recover a small part of our running costs, so please order anything you need as every little purchase helps us.
![Here Come The Young [VINYL]](https://i1.wp.com/images-eu.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/418coi2l1xL._SL160_.jpg?w=660&ssl=1)
![Ultimate Collection [VINYL]](https://i0.wp.com/images-eu.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51RITP9%2Bt5L._SL160_.jpg?w=660&ssl=1)