Reviews

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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…

All our reviewers give their spare time to bring you this resource and we always looking for new people to get involved who share a similar passion for the genre to help lighten the load. If that sounds like you, then please email us here for more information about joining the folking review team.


CODY JINKS – I’m Not The Devil (Thirty Tigers)

Following a stint fronting a thrash metal outfit, Texas-born Jinks, as heavily tattooed as he is heavily bearded, found his way back to the music upon which he was raised, the outlaw country of Jennings, Cash and Haggard. No surprise then to find I'm Not The Devil, his fourth album, ...

METHERA – Vortex (Methera TET003)

I’ve had mixed feelings about Methera in the past. They are fine musicians, without doubt, who choose to play as a string quartet so why not dip into the classical repertoire? There are many traditional tunes appropriated by European composers and it wouldn’t be wrong to pinch one or two ...

HOME SERVICE – A New Ground (Dotted Line DLCD002)

After quite a hiatus in band history Home Service march on with their terrific new album A New Ground. Losing three band members in a short space of time might have meant calling time on their 25 year history but no, Home Service are back, refreshed and folk rocking like ...

EWAN MCLENNAN & GEORGE MONBIOT – Breaking The Spell Of Loneliness (Fellside FECD277)

This album might come as a surprise. Fast-rising singer/songwriter and interpreter of the tradition Ewan McLennan joins forces with George Monbiot, journalist and bête noire of the fascist classes – or at least those sections of it that can actually read – to explore one of the themes of Monbiot’s ...

SINGLES BAR 13 (I Ain’t Superstitious)

A round-up of recent and forthcoming EPs and singles This year, Armistice Day, November 11, also commemorates the 100th anniversary of the Battle of the Somme, one of the bloodiest battles of, not just WWI, but all history with over one million wounded or killed. Among the Tommies who fought ...

EWAN MACPHERSON – Fetch (Shooglenifty SHOOGLE16017)

When I was asked to review the latest CD to be released by Ewan MacPherson, I was surprised to find that it was entirely instrumental works composed by himself, with the exception of three tunes. The CD, titled Fetch, comprises of thirteen tracks which last a total of 59 minutes. Eight of the ...

JESS MORGAN – Edison Gloriette (Drabant Music)

Two years and one EP on from Langa Langa, released through the Norwegian label, the breathy-voiced Norwich-based singer-songwriter returns with Edison Gloriette her fourth and finest album to date, a relaxed and assured collection of eleven unfussily arranged, thematically-linked acoustic tracks that again speak to her English and Americana influences. As ...

HANNAH SANDERS & BEN SAVAGE – Before The Sun (Sungrazing Records SGR002)

Hannah Sanders first solo album, Charms Against Sorrow, was produced by Willows guitarist Ben Savage who also played on the record and shared in the arrangements. With Before The Sun their partnership has been formalised but little else has changed except that the duo went to Toronto to record with ...

Nancy Kerr And The Sweet Visitor Band live at the West End Centre, Aldershot

The first time I heard Nancy Kerr play she was sitting primly on stage alongside Eliza Carthy. How things have changed: now she’s front and centre, mistress of her stage with a superb band behind her. The Sweet Visitor Band is a fluid entity. With James Fagan at home on ...

JOHN FORRESTER – The Former Me (IRR103)

John Forrester is a man with a plan and The Former Me represents a stepping stone, the bridge between the excellent 2014 album Outsider and a body of new work due for release in 2017. Despite a long song writing career, this is the first album Forrester has recorded completely ...

ROB RICHINGS – Parkas and Boots (Crescent CRE1601CD)

In 2009, Swindon-born Richings, then frontman with indie outfit Sleeping With Giants, was diagnosed with a rare and severe form of colitis which eventually metastasised into cancer. Three live saving operations later, he’s doing well and is expected to live a relatively normal life. Except a normal life has now ...

TREVOR CLAWSON – Firecracker Day (own label)

You know how it is – somebody comes up to you at a festival and hands you a CD and you know you have two chances. Either it will be awful or it will be a delightful surprise. If it was the former you wouldn’t be reading this so you ...

TWO’S COMPANY – Go Together (own label TCFCD01)

Go Together is the first album from Yorkshire-based duo Two’s Company, David Jenkinson and Alice Baillie. Both sing, David plays a variety of stringed instruments, notably guitar and cello-mandolin, while Alice plays flute and writes the original songs that blend with the traditional titles. The album is all acoustic and ...

THE LOWEST PAIR – Uncertain As It Is Uneven (Team Love Records TL-93 ) – Fern Girl & Ice Man (Team Love Records TL-94)

Kendl Winter and Palmer T. Lee, a.k.a. The Lowest Pair, take their name from a John Hartford poem, so perhaps it's not surprising to find that both these CDs are largely banjo-dominated. Both clearly know their clawhammer from their three finger roll, but don't expect too much Warp-9 Scruggs picking ...

ROBB JOHNSON – My Best Regards (Irregular Records IRR100)

Robb Johnson, dubbed “the last of the genuinely political songwriters”, has released more albums than probably even he can count. By my reckoning My Best Regards is his thirty-third, not counting re-recordings and compilations and the thing is, the quality never falls. Even Bob Dylan had his off days. The ...

JOSIENNE CLARKE & BEN WALKER – Overnight (Rough Trade)

Their fifth album together (although 2010’s One Light is Gone was credited to just Clarke) and the first for their new label sees the BBC2 Folk Award winners expanding their stylistic horizons ever further, embracing widescreen orchestration and touches of jazz. Featuring ten originals and two covers, it opens with ...

FATE THE JUGGLER – Colour of Change (FTJEP0001)

Everything about Fate The Juggler is epitomised in the excellent five track mini album Colour of Change freshly released under their new FTJ Records label. Those familiar with the Kent based outfit will know you’re never quite sure what is coming next but that it fits together just fine and ...

Southern Tenant Folk Union live at Ropetackle, Shoreham

I hadn’t heard Southern Tenant Folk Union live before and I’ve a feeling that the majority of the audience were in the same position. There was sense of slight bemusement as they came on stage to play a pure bluegrass instrumental before launching into the first song, ‘To The War’ ...

MARTIN GREEN – Flit (Reveal Records, REVEAL062CDX)

Green, you may be aware, is the accordionist and electronic experimentalist with Lau, and his new solo album, Flit, is no less an inventive, boundary-pushing affair that, inspired by accounts of human movement across the globe, focuses on the zeitgeist folk scene theme of migration. As the title suggests it’s a ...

KATE RUSBY – Life In A Paper Boat (Pure PRCD41)

Unquestionably my favourite female folk singer of her generation, traditional or otherwise, dubbed the Barnsley Nightingale, her pure voice never seeking to disguise her Yorkshire vowels, Rusby has been plying her trade for 24 years. Life In A Paper Boat is her 14th studio album, one which, while hewing to familiar ...

SINGLES BAR 12

A round-up of recent and forthcoming EPs and singles Friends and supporters of DARIA KULESH who pledged to support her forthcoming album, Long Lost Home, received a personalised EP, The Gift, containing four songs from the album. The opener, ‘Tamara’ may be related to ‘Tamara’s Wedding’ which opens Kara’s second ...

SWEET LIBERTIES – Sweet Liberties (Quercus QRCD002)

Sweet Liberties, originally a commission by the EFDSS and Folk at the Oak, in partnership with the House of Commons, to mark the 2015: Anniversaries: Parliament in the Making, this has now expanded to become a 14-track album featuring a varied line up of folk musicians in celebration of 800 ...

SOUTHERN TENANT FOLK UNION – Join Forces (Johnny Rock Records JOROCK 023)

Southern Tenant Folk Union’s seventh album was written and recorded in the political landscape brought about by last year’s general election and its title, Join Forces, is both a reflection on the position in which we find ourselves and a rallying cry to stand up to the forces ranked against ...

PAULINE SCANLON – Gossamer (own label)

It doesn’t happen so much in England but there were singers, such as Gordon Hall, who considered that the only criterion for singing a song was “is it a good song?”.  The Irish seem to have stuck by that tenet which goes some way to explaining Pauline Scanlon’s album, Gossamer ...

CAROL FIELDHOUSE – Linen (own label CAROLFIELDHOUSE02)

It’s not usual for an artist to release a debut album in their sixth decade but Carol Fieldhouse has done just that with Linen. Not that she’s a newbie to the business: she’s a specialist in early music and leader of folk trio Cenote but this is her first album ...

WE BANJO 3 – String Theory (own label WB3CD004)

Take a look at the photographs on the cover of String Theory and you might wonder what you’re letting yourself in for. I mean, these guys look like exiles from Ripper Street!  This is the third studio album – there is a live set, too - from the brothers David ...

GEORGIA RUTH – Fossil Scale (Navigator NAVIGATOR099)

I really liked Georgia Ruth’s 2013 debut album, Week Of Pines. It was refreshing, a record of many moods that she had taken time over. She’s taken her time over her second CD, Fossil Scale, too but this is very different. Georgia Ruth has taken a big step towards the ...

Seth Lakeman and Wildwood Kin live at Derby Cathedral

If Seth Lakeman was feeling any road rage from having spent eight and a half hours in a car during a delayed journey to the Midlands – cancelling an appearance at a record store in nearby Nottingham along the way – then he wasn’t letting any of it show. Indeed, ...

SETH LAKEMAN featuring WILDWOOD KIN – Ballads Of The Broken Few (Cooking Vinyl COOKCD644)

In keeping with his determination to record in unusual and inspiring locations, Lakeman set up shop in the Great Hall of an unnamed Jacobean Manor House, recording the tracks for Ballads Of The Broken Few as live. On top of which, he not only enlisted the services of legendary American ...

DAMIEN DEMPSEY – No Force On Earth (Clear Records CLEARCD01)

To mark the centenary of the 1916 uprising Damien Dempsey has recorded a short album of songs from and about the period. It’s probably just as well that No Force On Earth is only eight tracks because I can guarantee that you’ll be wrung out by the end. The power ...

ANGE HARDY & LUKAS DRINKWATER – Findings (Story Records STREC1662)

I can’t decide if I’m more impressed by the quantity or the quality of Ange Hardy’s work. The ink is barely dry on Esteesee, her 2015 exploration of Samuel Taylor Coleridge and she’s back with her fourth album formalising her work in partnership with Lukas Drinkwater. Findings is a term ...

CHAIM TANNENBAUM – Chaim Tannenbaum (Storysound 161-017)

Anyone who has been a fan of the McGarrigles will be familiar with multi-instrumentalist Chaim Tannenbaum. Friends with Kate and Anna at high school in Montreal, he joined their group, the Mountain City Four, in the mid-60s and, after a brief hiatus as they went their separate ways, reunited with ...

ANDREW DAVISON – MineFolk (own label BCCD 003)

Andrew Davison is half of the duo Brother Crow and he’s also a guide at Kilhope – The North Of England Mining Museum in County Durham. MineFolk brings these two parts of his life together: he now conducts musical tours with songs based on real-life stories. MineFolk comprises just six ...

KIT HAWES & AARON CATLOW – The Fox (Big Badger Records BBRCD006)

Kit Hawes and Aaron Catlow are two-fifths of Bristol band Sheelanagig and The Fox is their first recorded exploration of their music as a guitar/violin duo. Their parent band is well-known for its pan-European influences and they can’t quite escape that – Aaron’s ‘Peddler’s Leg’ is a high-energy instrumental – ...

SINGLES BAR 10

A round-up of recent EPs and singles Before taking off for Nashville to start work on her sophomore album, Glasgow Americana singer-songwriter MARTHA L HEALY has put together a four track EP, To Be Free (Frog Eye) comprising two originals and two covers. The latter are well trod ground, a ...

THE BILLS – Trail of Tales (Borealis BCD239)

They’ve been knocking round for twenty years, releasing their debut album at the start of the century, Trail Of Tales marking the Canadian quintet’s fifth excursion into folk and bluegrass territory. Lining up as Marc Atkinson on mandolin and guitar, Adrian Dolan on fiddle, accordion and piano, guitarist Chris Frye, Scott ...

CERA IMPALA – Tumbleweed (own label CIDR03)

“This CD is 100% guitar free” boasts the sleeve of Cera Impala’s fourth album, Tumbleweed. This may be bad news if you’re banjophobic but you can’t win ‘em all. Cera is a much travelled multi-instrumentalist singer and songwriter who plays indie-rock with Dark Green Tree and sings old-time jazz with ...

BEL BLUE – Our Places (own label)

Cardiff-based musician and songwriter Bel Blue’s debut album Our Places developed out of her idea to record a few songs for an EP in the locations where they were composed.  So, during the late autumn of 2015, she and producer Kevs Ford, the multi-instrumentalist co-founder of John Peel favourites Llwybr ...

ANDREW JOHN & LISSA – At Home (Last Resort Records LRCD010)

Back in the early 1970s, I found a 1972-vintage LP lurking in a record shop in Manchester. It was called The Machine Stops, by Andrew John, a native of Yorkshire but living and working as a musician in Denmark. Featuring a fine choice of songs by Nick Drake, Roy Harper, ...

ALLAN YN Y FAN – NEWiD (Steam Pie Records SPCD10185)

Music has a rare ability to stir deep emotions in us.  One of the best is happiness and that is exactly what NEWiD, the latest album from Allan Yn Y Fan, does.  It's a glorious celebration of music performed with a buoyancy and lightness of touch that only good musicians ...

THE HIGH BAR GANG – Someday The Heart Will Trouble The Mind (True North TND622)

The follow-up to 2014 debut Lost & Undone: A Gospel Bluegrass Companion finds the Canadian octet leaving the gospel repertoire on the bench and focusing instead on “the cheating and hurting” side of things. Although the band, whose line-up includes upright bass, fiddle, mandolin and banjo, are firmly entrenched in ...

Campie’s Capers at her first Cropredy festival 2016

It is that time of year again and I had an invite to join the lads from folking.com and ‘do’ the 2016 Cropredy Festival. As a Cropredy virgin and non-camper, three days before the event I was filled with trepidation and angst, although the music beckoned! How could you not ...

HICKS AND GOULBOURN – Immortal (Striatum Records 140716)

A first glance at the track listing here and you might wonder how Immortal is going to work but it all fits together quite smoothly. Steve Hicks is guitar maker and player and Lynn Goulbourn is a singer and songwriter, who also plays guitar, and their talents mesh together well ...

CATHRYN CRAIG & BRIAN WILLOUGHBY – In Concert Saint Pancras Old Church London (Cabritunes CAB009)

The title says it all. Cathryn and Brian recorded the final gig of their 2016 UK tour – well, the first leg of it, anyway; they’re on the road again now – for their first live album. They prefer studio recording so this is a bit of a step but ...

GERRY COLVIN – Six Of One Half A Dozen Of The Other (own label)

Six Of One Half A Dozen Of The Other is perhaps an odd title for a CD of ten tracks but I’m sure that Gerry Colvin won’t let that bother him. The core band here is Jerome Davies on bass and banjo, Trish Power on accordion and Lyndon Webb on ...

JON BODEN – Painted Lady (Navigator Records NAVIGATOR098)

2016 sees the 10th anniversary of Jon Boden's first solo album Painted Lady, which is being re-issued to mark the event. This is an album of love songs, of a sort,  but certainly not chivalric love or the deep love of long-term relationship.  Instead there is a feeling of furtive, ...

HANNAH JAMES – Jigdoll (Rootbeat RBRCD30)

After a career in groups and duos (she is still in at least two) Hannah James embarked on a solo live show Jigdoll of which this is the recorded version. The stage show used an innovative looping technique to allow Hannah to multi-track herself and the album is recorded to ...

SINGLES BAR 9

A round-up of recent EPs and singles TWINNIE follows her two singles, ‘Home’ and ‘Cool’, with an eponymous debut EP which opens and closes with those two songs. Twinnie’s style is described as country-pop but the opening bars of ‘Home’ sound as though it’s looking to be a soul classic ...

THE SHEE – Continuum (Shee Records SHEE4)

The concept behind Continuum, supported by Celtic Connections, was to celebrate their tenth anniversary by having each of them commission a musician of their choice to write a piece of music for the album. That’s only half the story, of course, for the band had then to arrange the music ...

DANA AND SUSAN ROBINSON – The Angel’s Share (Threshold Music TM1116)

Based back in Susan’s home state of Vermont (in an historic schoolhouse), after 12 years living in North Carolina, the husband and wife duo’s new album, The Angel’s Share, is perhaps understandably suffused with themes of home and belonging, while the music threads together traditional folk, Celtic, Appalachian and country ...

HEIDI TALBOT – Here We Go 1,2,3 (Navigator Records)

Heidi Talbot has been musically quiet of late, with her last album Angels Without Wings released in 2013 and only a Christmas single 'Christmas in September' in 2015.  However, that does not mean life has been uneventful and from those experiences comes a new album Here We Go 1,2,3 due ...

MAIREARAD & ANNA – Best Day (Shouty Records SHOUTYCD03)

Best Day is the third album from two of Scotland’s finest instrumentalists, Mairearad Green and Anna Massie, recorded as live in the little Lowlands studio run by Angus Lyon and called Gran’s House. The first set is called ‘The Red Poppy’ and opens with one of those great Scottish titles, ...

THE JIGANTICS – Seconds Out (Rawtone RTR20078)

The Jigantics’ debut album, Daisy Roots, was a fun, slightly eccentric set that failed to disguise the band’s serious intent and their second outing, Seconds Out, is rather less light-hearted. That’s not to say that there is any lack of imagination or music to rock along with – far from ...

THE STRAY BIRDS – Magic Fire (Yep Roc Records CD-YEP-2475)

Magic Fire, The Stray Birds’ third full-length album, opens with three gloriously anthemic songs. They are rooted in the American tradition but explode from the speakers with such power. The band’s basic skeleton of guitar, fiddle, mandolin and banjo are augmented by drummer Shane Leonard and built on by the ...

THE SMALL GLORIES – Wondrous Traveler (Self-released TSGCD002)

Founding Canadian bluegrass trio The Wailin’ Jennies in 2002, following the self-titled debut EP and 2004’s 40 Days album, player Cara Luft left to again pursue a solo career. Two albums and an EP on the line, she’s again tied her reins to another hitching post, teaming up with earthier-sounding ...

CHET O’KEEFE – Because Of You (Scarlet SR036CD)

Originally released two years ago in digital only format, the dusty-voiced Washington singer-songwriter’s third album, Because Of You,  finally gets a full physical release, two of the ten songs being posthumous co-writers with the late Blaze Foley. The first of these, the title track, a slow march dirge featuring occasional ...

BROOM BEZZUMS – No Smaller Than The World (Steeplejack Music SJCD017)

Here’s one. What’s the difference between Broom Bezzums and Show Of Hands? One is based in Germany and tours the UK relatively infrequently and the other is a band you’ve heard of. Otherwise they are indistinguishable. Broom Bezzums are one of Germany’s biggest folk acts, write the majority of their ...

O’HOOLEY & TIDOW – Shadows (NoMasters NMCE47)

Their third album in as many years, after the two-handed format of The Hum and the limited hand-signed micro-release Summat’s Brewin’, the duo’s fifth studio outing, Shadows, sees them return to the fuller sound of their first two albums with a post-Bellowhead Pete Flood on drums, Andy Seward on double bass, ...

BILLY BRAGG & JOE HENRY – Shine A Light (Cooking Vinyl COOKCD623)

Billy Bragg is fine songwriter but I do enjoy it when he goes off piste like this but Shine A Light is rather more in Joe Henry’s territory. The album is subtitled “Field Recordings From The Great American Railroad” but the inclusion of MOR standards like ‘Gentle On My Mind’ ...

CHEYENNE BROWN & TORY DUGAN – Road Soda (Bird Creek Records BCR003)

Cheyenne and Tory are both from Alaska where Tory still lives, Cheyenne having moved to Scotland some years ago. Tory plays fiddle and keyboards and owns a studio from which he works by internet; Cheyenne plays harp and gets about a bit more and Road Soda is packed with traditional ...