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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NITEWORKS – A’ Ghrian (Comann Music CM006)
It must be admitted that folk-electronica is (like most electronica) a genre that has passed me by up to now, so although A' Ghrian (released on 14th January 2022) is the latest of a number of releases by Niteworks, it's the first to have found its way onto my CD ...
MICHAEL VEITCH – Wachtraum (own label)
Michael Veitch’s Wachtraum (Days Of Dreams) is a lovely folk record with a few pop puzzle pieces played to perfection. And it’s a concept album with songs that cover the seasons of the year. A few comments by my, friend, Kilda Defnut: “This album touches several constellations in the dark ...
MICHAEL JOHNATHON – Cosmic Banjo (Poet Man Records PMR70031)
His third album in two years, Cosmic Banjo, as the title suggests, sees the Kentucky-based singer-songwriter focusing on his long neck banjo playing skills, adapting Pete Seeger’s technique of using a normal thumbpick, plus an upside down metal pick on the first finger, with a mix of self-penned, traditional and ...
BEN SURES – The Story That Lived Here (own label)
Ben Sures’ album The Story That Lived Here is filled with “unfinished conversations” and is coloured with characters who “dream of dolphins and having a drink”. Those are nice words - all the way from Edmonton, Canada! The great Paul Simon, whose calm song sung wise demeanor pervades many of ...
POLICE DOG HOGAN – Overground (Major Tom Records MTCD008)
Police Dog Hogan, for those of you yet to encounter them, combine British folk/pop/rock songwriting with overtones of Americana courtesy of Eddie Bishop’s fiddle and Tim Dowling’s banjo. Overground is their fifth full-length album and I have to say that it’s a belter. The material is all original and the ...
MATT McGINN – Time Well Spent (own label)
Begun in mid-2021 as the follow-up to Lessons Of War but then placed on the back burner as other priorities took precedence, McGinn’s encounter with Covid saw him use the enforced isolation to finish off Time Well Spent, declaring it far from perfect but at least completed. He’s being a ...
STEVIE SIMPSON – Sunshine State Of Mind (own label)
Stevie Simpson, colloquially known as One Bloke One Mandolin, probably made the best decision of his life when he decamped to Spain before things here went totally pants. What that means for him playing in the UK again I don’t know - although he recorded this CD in Swindon - ...
VINNY PECULIAR – Artists Only (Shadrack & Duxbury SADC015)
Alan Wilkes’ fourteenth album since making his solo debut back in 2001, Artists Only is a concept album as such from Bromsgrove’s answer to Ray Davies in that all the tracks are about or inspired by artists, expanding on an idea first explored on 2016’s Down The Bright Stream and ...
SEAN TAYLOR – The Beat Goes On (own label STCD116)
Sean Taylor’s new release The Beat Goes On is rich in its soundscape. Taylor plays guitars and piano; producer Mark Hallman plays, mostly, bass, drums and Hammond organ; and Michael Buckley plays saxophone on three tracks – but it feels as though the album is infused on rather more with ...
TOM OAKES – Water Street (Window Weather Records WWR00002)
It is often said that we hear what we want to hear. This could begin to explain my initial reaction to Tom Oakes latest offering, Water Street. The LP is a flute-centred affair which, with tracks like ‘Debussy And The Low B’ as well as several tasteful adaptations of traditional ...
KEITH JAMES – Can You Imagine? (Hurdy Gurdy HGA 1919)
To misquote somewhat: Keith James’ catalogue is rather like a box of chocolates. He is famed for his interpretation of the songs of other artists, Nick Drake and Leonard Cohen notable amongst them; he is equally praised for settings and interpretations of poetry, in particular Federico Garcia Lorca, and then ...
CHRISTY MOORE – Flying Into Mystery (Sony 19439645982)
A new studio album from Christy Moore is a rare treat these days. His previous, Lily, was five years ago and in the intervening time he’s been occupied in curating a number of live albums from his archives. Now things have changed again. Flying Into Mystery, for all its enigmatic ...
LINDA MOYLAN – The Merchant (Talking Elephant TECD470)
Linda Moylan comes originally from Waterford and is now based in London. The Merchant, her second album, was produced by Phil Beer and mixed by Phil and Mark Tucker. Linda has a hand in all the original songs, sharing the writing with Eamon Gilmore, Chris Wyatt and her partner Ian ...
SARA COLMAN – Ink On A Pin (Stoney Lane Records)
Sara Colman’s Ink On A Pin is a gorgeous tribute to the music of Joni Mitchell. And this album is a departure (and perhaps, even a hejira) from her British singer-songwriter work as witnessed in her last album, What We’re Made Of. But in truth, her own jazz tempered music ...
DAMIEN McGEEHAN – Kin (MCG002)
Released in October, Damien McGeehan’s new album, Kin, could be described as Irish music, heavily influenced by his native Donegal – which would be both true and also hugely insufficient for the eleven tracks on the album. McGeehan is a Donegal fiddle player (though he also plays mandolin and tenor ...
GWEN MÀIRI – Douze Noëls (own label TELYNEG001)
Gwen Màiri grew up speaking Welsh in Scotland and now lives in Glasgow where she is, naturally, learning Gaelic. She is a trained harper on the classical pedal harp and the lever harp on which she performs Douze Noëls. Her debut album, Mentro, was a collection of Welsh songs, tunes ...
THE McDADES – The Empress (own label)
The McDades are a trio… except there are five of them. Jeremiah, Shannon and Solon are the McDade siblings (although Shannon is now Shannon Johnson) and they are joined by Andy Hillhouse and multi-percussionist Eric Breton plus a number of guests. The family are originally from Edmonton, Alberta and followed ...
STEPHEN JACQUES – Soul Hydraulics (own label)
Virginia’s own Stephen Jacques has delivered the latest in an extensive discography, his 2021 LP Soul Hydraulics. Known for his work under the moniker Box Of Moxie, Jacques’ output exudes the spirit of a man on a mission, even if the definition of said mission is an ever-evolving concept. On ...
SINGLES BAR 73 – A round-up of recent EPs and singles
A film composer turned folkie, ROLY WITHEROW follows up last year’s Ballads And Yarns album with a more back to basics five-track EP entitled Down By The River (Earnest Records) featuring both self-penned material and his interpretation of traditional ballads, mostly just voice and acoustic guitar and generally touching on ...
FLY YETI FLY – Make A Ring (own label)
Fly Yeti Fly’s Make A Ring is a beautiful folk album that, to quote Emily Dickinson, is filled with “only Gossamer, my Gown - My Tippet - only Tulle”. And, like Emily’s poem, Because I Could Not Stop For Death, this album shivers, and knows “no haste”. Great folk music, ...
CAITRÍONA O’LEARY – Strange Wonders – The Wexford Carols Vol.II (Heresy Records Heresy 026)
If you like your Christmas music in the classic, not to say classical, style then Strange Wonders may be to your taste. Caitríona O’Leary is well-known as a performer of traditional and early music and her wealth of experience shows in her pure and expressive voice. She is supported vocally ...
DANNY BRADLEY – Small Talk Songs (DBRDLYCD001)
Danny Bradley released his debut album Small Talk Songs on November 22nd. You may not have heard of him but his website gives an impressive list of the people he’s opened for; the PR leaflet tells you that he’s done various session work which has been “so well nailed that ...
BRUCE COCKBURN – Greatest Hits (1970-2020) (True North TND786)
With a man like Bruce Cockburn the title Greatest Hits has a certain tongue-in-cheek vibe. Not for him the glamour of the pop charts but there are so many songs that have stood the test of time, songs that fans always hope to hear in a live set. Many of ...
MARK JOSEPH – Vegas Motel (own label)
Singer/songwriter Mark Joseph is a man who likes to keep busy. Between full-time gigs playing with Big Wu, Momentary Lapse Of Floyd, and other projects, one might wonder just how he made time to write, compose, and record his newest record, Vegas Motel. Clocking in at just over 37 minutes, ...
CATFISH KEITH – Land Of The Sky (Fish Tail Records FTRCD019)
Catfish continues his prolific recording career. Land Of The Sky is his twentieth album overall and his third in the last three years. After last year’s Blues At Midnight, a collection of Catfish Keith’s own songs written across his career, the new album is a mix of self-penned tracks and ...
THE LITTLE UNSAID – December Songs (Reveal Records Reveal 181CDX)
A few months ago The Little Unsaid’s John Elliott was exhorting us to Lick The Future’s Lips and, following a tour of that album, he returns with the seasonally appropriate December Songs. Unlike its predecessor, December Songs is a solo piece, with Elliott’s gifted multi-instrumentalism shaping each bittersweet reflection crafted ...
THE TREETOP FLYERS – Old Habits (Loose Music)
The Treetop Flyers’ new album, Old Habits, hums a very British tune, while “going down to old, old Woodstock”. And yes, that’s a Van Morrison lyric. Suffice it to say fans of soft, supple, and “moondance” mystical music will find a “whole lotta love” for this album. And yes (again!) ...
THE NORFOLK BROADS – Yonder Green Grove (own label)
The Norfolk Broads – I love that name – are Eleanor Dale, Daisy Johnson, Anna Cornish and Helen Cherry from East Anglia; I’m not going to spell it out for you. Yonder Green Grove is their second album of traditional songs. Essentially they perform unaccompanied in harmony but they employ ...
JOE TILSTON Tightrope (Our Records OUR001)
The bass player from punk/ska band Random Hand makes a solo album and it’s reviewed on folking.com? Oh yes, definitely. Joe Tilston (that bass player) released Tightrope early in November and it’s folk-ish…punk-ish…..new wave-ish…. ballad-ish…..All kinds of ‘ish’ really, except in one respect. It’s a glorious album. No ‘ish’. No ...
BROOMDASHER – The Country Diary In Song Live (Clean Sweep Records CS0121)
For readers of a younger persuasion: Edith Holden’s Country Diary Of An Edwardian Lady was the coffee table book de jour in the 1970s, spawning a TV series and sufficient merchandise to gladden the heart. Edith was a contemporary of Cecil Sharp and Broomdasher, following the success of their debut ...
IAN A. ANDERSON – Please Re-Adjust Your Time (Cherry Tree CDTREEBOX025)
During the Hot Vultures reunion tour Ian A. Anderson opined that there wouldn’t be any more reissues from his back catalogue. Then everything went wrong and straits became dire. Ian released a few carefully selected items on his own imprint which proved popular and now in steps Cherry Red to ...
MALCOLM MacWATT – Settler (Need To Know Music NTKBB2021MM)
Playing all instruments except bass (Phil Dearing) and with Kris Drever on guitar for one track, Malcolm MacWatt’s Settler continues his melding of Scottish and Appalachian influences, inviting a clutch of celebrity voices to share the journey. First up is Jaimee Harris on the bluesy shuffle of ‘Avalanche And Landslide’ ...
MATTIAS LIES – Turning Points (Mta Productions/ Quality Recordings)
Mattias Lies’ new folk album, Turning Points, continues (as did his last record, Highs And Lows), to calm the hot lava ash of the current state of human affairs. To be blunt: this is a wonderful folk album that conjures the melodic patience of the very best of the 70’s ...
BEANS ON TOAST – Survival Of The Friendliest (BOT Music)
For the unaware, Beans On Toast releases an album every year on his birthday (December 1st). Last year was his fortieth and he released two but that was an exception and this year’s offering is Survival Of The Friendliest. It can be difficult to categorise Beans (Jay, as his mum ...
MABILENE – The Other Side (own label)
Houston native Jenny Weaver, aka Mabilene, will be releasing her debut full-length album, The Other Side, this week. Though unlike many debut projects, this one stems from a songwriter whose artistic identity seems almost fully formed on her first record. In these instances, it is often the case that such ...
SINGLES BAR 72 – A round-up of recent EPs and singles
THE CURSE OF K.K.HAMMOND is London born slide guitarist and self-professed hermit Kristelle Karina who has a thing for resonator guitars and early Delta blues. She has, however, forsaken her reclusive Buckinghamshire life to record a self-titled five track EP, opening with the self-penned ‘The Ballad Of Blue Docherty’, a ...
SETH LAKEMAN – Make Your Mark (Honour Oak Records)
One of the most distinctive voices, literally and metaphorically, in contemporary folk music, Make Your Mark, self-produced, is Lakeman’s 11th solo album and, joined by longtime collaborator Ben Nicholls on bass, Benji Kirkpatrick on bouzouki, mandolin and banjo, Birmingham Conservatoire principle percussionist Toby Kearney and backing vocalist Alex Hart, another ...
GARETH DAVIES-JONES – Truth Tradition Prophets & Loss (HWM019)
Gareth Davies-Jones released his new album, Truth Tradition Prophets & Loss, at the end of October. The album is a collection of traditional and self-penned songs. He describes himself as a technophobe who’s spent the time off given by the pandemic as an opportunity to “learn the ways of technology ...
OLD BLIND DOGS – Knucklehead Circus (own label OBDCD015)
Old Blind Dogs are veterans of almost thirty years. Co-founder Jonny Hardie is joined in the current line-up, which has been together since 2016, by Aaron Jones, piper Ali Hutton and percussionist Donald Hay on their fourteenth studio album, Knucklehead Circus. The opening title track starts with a funky shuffle ...
MEGAN NASH – Soft Focus Futures (Acronym)
While this is her third album, I have to confess it’s my first encounter with the non-binary Saskatchewan-based singer-songwriter. Clearly I have been missing out. A mix of Americana and more pop/rock styled numbers, Soft Focus Futures is very much a post-divorce album, searching for reasons, raking through the ashes ...
KATE GREEN – A Dark Carnival (own label KGCD002)
Kate Green has hidden her musical light under a bushel for a while. Her first record, An Unkindness Of Ravens, was released in 2007 and A Dark Carnival is only her second album. If you haven’t heard Kate yet, and that’s unlikely unless you live in the region of South ...
VISION THING – Woman Like Me (own label)
Offered at a bargain £5, Woman Like Me, a ten track collection, is essentially an introduction taster for newcomers to this outstanding Southport folk-rock outfit, although current admirers might like to acquire two early numbers from their work in progress next album as well as a previously unreleased traditional interpretation ...
COLIN JAMES – Open Road (Stoney Plain SPCD1434)
Open Road is the twentieth album in the distinguished career of Colin James. The Canadian guitar-slinger has famously rubbed shoulders with many of the all-time musical greats throughout his musical journey. From swing revival to Christmas music, James has done his fair share of musical exploration over the years. His ...
THE DAUGHTERS – Golden Shore (own label)
The Daughters' debut album Golden Shore is delightful, and something beautiful to come from a horrible year that saw the world stand still due to the pandemic. While acoustic alt-folk duo The Daughters have been singing together informally for a decade, the national lockdown gave the Scottish singer- songwriters Martha ...
SKINNY LISTER – A Matter Of Life & Love (Xtra Mile)
Skinny Lister’s A Matter Of Life & Love rocks with a very modern punk (aka rogue) folk pulse. The album is positive proof of two ideas: First, John ‘Babbacombe’ Lee wasn’t the only guy England couldn’t hang; and perhaps more importantly, our very musical universe is both curved and very ...
MARTYN JOSEPH – 1960 (Pipe Records PRCD034)
Martyn Joseph was born in 1960 and is now sixty years old – a pleasing synchronicity (or should that be symmetry?) that just had to be exploited in an album full of memories, both happy and regretful. Recorded…well, you know… this is a record in Martyn’s quieter, thoughtful style - ...
DEVIN HOFF – Voices From The Empty Moor (Songs Of Anne Briggs) (Kill Rock Stars)
American bassist, composer, and arranger Devin Hoff’s album Voices From The Empty Moor (Songs Of Anne Briggs) condenses the wild and weird unearthly folk eerie ooze of that wonderful 70’s band Comus into a simmering Hallow Eve’s broth of deep, dark, and any very aged forest’s spectral murmured melodic ruminations ...
LACHLAN BRYAN & THE WILDES – As Long As It’s Not Us (Social Family Records SFR0124)
Already a huge success in their native Australia, while the blurb talks of a different direction, pushing the definition of Americana to its limit, even if mandolin and banjo have been left in the locker room, As Long As It’s Not Us is not the extreme makeover it might suggest ...
MARGO CILKER – Pohorylle (Loose Music)
Sometimes a CD arrives on my desk and gets overlooked for no good reason and Margo Cilker’s debut album, Pohorylle, is one such. I got a promo copy which lists the tracks but has no other information; the cover doesn’t exactly grab the attention and the accompanying press release is ...
LOUIS DE BERNIERES – Despatches (Khaki Angel Records KARCD02)
Louis de Bernieres releases a double album called Despatches on November 12th. Though De Bernieres has - how should I put it? - a more famous trade, let’s focus on the music, particularly since I gather it’s taken some persuading for him to take the step of putting an album ...
FINE LINES – Deadbeat Lullabies (Parade Recordings PARCD015)
The 12-string revival continues to gather steam with the third album from the British folk-rock septet fronted by David Boardman and Zoe Blythe and featuring BBC presenter and co-writer Mark Radcliffe on drums. Deadbeat Lullabies opens in splendid jangling guitar and mandolin style with the vintage Byrdsian/Dylanesque ‘King Of The ...
ARCHIE BROWN AND THE YOUNG BUCKS – Diddley Bow (own label)
Archie Brown And The Young Bucks have been pub-folk rocking (in one form or another) all the way from Newcastle, circa 1976. And their new album, Diddley Bow, exemplifies former Mott The Hoople guy Ian Hunter’s rock ‘n’ roll comment, “’N you gotta stay young man, you can never be ...
HANNAH JAMES & TOBY KUHN – Sleeping Spirals (Jigdoll Records JDR 003)
Hannah James has covered a lot of ground in a career that now spans two decades as a singer, songwriter, step-dancer and an innovative accordion player. She has now added to her repertoire the sansula – essentially a kalimba on a drum – which you can hear to particularly good ...
JACOB & DRINKWATER – More Notes From The Field (own label)
A highly contemplative and reflective collection, More Notes From The Field, the second of the duo’s studio albums, is a largely unhurriedly–paced affair. It opens with the (part) title track, ‘More Notes’, on which, with a playful touch of self-deprecation, Tobias announces “This one’s for the folks back home, play ...
ROBB JOHNSON – Minimum Wages (Irregular Records IRR118V)
Robb Johnson’s second album of the month is a more conventional set of guitar based songs with like-minded friends in attendance: Jenny Carr and John Forrester from The Irregulars plus Jude Abbott, Jason Pegg, Fae Simon and Boff Walley. Minimum Wages encompasses Robb’s regular concerns from his family to the ...
CHARM OF FINCHES – Wonderful Oblivion (AntiFragile Music)
A close harmony duo from Melbourne, Australia, sisters Mabel and Ivy Windred-Wornes have been likened to First Aid Kid while other influences include Sufjan Stevens and Gillian Welch, Wonderful Oblivion being their third album with songs variously about loss, death and environmental consciousness. Joined by multi-instrumentalist Daniel Ledwell handling drums, ...
KEVIN BRENNAN – The Clown & The Cigarette Girl (Revolver REVXD331)
Kevin Brennan is MP for West Cardiff – something of a first for us – and has chaired the Parliamentary All Party Folk Music group so in theory he knows something about the music. As his solo album, The Clown & The Cigarette Girl, demonstrates, he knows quite a bit ...
IAN M BAILEY – Songs To Dream Along To (Kool Kat Musik PURR2203)
Earlier this year, Bailey released an EP of four songs in collaboration with Daniel Wylie from Cosmic Rough Riders. The response was encouraging enough to prompt a full album’s worth in a similar vein, evoking the heady days of Byrdsian folk rock and Laurel Canyon harmonies. All four of the ...
SINGLES BAR 71 – A round-up of recent EPs and singles
THE STORY SONG SCIENTISTS, Findlay Napier and Megan Henwood, are widely regarded as two of the finest songwriters in the country. On the evidence of their second EP, Quantum Lyrics, they are also among the least predictable. The opening track, ‘Specimen 1: 1800 FTD’ finds a heavily echoed Findlay reading ...
ROBB JOHNSON – Your Affectionate Son (Irregular Records IRR117)
There seems to be no stopping Robb Johnson. Your Affectionate Son is the first of two new albums he’s about to release and there is a back-story to it. The songs were commissioned by Hartlepool Folk Festival for a concert inspired by the letters home written by Pte. George Gower ...
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