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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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 ...
BJ BARHAM – Rockingham (At The Helm)
Taking time out from fronting American Aquarium, Barnham’s solo debut, Rockingham, draws on his observations of people and places, from growing up in hometown Reidsville to his current life in Raleigh, small town stories that may not be autobiographical but still feel very real. Working with a basic format of guitar, ...
CUPOLA:WARD – Bluebell (Betty Beetroot BETTY02)
Cupola:Ward is a co-operative venture between Cupola – Doug Euson, Sarah Matthews and Oli Matthews – and Lucy Ward. All four come from Derbyshire, a county that’s on the rise in breeding singers and musicians, but only three of the songs originate there. The template for their debut album, Bluebell, ...
DARLINGSIDE – Birds Say (Thirty Tigers)
Named as the Folk Alliance Artist of the Year 2016, the Massachussetts-based quartet are likely to make Mumford fans moist with their four-part harmony baroque folk-pop, but you’ll also hear touches of Fleet Foxes, the Byrds, CSN&Y and, especially on ‘My Gal, My Guy’, with Simon and Garfunkel in there ...
TANNARA – Trig (Braw Sailin’ Records CD001BSR)
Here is yet another fine young band coming out of Scotland with a song on their lips and a tune in their hearts. We think this album is called Trig – that little symbol on the cover, see. Actually it’s written on the spine but I don’t believe anything I ...
RALPH MCTELL AND WIZZ JONES – About Time (Leola Music TPGCD37)
Fifty years ago Wizz Jones invited Ralph May down to Cornwall to play at the Folk Cottage. May decided to change his name to McTell and the rest is history…except that they never made an album together. Until now. About Time is a selection of old favourites – you’ll find ...
EVE SELIS – See Me With Your Heart (Hippie Chick Twang HCTCD0513)
Laid up after a rollerblading accident, Selis took time to take stock of why she was making music, especially given that, after eight albums (nine if you include her Christmas collection), she had still not broken down the crossover wall between a loyal following and wider acceptance. It also allowed ...
THE LEYLINES – Along The Old Straight Track (own label)
Twenty-five or thirty years ago you would have identified Along The Old Straight Track as a new Levellers’ album. There’s the distinctive vocal style, the driving fiddle, the solid drums and bass in the engine room and the occasional agit-prop lyrics. You won’t be surprised to learn that The Leylines ...
THE DRIFTWOOD MANOR – For The Moon (Folkwit f0133)
Glancing at the track listing of For The Moon and seeing such titles as ‘Fraction Of A Wolf’ and ‘Fire And Brimstone’ (both early singles) you might get a certain impression. ‘Spring’ and ‘I Have Become The Waves’ might contradict that notion and, in truth, neither would be correct. The ...
MARK HARRISON – Turpentine (own label)
I love melodic finger-picking, resonator and slide guitar so it should come as no surprise that I really like Turpentine. I hadn’t encountered Mark Harrison before he got in touch with us, and I’m very glad he did. This is his fifth album, I think, and he’s usually referred to ...
DAVE McGRAW & MANDY FER – Off-Grid Lo-Fi (Dave and Mandy Music)
If their last album, Maritime, was pared down compared to the band feel of their debut, Off-Grid Lo-Fi is positively minimalist. As per the title, the Washington State- based duo wrote and recorded it on one of the near uninhabited San Juan islands in northwest Washington, the nearest neighbours being ...
BILL MADISON – Rogues (Self-Released)
Tagged by one review as a hippie-folkie-cowboy singer-songwriter, the New England troubadour simply describes himself as a singer songwriter interpreter of Americana Folk and Country. Having released his debut album back in 1973, he went on to form country rock outfit Them Fargo Boys, touring with them for almost 20 ...
ANDY SMYTHE – Waiting For A Rose To Bloom (Dreaming Element Records DER07)
Andy Smythe has been making music as a soloist since the mid-90s and more recently as the lead of a folk-rock trio. With Waiting For A Rose To Bloom he returns to basics. The album is all original, based on piano with some guitar. Andy’s songs cover of group from ...
MY GIRL THE RIVER – This Ain’t No Fairytale (Super Tiny Records STR0006)
First, some bad news for fans of Cicero Buck. They are no more. Second, some good news, American singer-songwriter Kris Wilkinson and English bassist/writer husband Joe Hughes (co-writer of Annie Lennox’s ‘No More I Love Yous’) have reincarnated under this new name, enlisting, among others, the musical services of electric ...
SINGLES BAR
A round-up of recent EPs and singles FRAN WYBURN AND THE INDIGOS are a Yorkshire-based trio whose second EP, Postcards, is out now. Here are five tracks of acoustic folk characterised by complex arrangements with lots of instrumental textures, rich harmonies from Rosie Evans and George Birkett, melodically strong songs ...
BONFIRE RADICALS – The Albino Peacock (Burning Bones Records 2016/1)
Radical is an apt description for this Birmingham band who have welded together very different styles of music to make their debut album, The Albino Peacock. One the one side you have guitar, bass and drums and on the other, fiddle, recorders and clarinets. But folk-rock it isn’t even though ...
VICKI SWAN & JONNY DYER – Paper Of Pins (WetFootMusic WFM160630)
Paper Of Pins, Vicki and Jonny’s latest album (something like their seventh), both follows and expands on its predecessors. They write songs and some serious music and mess about with traditional songs in a way that purists might frown upon. Their musical repertoire is ever-expanding but if you can play ...
THE BREWER’S DAUGHTER – Make Believe (own label)
You know that rare moment when you hear something for the first time and it rocks you back on your heels. That. That’s what I got when I picked a song at random from The Brewer’s Daughter’s press pack. The Brewer’s Daughter is Rhiannon Crutchley, she lives on a narrow ...
JOHN WORT HANNAM – Love Lives On (Rebel Tone JWH6152015)
Born on Jersey in the Channel Islands, but now resident in Alberta, Hannam gave up teaching in 2000 to follow a career as a singer-songwriter and performing musician, becoming a regular on the festival scene, both at home and in the UK. Describing himself as blue collar roots music, Love ...
KARA – Some Other Shore (Self-Released)
Fronted by the Russian-born (but quintessentially English-sounding) Daria Kulesh who also plays guitar and bodhran, alongside Kate Rouse on hammered dulcimer, guitarist Ben Honey and latest recruit Phil Underwood on melodeon, the Hertfordshire quartet’s latest fusion of traditional English and Russian folk also features one-off contributions from fiddle player James ...
HARP & A MONKEY – War Stories (own label)
As we approach the centenary of the Battle of the Somme, Simon Jones, Andy Smyth and Martin Purdy turn their unique talents to its commemoration. War Stories is just that; not tales of great heroism, except in one case, but mostly stories of the aftermath in human terms and its ...
PENNYLESS – In The Park (own label PYL005)
To look at the album cover you’d take Pennyless for a pretty pastoral folk band and sometimes they do drift that way a bit but you’re in for a surprise. Pennyless are a multi-instrumental quartet from the fens or thereabouts, expanded from the trio that recorded Hanging Moon by the ...
SOLARFERENCE – Locks & Bolts (own label)
Locks & Bolts is the second full-length album from Solarference and it’s live. The duo both sing and Sarah Owen plays piano while Nick Janaway plays guitar and dulcimer – the difference is that they both play computers as well. I really should like Solarference more than I do. Without ...
VINNY PECULIAR – Silver Meadows (Fables From The Institution) (Shadrack & Duxbury SADCD011)
Back in the day, when he was just Alan Wilkes and before embarking on a career in music, Vinny worked in various long-stay mental health and learning disability hospitals as a mental health nurse. During this time, he also regularly visited his schizophrenic brother, a patient in one such. He ...
MIKKO JOENSUU – Amen 1 (Svart SVART017)
Sweden has long led the way for crossover Americana influenced Scandinavian folk and roots, but it seems that Finland is starting to present a considerable challenge. Folk-pop outfit Jonas and I are already making waves and now comes Helsinki singer-songwriter Joensuu, making his solo debut after previously fronting shoegaze rock ...
KARA live at The Convent
The Convent used to be just that. It was bought in a semi-derelict condition a few years ago and is now a hotel, spa, studio and music venue – still a work in progress and delightfully eccentric. The owners have kept the ecclesiastical fixtures and the décor is now a ...
ALICE JONES – Poor Strange Girl (Splid SPLIDCD 017)
You’re probably thinking that you’ve heard of Alice Jones before, and you probably have: The Gina Le Faux Trio, The John Dipper Band and her collaboration with Pete Coe working on the Frank Kidson collection as well as what seems like a dozen other things in her native Yorkshire. Poor ...
CHRISTA COUTURE – Long Time Leaving (Black Hen Music BHCD0079)
A Canadian of First Nations heritage, Edmonton born Couture comes with the sort of backstory that would earn her an instant spot on the X-Factor, losing a leg to cancer as a teenager and two sons, one just after birth and the other at 14 months. Perhaps understandably, her work ...
SINDERINS – Sinderins (Westwynd Recordings WYNDCD001)
The name taken from a confluence of roads in the band’s home town of Dundee, Sinderins comprise singers David Webster, Stevie Anderson and Gavin McGinty with Billy Fisher and Tom Barbour providing the rhythm section, their instrumentation including mandolin, harmonium, double bass, auto harp and percussion. While rooted within folk, ...
BONES AND THE AFT – The Rafter Habit (Liver & Lights No. 54)
“Kathy says it’s all the fault of Britney Spears and Simon Cowell”. If that isn’t enough to persuade you to investigate this album there is no hope for you. The Rafter Habit is the second album from Bones And The Aft and where it fits into the musical pantheon I’ll ...
SINGLES BAR
A round-up of recent EPs and singles MA POLAINE’S GREAT DECLINE play a timeless kind of Americana and it’s only the fact that the lead track here is called ‘Japanese Knotweed’ might give you the suspicion that they are British. Following their debut album, Got Me Out Of Hell, Small ...
BEOGA – Before We Change Our Mind (own label BEOGA 06)
Before We Change Our Mind is the fifth studio album from Antrim-based band, Beoga. Their line-up was completed in 2005 after their debut album by fiddler/vocalist Niamh Dunne who bought a new dimension to a band that was dominated by accordion and keyboards plus Eamon Murray’s dynamic bodhran playing which ...
PADDY GARRIGAN & THE STROLLER PRIESTS – I Jumped Ship (own label)
Paddy Garrigan, Darren Leadson and Ben McCabe hail from the north-west. They have been together as The Stroller Priests for a while but I Jumped Ship is their first full-length album. Their music, all written by Garrigan, mixes a rock-a-billy energy with clever lyrics displaying a mordant sense of humour ...
MEGSON – Good Times Will Come Again (EDJ Records EDJ021)
For the first time in the twelve years they’ve been making music together, Teeside husband and wife duo Stu and Debbie Hanna have, in response to fan demand, recorded an album of all original material, although, as you would imagine, these are, like previous self-penned numbers still influenced by the ...
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