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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ALAN CATTON – Traditions & Tales (own label)
The last time we heard from Alan Catton was in 2019 so I had to remind myself about him. A brief summary: Alan is the singer/songwriter/guitarist/multi-instrumentalist with the Hull band Beggars Bridge celebrated as much for his guitar work as anything else. In fact, his previous albums, Faru and Tales ...
DAVID CARROLL AND FRIENDS – Bold Reynold Free! (Talking Elephant TEC529)
Dave Carroll and Friends: Dave Oberle, Brian Gulland, Graeme Taylor, Chris Leslie and Lucy Cooper – not a bad pick-up band. Bold Reynold Free! is, logically, the third instalment of David’s revisiting of mostly traditional songs. There is rather less rock on this album – no Dave Pegg so Taylor ...
SINGLES BAR 126 – A round-up of recent EPs and singles
WOMEN OF FOLK are four fine voices: Lizzie Hardingham, Linda Moylan, Louise Hatch and Rebecca Mileham. Their new EP is Live At The Water Rats, formerly The Pindar Of Wakefield, which also hosts shows by Green Note. Their set comprises five well-known songs beginning with ‘Fare Thee Well’ a stunning ...
LANCE COWAN – The Air That You Breathe (Lantzapalooza Muzik)
Lance Cowan releases The Air That You Breathe on July 24th. It’s his third album since 2024 and it’s a classy album – eleven songs, smooth Americana, beautifully played, arranged and produced. Three of the songs have the word "Love" in the title and there are other tracks with "Truth", ...
ADY JOHNSON– Under Gainsborough Skies (Little Robin Records ROBINCD02)
A mood of wistfulness and gentle sadness pervades Under Gainsborough Skies, the third album from Suffolk born, Colchester based singer-songwriter, Ady Johnson. The melodies are gentle and laidback, with a nostalgic air, but the lyrics make it clear that this is often laced with regret. Ady is a classically trained ...
WAVE OF THE FLOOD – FortyFive (WOTFCC01)
There are many things that can attract an eye to a new album, and I do mean eye rather than ear, that all too often the first prompt. Of course, there are albums that serenade their presence first via radio play, or via the artist in a live setting, but ...
Another great and scorching year at THE NEW FOREST FOLK FESTIVAL
Our man on the scene (and as Gerry Colvin puts it 'Folk family') Paul Johnson reviews his sunny and hot 2026 visit to the New forest folk festival... Hi all.Oh what a beautiful summer's weekend that I spent in the New Forest.I do actually feel blessed that I ...
PHIL ODGERS & JOHN KETTLE – The War Is Over, The Songs Of Phil Ochs, Vol.2 (Vinyl Star Records VSRCD020)
It is a sort of rule that second volumes of anything rarely rise to the same standard of the first. But there are always exceptions, Mad Max II and The Two Towers being two such, and here we have another. Far Rockaway, Odgers and Kettle’s first set of Ochs songs, ...
JONATHAN PEARSON AND ALEX BARRASS – A Trip To Stocksfield (own label)
Jonathan and Alex are award-winning exponents of the Northumbrian small pipes. Jonathan also plays mandocello and melodeon and, remarkably, only took up the pipes three years ago. The material on A Trip To Stocksfield is a mixture of traditional with the composer listed as unknown, original compositions and one or ...
SINGLES BAR 125 – A round-up of recent EPs and singles
ROBERTA SMITH makes a speedy return with a new EP, Humdrum Five, a set of five old and new songs recorded, by and large, in her home studio. The epithet “boho” is frequently applied to Roberta but what does that actually mean? Musically it may indicate an affinity with Joni ...
PAUL McCLURE – The Good And The Bad Of It (Bex-Pop BP005CD)
The Good And The Bad Of It is Paul's first studio album since 2019, following on from sparse lockdown EP Aardvark, the warm-voiced self-styled Rutland troubadour takes the same limited band approach as Songs For Anyone, this time with Trevor Moss behind the desk as well as contributing bass, mandolin, ...
JUDE EDWIN-SCOTT – Birdsong (Bellyheaed 9 BH09CD10)
Jude Edwin-Scott is a new name to me which is a surprise as this is something like his tenth album plus a couple of EPs. He’s a singer/songwriter/guitarist from the north-west. Birdsong is very much a one-man project – there are backing vocals on two tracks from Ellen Edwin-Scott who ...
VARIOUS – Bring It On Home (APM Records APMR034)
In the beginning was the voice and then came the acoustic guitar and thus was “modern” folk/roots music begotten. Its heyday was in the 1930s, 40s, 50s and 60s until electricity and pop music began to hold sway but it never disappeared. The idea behind Bring It On Home is ...
COLIN STEELE – Stramash II (Gadgemo GAD 003CD)
It’s hard to characterise Colin Steele. Depending on where you stand he’s either a jazzman who is far too folky or a folk-influenced composer who plays too much jazz. Stramash is the name of his band and also the title of their first album recorded in 2008. It was a ...
CHEERY ODIN – The Folli Up
If you listened to the first Cheery Odin album, you’ll know what to expect, “A recording project to celebrate and recall the auld Hawick tongue, some light-hearted in tone and others nostalgic and celebrating old ways and valued traditions” - Scottish Borders, great musicians, a sense of fun – and ...
THE VILLAGE – The Hollow Hills (own label)
The Village, aka Phil Matthews, has made regular appearances in these pages. Now, with The Hollow Hills he dedicates a whole album to the sort of material that first attracted me to his music. This album is a suite of songs concerning the myths and legends of Britain and there ...
CAROLINE KEANE – Rise (own label)
There is a large number of musicians who contributed to Rise but the name on the front is that of concertina player Caroline Keane from Dingle. Supporters include Fourwinds bandmate Tom Delany on bouzouki and uilleann pipes and guest fiddler Laura Kerr. Guitarist Conal O’Kane earns his keep as another ...
THE DOVETAIL TRIO – Bold Champions (own label)
Being of the old git persuasion, I’m familiar with a majority of the songs on Bold Champions. Does that spoil my enjoyment of the record. Certainly not! Jamie Roberts, Rosie Hood and Matt Quinn transport me back to my misspent youth with three voices, guitar and concertina – proper, traditional ...
JON LOOMES – Dust In The Sun (Talking Cat Recordings TCCD 2601)
In a small Welsh village in the summer of 1976, Jon Loomes recorded what was intended as one last stab, an uncompromising folk record made without concession to fashion or commercial success, However, a fire at the pressing plant destroyed almost the entire run, his label, Bounty Records went bust, ...
SAM DRAISEY – Hypernormalisation (own label)
What can we say about Sam Draisey? Now something of a veteran, he’s a successor to the young Billy Bragg – a clever songwriter with protest in his soul. His new album. Hypernormalisation, comes five years after its predecessor (https://folking.com/sam-draisey-red-vs-blue-own-label/ ) which is a long time in this business and ...
KARINE POLWART & PIPPA MURPHY with DAVE MILLIGAN – Windblown (Hudson HUD066)
Devised as a chamber folk stage production telling the story of a 200-year-old Sabal palm brought from Bermuda to Edinburgh’s Royal Botanic Garden in the early 1800s, and to the gardeners who tended it, Polwart joined forces with Murphy who created the sound design and Milligan who provided the piano. Windblown is now ...
JUNIPER – Halfway Home (JUNCD04)
Juniper hail from Birmingham, UK, but tend toward more the Celtic Fringes for their inspiration. This is, broadly, folk music but not as you might generally recognise it. Yes, many of the songs and melodies are from the tradition, but twists and turns are implemented, bringing in distinct fumes from ...
ADAM CLARK – Folk & Fold (own label)
Multi-instrumentalist, singer and songwriter Adam Clark seems to have it all. Bred and born in Norwich, in Folk & Fold he has produced what he calls a love-letter to Norfolk in traditional and original material. In support he has the cream of East Anglian musicians; Alex Patterson, Georgia Shackleton, Christina ...
SAM CARTER – Sings Nic Jones: Live At Celtic Connections (Captain Records CAP018)
The cover tells you pretty much all you need to know. I always think that artists should approach Nic Jones’ back catalogue with care. Nic, in his prime, was unique. His vocal delivery had a gentle ease and he was, of course, a consummate arranger and guitarist. On Sings Nic ...
CLEMENTINE LOVELL – Permutations (own label CLPERMUTATIONS2026)
Clementine Lovell hit the ground running with début album Westbound in 2025 winning a number of awards on the way. For the second album, Permutations, Clementine has taken a different route, collaborating with mutli-instrumentalist Gergely Nagy who plays guitar, bass, synth and percussion. Clementine provides vocals, piano, accordion, and accordion ...
THE GATHERING QUARTET – The Gathering Quartet (own label)
The idea of music as force for peace, love and understanding isn’t new but The Gathering Quartet have explicitly put it into practice on their eponymous album. The four members represent Scotland (Luisa Brown), Ukraine (Olena Yeremenko), England (Louis Bingham) and Sweden (Mats Nystam). They don’t necessarily live in their ...
BITY BOOKER – There’s No Song About A Stone (own label)
Recorded at home over the course of three years on a four-track tape machine, following two EPs and a limited edition album, There’s No Song About A Stone is ostensibly the official debut by Thanet/London-based Italian-Australian singer-songwriter Corallina Beatrice Booker. It has to be said that, with a kittenish little ...
DAN WALSH – At The Station (Rooksmere Records RRCD121)
Everybody’s favourite banjo player (dissenting opinions may leave now), Dan Walsh, has released his first album of contemporary material for seven years – mostly original compositions but including two covers. He is supported on At The Station by Nic Zuppardi, Niles Krieger, Lucy Williams, Kate Griffin and producer Mark Hutchinson ...
PHIL JONES – Snow Along The Line (own label)
Having written the treatment for what would become Idle Women: The Musical, the story of women who worked on England’s canal boats during the second world war, Jones turned his attention to another female historical figure with his multi-media, one-man stage show about his mother Barbara Naisbitt. The songs and ...
KRIS DREVER – Doing This For Love (The North Sound NOSOR001CD)
Kris Drever’s new album is not quite what I expected. After all, Lau is noted for being the loudest folk band in existence and, while Doing This For Love isn’t exactly gentle, Kris has his foot on the soft pedal rather more than usual. The initial impression is that this ...
THE LONGEST JOHNS – Ends Of The Earth (Jetsam TLJEOTECD1)
Pivoting around the core membership of Jonathan ‘JD’ Darley, Andy Yates and Robbie Sattin, augmented here by eight others on the likes of flute, violin, trumpet and double bass, Ends Of The Earth is their latest voyage on the shanty seas, hauling a cargo of thirteen numbers that span subjects ...
LEMONCELLO – A Perfect Place (Claddagh Records 5729741)
What a difference a year or so can make, as Lemoncello triptoe through a transportive beautiful dream, that may or not be real. The Dublin duo of Laura Quirke and Claire Kinsella made many new friends with their chamber folk fired eponymous first, their quirky take on modern life, channelling, ...
BEN AND JON AVISON – Wild Wisdom: Songs Of The Green Trails (own label)
Recruiting his Oxford-based son Ben on vocals, along with verbal and visual reflections by twenty artists and twenty writers (Kevin Threlfall and Damian Hall among them) for the booklet, drawing on his experience working in the Yorkshire Dales National Park, Jon Avison has assembled Wild Wisdom, a ten song celebration ...
TOPETTE!! – Tazon (own label TPT007)
Topette!!, as in the name of the band, always includes the two exclamation marks, and it would be churlish to suggest they are there by anything than by right. Used elsewhere, as lazy shorthand for exciting, this quintet bring back respectability, and reality, to such hyperbole. As your ears will ...
A DIFFERENT THREAD – Over Again
A Different Thread are Alicia Best and Robert Jackson, from the US and UK respectively. They met a decade ago whilst busking on the streets of Ireland. They now live in North Carolina. Their international fan-base crowd-funded an album, Over Again, their third studio album which was released earlier this ...
ALBION – It Was In The Month Of May 1 (own label)
Something about the cover of It Was In The Month Of May 1, the second full length album from folk rockers Albion, made me think it would be an interesting listen. I was also intrigued by the band’s claim to combine the ancient and modern by blending folk with heavy ...
VARIOUS ARTISTS – A World Of Our Own – The UK & Irish Folk Explosion Of 1965 (Cherry Red CR3JAMBX59)
The latest in the label’s terrific compilation of 60s folk music, this three CD set follows its predecessors in an archive trawl of 1965 that throws up both familiar and ultra obscure names. It should be pointed out though that the UK and Irish of the title is rather loose ...
MAIREARAD GREEN – Tim (Buie Records BUIECD10)
To get one thing straight, Tim is pronounced “Cheem” and is the Gaelic word for time. This isn’t the place for my usual diatribe about how Gaelic was invented by the Scots just to annoy the English so we’ll take that as read. Mairearad Green is a musician, formerly with ...
HONEY AND THE BEAR – A Wish & A Tide (own label)
Their fourth album and the first not to have a Suffolk term as its title, nonetheless Lucy (double bass, bouzouki, guitar, glockenspiel) and Jon (double bass, bouzouki, electric guitar) Hart maintain their local connections with heavily traditional flavoured songs that draw on Suffolk myth, legend and history and are once ...
ANANA KAYE – Are You There? (Meridian Music Group ECRMD26003)
Hailing from Georgia (as in Eastern Europe not the American south) and now based in Nashville, Kaye and her husband collaborator Irakli Gabriel, are very much on the art house side of Americana, embracing an eclectic range of musical colours on an album informed by political trauma (the war in ...
SEVEN CROWS – Powers Of Observation
Seven Crows is the artistic name used by Chris Muphy, a Los Angeles violinist, composer and loop artist. To expand on the latter point, Powers of Observation is an instrumental album built entirely from the electric (five-string) violin. It’s Murphy’s/Seven Crows’ second album following critical acclaim for Secrets of Navigation ...
JOE MARTIN – Alone In Valentine (North Star Records)
Titled for a town in West Texas and a line from a co-write session with Steve Anderson for Alone In Valentine, his second studio album, the Lancashire-based Americana singer-songwriter joined forces with drummer Cal Campbell and bassist Cornelius Webb, respectively the sons of Glen and Jimmy, to record at Campbell’s ...
TIWAYO – Outsider
If something good passes nearby, it’s well worth ignoring boundaries to have a look and a listen. Released on April 10th, Outsider is the new album from Tiwayo. He’s a Paris-born songwriter and singer in, broadly, the soul genre. Outsider, appropriately enough, is at the edges of folking.com territory. Tiwayo ...
LUKE JAMES WILLIAMS – Limes Hotel (own label)
Hailing from Cambridgeshire, Limes Hotel is Williams’ second album one that, recorded with longtime collaborator Nick Kozuch and featuring guest vocals from Dear Wife, comes with a deeper production as, informed by the passing of two close friends, it explores the renewing cycles of nature, the mind’s strange logic and ...
THOMM JUTZ – Ring-A-Bellin’ (own label)
After a series of collaborative album over the past decade, Ring-A-Bellin’ is the Nashville-based German singer-songwriter’s first solo album in six years, albeit here joined by fiddler Tammy Rogers bassists Mark Fain and, on upright, Michael Rinne, Jeff Taylor on accordion, Laura Boosinger on clawhammer banjo with both Mike Compton ...
ANNA McLUCKIE – The Little Winters (Hudson HUD061CD)
The little winters is a term used in the US to describe spring frosts, apparently regular enough to constitute an almanac of sorts and characterised by the blooming of certain plants. That is the starting point for Anna McLuckie’s new album, The Little Winters. Anna is a Scottish singer, a ...
THE CARTWHEEL PENNIES – 1797 (own label)
A Leicestershire acoustic folk harmony trio comprising Amanda Berry, Julie Holland and Liz Wall, the name comes from three coins detectorists found in the field behind where Berry and Holland live, struck in 1797 by Matthew Boulton, they became known as cartwheel pennies on account of their size (36mm), weight ...
LEWIS PUGH – Heretics And Heritage (own label)
Some artists who are labelled Americana have a tenuous relationship with the term. Not Lewis Pugh – he’s full on. You can tell that the way that by the way he lists banjo first in his credits and the presence of fiddle and pedal steel. Of course, you could just ...
HANNAH JAMES AND TOBY KUHN – Where All Our Names Belong (JigDoll Records JDR004)
Where All Our Names Belong is the second collaboration between singer, accordionist, sansula player and dancer Hannah James and cellist Toby Kuhn. It’s a lovely album housed in a uniquely shaped booklet and Hannah and Toby play every note themselves. In fact, I kept checking to see if there wasn’t ...
MOONRAKERS – I Am the Mountain (own label)
Oxford based four-piece band, Moonrakers, have built a reputation for their lush arrangements, shimmering soundscapes, and intricate instrumental tapestries. If that sounds appealing, I can confirm that their new album, I Am the Mountain, doesn’t disappoint. Apart from their undeniable talent as musicians, they also benefit from good range of ...
ANDY LLOYD – Bay Window (DTI Records)
Titled because it features songs the Halesowen-born singer-songwriter used to record for YouTube in the bay window of his flat, with music production by multi-instrumentalist Avago the opening track is the warm somewhat samba sway of ‘Soul For The Summer’ followed by the slow heat hazed soulful dreaminess of ‘Into ...
SINGLES BAR 123 – A round-up of recent EPs and singles
From The Aa is a new EP by MOYA SWEENEY & ARCHIE CHURCHILL-MOSS who explore what can be done with a B/C and a D/G button accordion in expert hands. Dave Malkin provides guitar support on the six original tracks. The opener, ‘For Frans’ is dedicated to Frans Vanderaa who ...
CLAIRE VINE – We Carve Our Path (Cuculi Records)
Claire Vine is one third of Hands Of The Heron but she leaves her bandmates behind for her solo album, We Carve Our Path, in favour of multi-tracking her own voice, a key element in the production. Support comes from Henry Edmonds, Tamsin Elliott, Luke Spurgeon and producer Sid Goldsmith ...
DOUG MISHKIN – Tip of the Spear
Let’s start with a bold statement and then come back to the detail…..On Doug Mishkin’s new album Tip Of The Spear – his third album - there are (at least) two songs which probably will, and certainly should, be staples of folk clubs for at least a couple of decades: ...
HUGO RACE FATALISTS – I Made It All Up For You (Gustaf Records/Helixed)
An Australian based in Italy and backed by a band of Italian musicians along with Elysian Fields singer Jennifer Charles, self-described as an atmospheric “fusion of roots music, electronica, Italian soundtracks and desert rock”, his sound, with the intimate, confessional muted growl vocals, has seen him likened to Nick Cave ...
PÀDRUIG MORRISON – Buin (own label PM01)
Should warning be needed, and I would say it isn’t, Buin is largely instrumental, mostly original and intrinsically Gaelic music. Morrison is an accordion player of some note, and is both a member of Uist band, Beinn Lee, and a composer, in the classical Gaelic idiom. To boot, he is ...
CHARLIE WHEATLEY – Ratcliffe Cross (own label)
London-based multi-instrumentalist Charlie Wheatley is about to release his debut album, Ratcliffe Cross, a set of seven tunes derived from old dance tunes. It seems that Charlie can and does get a tune out of anything with strings and then adds harmonium to his repertoire. His most unusual instrument is ...
ANDY SMYTHE – Quiet Revolution (Dreaming Element Records)
Quiet Revolution is London based singer/songwriter Andy Smythe’s eighth studio album. It is released on March 13th and as he says it “delves into complex narratives of societal struggle and psychological drama, set against the background of a world grappling with conflict and the rise of AI”. The album is ...
ALI LEVACK: Levack (own label LEVACK01CD)
Levack is a man to watch and to keep an ear on. The winner of 2020’s BBC Radio Scotland’s Young Traditional Musician of the Year, you’ll know his sound if not necessarily his name. Currently best known as the dynamic frontman for Highland acoustic power trio, Project Smok, he is ...
WATKIN SHARKEY – Watkin Sharkey (Empress CD001)
Watkin Sharkey’s single, ‘Sails’, made something of an impression and here it is as the opening track of his eponymous debut album. Watkin is from Norfolk and it seems that, like Sunjay, he has just extricated himself from an unwisely negotiated contract hence, perhaps, the homespun style of this album ...
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