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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DARIA KULESH- MotherLand (own label)
MotherLand, her fourth studio album and her first since 2019, finds Daria, celebrating ten years on the UK folk scene, drawing on a myriad of life changing events in the intervening years, specifically becoming a mother and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, symptomatic of an increasingly unstable world. As such, ...
PHILIP RAMBOW – I’m An Artist (Fretsore Records)
I’m an Artist is released on January 31st, his first new album in five years. Rambow was born in Canada, came to London in the 1970’s, thrived in the pub-rock scene, backed Brian Eno, co-wrote Kirsty McColl’s ‘There’s A Guy Works Down the Chip Shop Swears He’s Elvis’. What is ...
PEDAIR – Dadeni (Sain Records SCD 2866)
I can’t quite understand why I get all the Welsh language albums – I was born in Hertfordshire (although that wasn’t my fault). Not that I mind, of course, Welsh is such a beautiful language to listen to. Dadeni (Renaissance) is the second album by Pedair, four singers and instrumentalists: ...
NAOMI GEE WRIGHT – Meteor Trail (Oti-O Records – Oti-O 009)
Naomi Gee Wright’s Meteor Trail is one of those albums that defies easy classification. It’s folk, jazz, classical, world music, and blends all of these into a sound very much its own. That isn’t surprising when we consider that cellist Naomi has operated across genres, working with luminaries from the ...
DAVID MITCHELL – Contours (own label)
David Mitchell is a classical guitarist with a penchant for traditional music who is also a luthier, half of the duo Mitchell and Vincent and a member of The Monkey See Monkey Do Ceilidh Band. Contours is his debut solo album, a mix of traditional tunes, original compositions, covers and ...
PRIME MINISTER – Everything Turns To Dust (digital release)
The Village, or Phil Matthews as he’s known down the pub, has been very good to me already this year. He has afforded me an early chance to listen to Everything Turns To Dust, his new album with musical partner, Mark Pearson, trading as Prime Minister. I very much enjoyed ...
LIZ JONES & BROKEN WINDOWS – Double Measures (own label)
Double Measures was released in November – and it’s the longest period of time from receipt of an album to finalising a review that I’ve ever taken (sorry Liz, sorry Broken Windows). It’s taken me a while to work out why. Should be easy – the album opens with ‘Johnny ...
FOURWINDS – Allta (own label FW005)
The title Allta meaning wild” or “untamed” in Irish and reflecting the musical spirit, this is the traditional trio’s second album, (the first since co-founder Daoirí Farrell went solo in 2016) the core line up of lead singer Tom Delany (Uilleann pipes, whistles), Caroline Keane (concertina, whistles), and Robbie Walsh ...
JOHN McCUTCHEON – Field Of Stars (Appalsongs)
A native of Wisconsin, Field Of Stars is McCutcheon’s 45th album in an illustrious career that has embraced folk and Americana alike, with songs ranged from the relationships and romance to political protest and social commentary. With backing musicians that include Peter Kennedy on electric guitar, fiddle player Stuart Duncan, ...
SINGLES BAR 109 – A round-up of recent EPs and singles
Described as a quirky indie-folk duo, the COULDN’T BE HAPPIERS are married couple Jodi Hildebran and Jordan Crosby Lee, Couple(t)s being the first half of two EPs, each consisting of six songs organised thematically into pairs: two love songs, two protest songs, and two folk story songs. On the romantic note, splashed ...
NORMAN PATERSON – Loved (own label NPCD003)
The name of Hebridean singer/ songwriter Norman Paterson has graced our pages in the past. He made his musical debut with Torn at the age of 65, followed that with Stornoway and now releases his third album, Loved. The title means loved in the sense of cherished without any romantic ...
FITKINWALL – Uist (NXN Recordings – NXN2021)
Migration is rarely out of the news these days, and one might be forgiven for thinking that mass population movements are unique to our own age. Of course, that’s not true and the message of Uist, the new album by harp and electronic duo FitkinWall, is that such movements have ...
GJERMUND LARSEN TRIO – Christmas Sessions (Hello Records HCD7436)
If you crave something different for your Christmas musical entertainment this year you might try Christmas Sessions by the Gjermund Larsen Trio. Gjermund is a prominent Norwegian fiddle player and his trio comprises Andreas Utnem on harmonium and piano and Sondre Meisfjord playing double bass. A Norwegian Christmas is very ...
HELEN GENTILE & LEWIS WOOD – Violet Sky (Grimdon Records CD009)
Clarinet and fiddle are a time honoured combination, the core feature of many an Eastern European town band, as well as being part of the tradition and expectation of Klezmer. Fiddle is, of course, integral to English and Celtic traditions alike, but the clarinet has never really latched much onto ...
JACKIE OATES & JOHN SPIERS – A Midwinter’s Night (Needle Pin Records NP3)
There is sometimes a temptation to deconstruct music for Christmas but that is something Jackie Oates and John Spiers have no truck with. A Midwinter’s Night is a predominantly traditional collection of festive songs and tunes with the emphasis firmly on celebration. They begin with the advent hymn, ‘Lo! He ...
BEANS ON TOAST – Wild Goose Chasers (BoT Music BoT17)
Tomorrow, at the time of writing, is Beans On Toast’s birthday and therefore sees the release of his annual album. Sixty years ago, two or even three albums a year was the norm – now one full-length record a year is exceptional, especially when it consists of all new material ...
SINGLES BAR 108 – A round-up of recent EPs and singles
ANNA is Anna Howells, a crooning smoky-voiced saxophonist and clarinettist who spent time in various Yorkshire orchestras and ensembles, the self-released Fall Of A Leaf being her debut EP, produced by and featuring Boo Hewerdine and Chris Pepper. Opener ‘Half Moon Café’ is a love song about an unconsummated meet ...
St AGNES FOUNTAIN – Christmas Starts With (CFATCD053)
Given they’ve been doing this for 23 years, it’s about time they got round to another ‘live’ album, the last being in 2002. With the passing of founding member David Hughes last year, they, as recorded here last December, now comprise the trio of Chris While, Julie Matthews and Fairport’s ...
EVELYN LAURIE AND NEIL THOMSON – Silver Threads (own label STPEN10001)
Before I heard this CD I knew two things about Paisley. Firstly, of course, was the famous pattern and secondly was that it was Gerry Rafferty’s home town. Subtitled Songs Of Paisley, Silver Threads is an impressionistic view of the town, its people and its history. The songs are a ...
GERRY COLVIN – The Last Christmas Needle (Crocodile Music CA0058)
Despite consistent sell-out shows and the fact that he’s one of the finest showmen and songwriters of the past 50 odd years, Colvin's not the household name or chart star his talent warrants. So, chances are, while this festive collection contains re-recordings of past releases, notably off the limited edition ...
THE UNTHANKS – In Winter (Rabble Rouser Music RRM029 / RRM029LP)
Things get well underway for the seasonal releases as The Unthanks deliver a double album of new and traditional festive sounds, many of the tracks flowing seamlessly from one to the next without breaks in the music. Recorded over the space of one wintry week on the North York Moors ...
FINE LINES – Bourbon Hymns (Parade Recordings)
Bourbon Hymns could only be an Americana album. From the title to the cover photography - a desert scene, complete with cactus trees a telegraph line stretching into the endless horizon – gives no indication that Fine Lines hail from Cheshire. But Americana comes from just about everywhere and if ...
AMY SPEACE – The American Dream (Goldrush Records)
Amy Speace has recently finished a UK tour, has released a new album, The American Dream, and has sent a copy of the album to Folking Towers for review. I listened to one track and said, “That sounds a notch above” – and having now had the whole album for ...
MICHAEL CHAPMAN – Party Pieces (Live in Bremen 1975) (Made In Germany Music)
Michael Chapman’s posthumous Party Pieces (Live In Bremen 1975) is a very good recording that is, thankfully, “Still Making Rain”, as it features his acoustic guitar wizardry, wonderfully gruff vocals, incidental humour, and superb songwriting. For the initiate: Michael Chapman was a Yorkshire singer-songwriter who wandered through life’s playing cards ...
STATE OF THE UNION – Paper Tigers (Reveal 201DDX)
Two musicians, Boo Hewerdine and Brooks Williams, who will work with anybody and everybody occasionally get to work with each other. As a result, Paper Tigers is their fourth album as State Of The Union. Stripped down to basics, just two guitars and two voices, the album is a very ...
HANDS OF THE HERON – Quiet Light (Cuculi CUO19CD)
Comprising Bec Garthwaite, Beth Roberts and Claire Vine, based in Bristol Quiet Light is their third album and the first as an official psychfolk trio, the songs reflecting their individual struggles over recent years with themes of burnout and recovery, sorrow, acceptance, solitude and friendship. Musically varying between shimmering strings, fingerpicked acoustic ...
JERRON PAXTON – Things Done Changed (Smithsonian Folkways)
Things Done Changed is a modern-day gem – one which would still be a treasure if you slipped ninety or a hundred years through the time-vortex to chat to Alan Lomax as he was collecting music in the South. Paxton is in his mid-30’s - the front cover of the ...
THE TANNAHILL WEAVERS – Solstice (Hedera Records HRCD124)
The Tannahill Weavers occupy an odd place in the Scottish pantheon, almost a bridging post between the woolly jumper cosiness of the Corries and the keen Caledonian asceticism of the Battlefield Band. Indeed, as an ongoing unit, they have been around since 1968, releasing their first record nine years later ...
LUKE JACKSON – Bloom (First Take Records FTCD006)
It has been a while since we’ve heard from Luke Jackson. There was a digital EP (now available on CD) called Of The Time back in 2021 but Bloom has been five years in the making. Supported by long-time associates Elliott Norris on drums, Sam Mummery and Andy Sharps with ...
EVE GOODMAN – Summer Sun, Winter Trees (own label EveGAlbum2024)
A native of North Wales, Goodman writes and performs in both Welsh and English and was recently a guest artist on Bryn Terfel’s Sea Songs album. Following on from her 2021 Wave Upon Wave EP, influenced by the likes of Drake and Mitchell, Summer Sun, Winter Trees, produced by Luke ...
BETH MALCOLM – Folkmosis (own label BAM104)
Fifty years ago we might have called Folkmosis a concept album. What it actually is is an autobiography in three acts told in music and the spoken word. Beth Malcolm was voted Scots Singer Of The Year in 2022 but her life might not have turned out that way. She ...
ANDREW GABBARD – Ramble & Rave On! (Karma Chief KCR12029)
Andrew Gabbard and his brother Zachary have passed this way before; now Andrew returns with his third solo album, Ramble & Rave On!. Despite its rather in your face cover, this is a record of some subtlety and unexpected twists. Take the first track, ‘Just Like Magic’. It opens with ...
KATIE KNIPP – Me (own label)
I have a thing about genre defying music and Me, the eighth release by California based Katie Knipp certainly ticks that box. Country? Yes. Blues (Swamp and Chicago)? Yes. Prog AND Opera? You've got it. Yet it works as a whole, in the way that 'Bohemian Rhapsody' did. Me is ...
THREE IDLE WOMEN – All Hands Together (Woodshed WSCD003)
Nothing to do with indolence, published in 1947, ‘Idle Women’ was a book by Susan Woolfitt about the waterways equivalent of the women's land army and her life as a trainee working the canal boats during WWII, each woman bearing a badge emblazoned IW for ‘Inland Waterways’. It now gives ...
SUNJAY – I’m Just Like You (Mighty Tight Records MTRCD292401)
For Sunjay Brayne this album marks a pivotal point in his career as he finally reaches the end of an ill-advised publishing deal. Unless you have heard Sunjay perform live you probably won’t have heard his own songs - he’s sung the blues, played Buddy Holly on stage and now ...
MARTIN FLETT – When The Introverts Come Out (own label MF2024CD)
When The Introverts Come Out marks the point where the Outer Hebrides meet Monument Valley. Martin Flett was born and still lives on the former but his heart lies somewhere out west. But there’s more. Martin has had a long and varied career and he has only recently turned to ...
SINGLES BAR 107 – A round-up of recent EPs and singles
Following on from the single of the same name as part of the Radio 2 21st Century Folk Project a song telling of the rescue of Marc and Vicky Murphy from a flooding cave by the RNLI, MARTYN JOSEPH follows up with the Chapel Porth Beach EP (Pipe). As well as the single there’s an acoustic version plus two ...
LAURA MARLING – Patterns In Repeat (Chrysalis/Partisan Records)
Laura Marling’s Patterns In Repeat is an intimate album that conjures the magic touch of 70s iconic artists like Peter Hammill, Kate Bush, Roy Harper, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, Judee Sill, and Sandy Denny, who carved intensely personal music into still memorable vinyl grooves. Emotions run through the pulse of ...
MIKE REINSTEIN – The Birds Don’t Sing Around Here (Irregular Records)
Mike Reinstein has graced these pages previously but it has been six years since I last wrote about him. He has enjoyed a varied career, most recently as a secondary and special needs teacher. He’s written and recorded music for children but with his grown-up hat on The Birds Don’t ...
FURLINED – Kill Devil Hills (Concave Music CCV03)
A name new to me, it seems Furlined have been around for some time, Kill Devil Hills being album number three. However, the name seems more a vehicle for the singer-songwriter, Neil Crossley, than an actual band, with other musicians coming and going as needed. This becomes perhaps apparent, through ...
REITIR – Fe Alt Som Eingong Va (Eighth Nerve Audio 8nerve012)
We get some unusual albums here at Folking Towers and this surely counts as one of those. Reitir are as much a project as a band: a Norwegian quartet infiltrated by Scottish fiddle Sarah-Jane Summers who has previous in this field of endeavour in partnership with Juhani Silvola, also a ...
EWEN HENDERSON – Léirsinn – Perception (Sgadan Records)
An initial inspection of Ewen Henderson’s new album left me puzzled. The front cover looks old-fashioned, something from the 1960s perhaps, not suggesting anything ground-breaking unlike the music of his band, Mânran. The inside of the gatefold looks very modern, hinting at something else entirely. And that, I think, is ...
AERIALISTS – I Lost My Heart On Friday (Fiddlehead Records 015)
We know these Canadians, an earlier outing getting the Golembeski seal of approval some time back, for last album, ‘Dear Sienna‘, in 2020. Based around a core of Elise Boeur, Adam Iredale-Gray and Màiri Chaimbeul, fiddle, harp and guitar respectively, and who each have thriving solo and/or duo careers, for ...
GOZER GOODSPEED – Ruben
A charity single released on Bandcamp November 1st., Ruben’ is a charity single with a difference. ‘Ruben’ was written, arranged, performed, mixed and mastered by Plymouth, UK born Gozer Goodspeed. This came about after being asked by UK based singer-songwriter and podcaster Elijah Wolf if he would like to write ...
TIM EDEY – Little Bird (Gnatbite Records GBR024)
Subtitled 22 Compositions from 1995 – 2024, that, inescapably, is exactly what Little Bird is. And if you are still unaware of who Tim Edey is, well, clearly you having been paying insufficient attention, he becoming quite the fixture at festival across these islands over past year or so, often ...
3 DAFT MONKEYS – Information Camouflage (own label 3DM17)
3 Daft Monkeys are a band that would have John Peel salivating if he were still with us. They are from Cornwall and it may be that you haven’t encountered them so here’s a bit of background information. For a start there are four of them. Tim Ashton is the ...
STEVE KNIGHTLEY – The Winter Yards (Hands On Music HMCD054)
Astonishingly, it has been seventeen years since Steve Knightley’s previous solo album. Mind you, the popularity of Show Of Hands and his low-key solo tours have kept him pretty busy. Now he’s back with a new album, The Winter Yards, and the title will be explained in due course. In ...
STICK IN THE WHEEL: A Thousand Pokes (From Here Records SITWO24CD)
Pokes? The dictionary suggests jabs or thrusts, such as in the eye, sharp stick optional, but, other than figuratively, I'm not sure that is quite what is going on here. Nicola Kearey and Ian Carter, contrarians both, are possibly here more poking our conscience, or maybe just the general perversity ...
CATCH THE RAIN – Alder Grove (own label)
A quartet from Stourbridge comprising Julia Disney on keyboards, Odilia Mabrouk on violin, percussionist Lisa Westwood and Jon Hazelwood on bass and guitar with all three girls sharing lead vocals, they made their debut late last year with the Tapestry EP, their music variously embracing contemporary folk, classic Laurel Canyon ...
GEMMA HAYES – Blind Faith (Gemma Hayes Music)
Irish singer-songwriter Gemma Hayes’ (first album in ten years!) Blind Faith bends melodic gravity. Yet paradoxically, it lands with a cover-art cloud of parachuted comfort amid the honest Earth dust after a tough-grooved descent oscillating between lovely sonic textures (with some cello!), folk song purity, and nightshade Atropa belladonna-rooted lyricism. The first ...
ALISON McMORLAND – Some Ballads Of Anna Gordon Mrs. Brown Of Falkland (own label AGB01)
My, oh, my. Some Ballads Of Anna Gordon Mrs. Brown Of Falkland is an album that transcends the pieces of plastic that carry it and it seems that I must again delve into Scottish history. Anna Gordon was a collector of ballads in the late 18th century, fifty of those ...
MAIREARAD GREEN & RACHEL NEWTON – Anna Bhán (Shadowside Records SHADOW06)
There is a story behind this record; a story told in music, song and spoken word. Mairearad and Rachel are cousins although this is their first recorded collaboration as a duo. So there is an element of family history here but that is only the start of it. Anna Bhán ...
THE LEGENDARY TEN SECONDS – Folk Mellotronica (own label)
A variation on his folktronica approach to traditional folk, as the title suggests this time Ian Churchward has opted to feature the mellotron on the chosen songs, all bar three traditional numbers, alongside the usual guitar, drums and occasional bass. A brace from the canon get things underway with Jay ...
COHEN BRAITHWAITE-KILCOYNE – Play Up The Music! (Grimbon GRICD008)
I’ve spoken before about Cohen Braithwaite-Kilcoyne’s rise from folk wunderkind to the youngest elder statesman on the circuit and will no doubt do so again. He has solo albums and his work with Granny’s Attic and he’s becoming a go-to player for project albums. Now he has one of his ...
ANGELINE MORRISON – Ophelia (own label AMCD2401)
Originally available via Bandcamp and now getting a pink CD and blue vinyl release, serving as a prelude to next year’s alchemy-themed official follow-up to ‘Sorrow Songs’, Ophelia comprises recordings from various points in time, some old, some new, reflected in the flow between styles and moods. Overall, however, they ...
BEAU JENNINGS & THE TIGERS – American Stories Major Chords (Black Mesa Records)
Oklahoma-based act, Beau Jennings & The Tigers return this month with an LP of all-new material, American Stories Major Chords. Coming in at eleven tracks, the latest record from the five-piece outfit serves as a showcase for the songs of band leader and rhythm guitarist, Beau Jennings. Bolstered by the tastefully ...
SINGLES BAR 106 – A round-up of recent EPs and singles
Birmingham’s funky alt-folk band BONFIRE RADICALS have a new EP called Flywheel for no readily explicable reason. If you haven’t heard them before you really should. They play mostly western instruments but sound exotic and Katie Stevens’ clarinet and kaval are the key alongside Michelle Holloway’s recorder and flute while ...
JON BODEN & THE REMNANT KINGS – Parlour Ballads (Hudson HUD052CD)
I don’t know about you but for me the phrase “parlour ballads” conjures up a vision of a wobbly soprano and a rather iffy upright piano. Jon Boden may agree but he sets out to subvert that idea although there is an upright piano right there on the cover. Jon ...
THE SUTHERING – Leave A Light On (Bessie Records)
The Suthering’s new album, Leave A Light On, is a burning bush collection of beautiful folk songs plaited with guitar, piano, fiddle, and sublime harmony voices. Indeed, Julu Irvine and Heg Brignall “will bring you the fire”. The first song, ‘Maggie’, is fused with melodic defiance. The lyric, “May the ...
THE RHEINGANS SISTERS – Start Close In (own label RSC005)
Like many artists in the folk world Anna and Rowan Rheingans divide their time across several projects which goes some way to explaining why Start Close In is their first duo album in four years. This hasn’t been made any easier by Anna spending a good deal of time in ...
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