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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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BRINSLEY SCHWARZ – Shouting At The Moon
Brinsley Schwarz – the band and the man – are one of the legendary names for my generation, opening for Wings, playing on the Old Grey Whistle Test and yet remaining slightly ‘out there’. When superstardom didn’t arrive and they disbanded in 1975, Schwarz became a member of Graham Parker ...
SINGLES BAR 119 – A round-up of recent EPs and singles
Following on from the ‘Lord Of Chaos’ single featuring Kathy Pilkinton on vocals and Graham Coe on cello with its theme of shedding your burdens and from whence the EP title comes, CHRIS CLEVERLEY now releases Gods Of All Things (Opiate Records), the full five track follow up to last ...
ST AGNES FOUNTAIN – Flakes & Flurries (Fat Cat CFATCD060)
Their name taken from a line in ‘Good King Wenceslas’, possibly referring to the Somerset village well established in 1820 by Sir Thomas Dyke Acland, a local MP, who named it after his youngest daughter, an established Christmas folk music tradition, Chris While, Julie Matthews and Chris Leslie don their ...
SOFIA TALVIK – Wrapped In Paper (A Christmas Album) (Makaki Music)
Having just released an album by her side project Hansan, all sung Swedish, Talvik now offers Wrapped In Paper, a seasonal folk-Americana collection of songs, ten original and two traditional, sung in both English and Swedish, offering different perspectives on the familiar fayre. The opening track, ‘Let Peace Be The ...
DEBORAH ROSE – Atlas (Abracadeborah/Good Companion Records)
Variously written and recorded in Ludlow, London, Nashville and Morocco, part produced by Boo Hewerdine and Chris Pepper with other contributions from Jeremy Jameson and Ben Walsh, the Welsh songstress’s sixth album, Atlas, comes inspired by poetry, psalms, Pre-Raphaelite art and the landscapes of North Africa, America and Shropshire and features ...
TORRIDON : Polaroid (own label DRCD005)
Torridon are a band from Ross-shire, in Scotland and, despite two decades of longevity under their belts, seem never to have quite made the crossover that some of their closest comparators, Skerryvore, Skipinnish or Mànran, have made. That trio of names should indicate the territory we are in, namely driving ...
GUS WHITE – For Now, Anyway (Man Made Tigers)
Time for some Britainicana. That’s not a word I’d come across, but it’s how Wiltshire singer-songwriter Gus White describes the music on his second album, For Now, Anyway. Given that there are a lot of Americana influenced British artists about, and we’re often told that Country is having a moment ...
THE HAAR – The Lost Day (Under The Eaves UTE 012)
Sometimes, you know by the track listing that you'll enjoy an album. The Lost Day includes one of my all-time favourite songs in a list of generally familiar titles but that's only the start. You have to consider the extraordinarily stylish musicianship of The Haar – Molly Donnery, Cormac Byrne, Adam Summerhayes ...
THE HENRY GIRLS – Tracks In The Snow (own label)
Originally a children’s winter show commissioned in 2015 by The Ark Cultural Centre for Children in Dublin and funded by the Arts Council, Tracks In The Snow is an extension of the EP of the same title by sisters Karen, Lorna and Joleen McLaughlin, the latter adding harp to her ...
WINTER WONDERBAND – Joy Illimited (own label WWB001)
If you put four talented and experienced musicians together they would probably form a band. Maclaine Colston, Jennifer Crook, Beth Porter and Saul Rose became Winter Wonderband. For reasons that probably only they know Joy Illimited is their debut album although they started out together more that a decade ago ...
MARTHA TILSTON – live at The Barrel House, Totnes
The very bohemian Barrel House in the heart of Totnes couldn’t be a more suitable venue for Martha Tilston, permanent Christmas cluster lights sway overhead and artsy posters cover The flaking walls. The whole venue gives out a fuzzy and folksy vibe. Just the deal for our Martha. The band ...
LUCY KITT – Telling Me (Wineberry Records WBRCD 2)
An Essex native with a deep affection for 70s Laurel Canyon folk, indie rock and country, with songs that draw on the lives and struggles of those closest to her. Telling Me is her second album, albeit written in her early 30s and recorded during the 2021 lockdown. Variously accompanied ...
DAVE BURN – Medium Dave + Friends (Street Mission Records)
Again featuring erstwhile Noah and the Whale guitarist Fred Abbott, eight years on from the first, featuring the five tracks 2022’s Medium Dave EP, from this is the second solo album by the former co-founder of ahab and Orphan Colours, its title taken from a nickname he was given while ...
ANDREW CADIE – Flooding The Ocean (Border Fray Records BFCD002)
You might think that you've heard the name of Andrew Cadie before and you'd be right. Andrew is half of German-based duo Broom Bezzums whose reputation has spread far and wide. Flooding The Ocean is his third solo album – his first was in 2006 but as well as being ...
MICHAEL McGOVERN – Thin White Road (Cauldron Music CMCD/LP006)
Thin White Road, the second album from the high-pitched Glaswegian folk singer-songwriter brings a more expansive sound to his fingerpicking with full band arrangements, including saxophonist James Steele and Ali Caplan from the Langan Band on fiddle. Opening quietly on circling acoustic guitar before the band kick in with pulsing ...
GLEN PETERS – Where Do You Come From? (Haven HAVENCD32)
Where Do You Come From, to be released on November 11th, is Glen Peters second album. With the opening lyric to the opening track, ‘My Face Don’t Fit’, the album grabs immediate attention: “Went for a job to the depot downtown The gaffer said, ‘No you’re the wrong shade of ...
GECKO and LUCY GRUBB – Stage 2, Theatre Royal, Norwich
Powerful performers let down by soulless venue Norwich is full of great music venues doing their utmost to promote and support the impressive and diverse array of young and old talent in the city while welcoming the best that the rest of the country has to offer. Sadly, Stage 2 ...
HEATHER AUBREY LLOYD – Panic Room With A View (own label)
Born and based in Baltimore, where she was a reporter, Panic Room With A View featuring multi-instrumentalist Joel Ackerson, is Lloyd’s fourth album (though two were limited editions) and while she’s been described as Janis meets Joni, her voice and songs are more evocative of Mary Chapin Carpenter and Beth ...
NARAGONIA QUARTET : Nehalennia (Tradfolk Records TRADFO8CD)
There was but one word on the lips of the hardcore at Shrewsbury Folk Festival's Dance Tent, as it began this year, and that was Naragonia. The dancers are a breed apart at Shrewsbury, many setting foot nowhere else over that August bank holiday weekend. So, who or what is ...
COURTNEY MARIE ANDREWS and LUCY GRUBB – live at Norwich Arts Centre
Lucy is centred at home with Courtney Two female singer-songwriters from opposite sides of the Atlantic proved they had more than just music in common with a stunning gig at Norwich Arts Centre. There may only be seven years between them but Courtney Marie Andrews and Lucy Grubb are at ...
KYSON POINT – Underwater Sky (The Recording Booth TRBKPCD2501)
The watercolour cover of the debut duo album, Underwater Sky, by David and Kelly Booth (both having contributed to each other’s solo releases when she was Kelly Bayfield) solo shows the view from the banks of the River Deben in Woodbridge looking towards the Suffolk landmark from which they take ...
SERIOUS CHILD – What Lies Beneath (Four Left Feet)
As per the title, the fourth album by Alan Young under his musical alias digs below the surface of the everyday to find those stories that often go overlooked or unnoticed, those glimpses of humanity and all the quirkiness or mundanity that entails. Produced by Chris Pepper who contributes bass, ...
MICHAEL BANAHAN – Broken Heart (TC1398)
Michael Banahan, from Roscommon, is well known in Ireland as a solo singer of traditional music and a member of Rig The Jig but mostly as a promoter and manager. However, Broken Heart is a departure, being his debut album of original material. Michael plays guitar, bodhran and harmonica and ...
THE DREAMING SPIRES – Normal Town (Clubhouse)
The Oxfordshire quintet’s first in a decade, with The Kinks’ Village Green Preservation Society as a conceptual touchstone, Normal Town takes its title from a study that pronounced Didcot (brothers Robin and Joe Bennett grew up in nearby Steventon) the most normal (as in boring) town in England. As such, ...
SINGLES BAR 119 – A round-up of recent EPs and singles
Written but never recorded by Elvis Costello, CHARLIE DORE finally sees ‘Mercury Wings’ take flight on her Still Curious EP, an arrangement that, with her trilling vocals, chugging rhythm and strings conjures thoughts of 40s ballrooms before Ruby Moor’s Dobro guitar and Quentin Collins’s trumpet take it into jazzy New ...
MARTYN JOSEPH – Troubled Horses (Pipe Records PRCD042)
There are, in my humble opinion, a handful of songwriters who stand head and shoulders above all others in this country. One of them is Martyn Joseph. Troubled Horses is his 28th studio album – an impressive back catalogue by anybody's standards – and you can add fifteen live collections, ...
EVE GOODMAN & SERA – Natur (own label)
Periodically, Welsh folk music stages an incursion across Offa's Dyke into England. It's always welcome here and this seems to have been a particularly fruitful year. Eve Goodman is relatively well known but SERA may need some introduction. She is multi-instrumentalist Sarah Louise Sarnacki Owen and when I say multi ...
IVAN CAMPO – Zwilight Tone (own label)
For copyright reasons Zwilight Tone isn't actually called The Twilight Zone although that is actually what it is – an album inspired by the band's favourite episodes of the classic series. The result is a folk/soft rock/prog/sci-fi concept album if you can get your head around that. You might need ...
FISHING 4 COMPLIMENTS – Lost In Good Intentions (own label)
Five years on, the Huddersfield quintet fronted by songwriter Eileen Wattam return with their second album, Lost In Good Intentions, one that sees them expanding on the debut’s folk-pop sound to embrace blues and 80s rock dynamics. Opening with a chugging bass riff and calls of yeah yeah before breaking ...
MEGSON – Live On Teesside (EDJ Records EDJ057)
To mark their 20th anniversary – where does the time go? - Stu and Debs Hanna return home to record a live album. The title, Live On Teesside, tells you all you need to know really. Go-to double bass man John Parker joins Megson on stage to lay down a ...
HOLLY CARTER – Leave Your Mark (own label)
Hailing from Bristol, an acclaimed fingerstyle guitarist (twice winner of AMAUK Instrumentalist of the Year) and one of the UK’s few professional female pedal steel players, drawing on folk and Americana influences Leave Your Mark is Carter’s debut album, one which, recorded live in the room and accompanied by guitarist ...
BG McDAID – Folk’ n Trouble (own label – KIN004)
Glasgow singer and songwriter BG McDaid has recently returned to Clydeside, after a period of living in Southern England, and his music career has also moved in a new direction. After making two acclaimed albums with acoustic group Kinfolk, he’s gone solo with a new album, Folk’ n Trouble. This ...
NIALL McNAMEE – Glass And Mirrors (Wellboy)
An Irish actor of some note, recently having starred in romantic comedy One Night In Bath, homelessness drama Love Without Walls (for which he wrote the soundtrack) and due to be seen alongside Steve Coogan playing Irish world cup team goalkeeper Alan Kelly in Saipan, McNamee now makes his debut ...
VARIOUS ARTISTS – Stafell Sbâr Sain: Tŷ Gwerin (Sain Records SCD2867)
Sain is Wales' oldest record label. Founded in 1969, it specialises in Welsh language and music with a roster of artists including, at various times, Aled Jones, Ar Log, Calan and the wonderful Robin Huw Bowen. Stafell Sbâr Sain (Sain's Spare Room) is compilation of twelve tracks by the label's ...
CULVERAKE – Unto The Sky (Hebe Music)
A new a capella traditional folk trio comprising Seb Stone, Matt Quinn and Lizzy Hardingham, taking their name from the Sussex dialect for a pigeon and a field in Selmeston, Walden meaning pigeon oak, their debut album, Unto The Sky, consists of twelve traditional numbers both familiar and more obscure ...
MIKEY KENNEY – Tiny Little Light (Penny Fiddle Records PFR2502CD)
Tiny Little Light is Mikey Kenney's fourth studio album and if you've not heard him before you may be in for a big surprise. Mikey is a fiddle-singer (if that term is still in use) from Liverpool noted for his presentation of English and Irish fiddle music from the north-west ...
KATIE SPENCER – What Love Is (Lightning Records LR-002)
Katie Spencer is a prodigious talent, a gifted singer and songwriter with a much more than capable hand on her instrument of choice, the guitar. Indeed, her fluid facility on the same has had her compared to such fretboard champions as Michael Chapman and John Martyn. But it is the ...
SINGLES BAR 118 – A round-up of recent EPs and singles
Playing guitar and digeridoo, THE PELICAN BABIES are Standish-based acoustic folk-blues duo Lea Nixon and Mark Connelly, their new self-released three-track EP being Judas Goats. With a scuffling rhythm, the title cut adopts the farmer’s goat that befriends sheep and cattle so they can lead them to slaughter as a ...
NINEBARROW – The Hour Of The Blackbird (Winding Track 9BTHOTB)
Bringing a spin to the familiar best of album, Dorset close harmony duo Jon Whitley and Jay LaBouchardiere, British folk’s answer to Simon & Garfunkel, have revisited and reworked thirteen songs from their previous albums in the company of the combined forty plus voices of acclaimed choral groups Hart Voices ...
BROWN BOOTS BOOGIE BAND – Dancing Boots (own label)
I know I am not alone in loving the music for dancing, despite not having a dancing bone in my body, the sedentary shake a leg being my current move of choice, especially in the car. As such my shelves heave unfeasibly with instrumental rhythmic mayhem, and Dancing Boots is a ...
KYLE CAREY – The Last Bough (Americelta Records ACR106)
Her music pretty much defined by the name of her record label (to which she returns after a brief sojourn on Riverboat), Vermont-based Carey calls her sound Gaelic Americana, mixing songs sung in both Scottish Gaelic (more properly Gàidhlig) and English. Produced by Kai Welch, who plays piano and accordion, ...
JANA VARGA – Chicory (own label)
Slovak-born and London-based, Varga’s debut full length album, Foreigner Face, was, as the title suggests, rooted in the emigrant experience. The follow-up, Chicory, while still addressing such aspects, is, drawing on Slovakian folklore, more about storytelling with themes of family, love and identity. Musically, it’s a more stripped back affair ...
METAGAMA ENSEMBLE – Metagama: An Atlantic Odyssey (Wee Studio Records WSMETA001)
Perhaps a little history first. SS Metagama was launched in 1914 and, like many other vessels, did duty as a troop ship. In 1923 she was one of three ships carrying emigrants from the Western Islands bound for Canada and Metagama: An Atlantic Odyssey details a voyage that departed from ...
HANNAH BRINE – Blue Sky Now
Hannah Brine released Blue Sky Now, her debut album, in late June. Brine moved up from London to Derbyshire a couple of years ago and, judging by her comments about the cathartic effect of country life and the joys of watching her plants grow is clearly enjoying the move. You ...
DUG – Have At It! (Claddagh Records 7849344 )
The album named from a family text message involving a photo of a will during Covid, DUG comprise New York based Scottish ex-pat Lorkin O’Reilly and California clawhammer banjo player Jonny Pickett, the pair meeting in Ireland during 2022 and now based in Dublin. As such, their music embraces Scottish, ...
ROBB JOHNSON – The Optimist Hotel (Irregular Records IRR132)
Some years ago I made the mistake of asking Robb Johnson how many songs he'd written. There is no doubt that Robb is a prolific writer and the last few years have been a real purple patch for him. But it isn't about quantity and every time I get a ...
ANNA LING – Light (own label)
Mythopoetic neo-choral alt-folk is how Devon based singer and songwriter Anna Ling describes her music. An intriguing description, and if you want to find out what it might sound like, listening to Anna’s debut album, Light, is a good way to start. This year, I’ve had the pleasure of reviewing ...
RAGS ROSENBERG – Song Of The Bricoleur (Coyote Gulch Records)
Based in California, the weathered, husky-voiced 78-year-old Rosenberg (named Phillip, his musical soubriquet comes from WB Yeats’ “foul rag and bone shop of the heart”) is a poet/songwriter-storyteller in the Cohen tradition, weaving compelling narratives, magnetic melodies and articulate lyrics into songs that, coloured with pedal steel, brass, violin, piano, ...
JOHN McCUTCHEON – Long Journey Home (Appalsongs AS2025)
It’s a century since an iconic fiddle contest was held in Mountain City, a small Appalachian town in Tennessee, bringing together some of the era’s most prominent country musicians, competing for a $10 gold piece. McCutcheon was introduced to Mountain City as an 18-year-old via an old Folkways recordings, further ...
FAERIE FOLK – Faerie Folk (Tree Temple Music)
Faerie Folk are a band from Portland, Oregon who play Irish and Scandinavian music. They were formed by pianist and composer Troll Hart and are nominally a duo although four musicians appear in their videos. Troll is well-regarded in avant-garde and death metal circles so although their eponymous debut album ...
JOHNSON AND FINNEMORE- Find A Love That Brings You Home (Gulf Coast Records!)
Dan Finnemore is the longtime frontman with Birmingham outfit Swampmeat Family Band while Stewart Johnson is the lap steel legend who first came to notice with Ricky Cool & The Icebergs and whose career has since seen him play with many of country music’s great and the good as well ...
We made it – the Cropredy magic continues – our very own Paul Johnson reviews Cropredy Festival 2025
Hi all - so following my Cropredy 2025 preview that we posted here earlier this year... in which we spoke to Dave Pegg and Simon Nicol about the shrinking of the festival as we waited for the the big weekend to arrive. One would be forgiven if I was to ...
SINGLES BAR 117 – A round-up of recent EPs and singles
Is it an EP? Is it a mini-album? Does it actually matter? We'll go with the former. So Oddy Locks is a six track EP by Yorkshire trio, LONAN, a mix of original compositions, traditional songs and covers. The band comprises Robin Timmis, Katy Ryder and Evan Rhodri Davies and ...
JOHN REED – A Proliferation Of Pointlessness (own label)
Originally conceived as an album bemoaning the difficulties of trying to get his music noticed, Reed expanded the scope of A Proliferation Of Pointlessness for a general commentary about the state of the world. Playing everything himself, it kicks off with the nimble fingerpicking of ‘Someone Else’s Ghost’, a number ...
FOLKEAST, Sotterley Estate, Suffolk
Happy in its new home on the Sotterley Estate near Beccles, FolkEast 2025 proved as all-singing, all-dancing and all-everything as it has always been, just more so. Sure there were teething problems, especially in the campsites, but where it mattered – on stage and in the fields – it was ...
WICKHAM FESTIVAL WEEKEND Thursday 31st July – 3rd August 2025 inc
After a steady drive from the Devon/Cornwall border in the Folkmobile, I arrived in Hampshire on the 28th July, A great line up over the four days with new and old friendships to savour. As I wasn’t camping and staying with my friend in Langstone near Havant, we were able ...
SUSY WALL – Black Lights (own label)
Funded by Arts Council England and produced by Chris Pepper, Wall’s second album is a homage to her adopted Black Country home and a celebration of its people and places. Wall on piano, she’s accompanied by Gustaf Ljunggren on bass clarinet, clarinet and flute and go to double bassist John ...
VARIOUS – When Will They Ever Learn: A Story Of U.S. Folk Music- 1963-1969 (Cherry Red/Strawberry CR4JAMBX47)
Following on from Jingle Jangle Morning: The 1960s US Folk Rock Explosion, When Will They Ever Learn is an even more extensive 4-CD collection of 100 classic and obscure recordings from the era, a time when folk artists were fully flexing their protest and social comment wings with the advent ...
LIZ WALL – The Knight (own label)
Accompanied by co-producer Adam Ellis on bass, electric guitar, percussion and ukulele bass, the Ashby De La Zouch-based singer-songwriter makes her debut with The Knight, an album that draws on historical and personal themes with highly articulate lyrics and emotionally engaging, high-pitched vocals but suffers from a tendency to be ...
SONS OF SEVILLA – Street Light Moon (Ubiquity)
I have a thing about bands I've never heard of and know little, if anything, about. It's one of the joys of reviewing and I've found some really interesting artists along the way. To that list I'll now add Sons Of Sevilla with their new album Street Light Moon, which ...
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