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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DROPKICK MURPHYS – For The People (Dummy Luck Records DLM005CD)
Sporting a black rose on the cover, symbolising change, renewal, rebirth, courage, confidence and power, For The People, their thirteenth studio album finds the Massachusetts Celtic punk in furious and fiery protest form while still finding room for some personal nostalgia, kicking off with guitars ringing and drums thundering on ...
FATE THE JUGGLER – Godless Blues (own label)
Fate The Juggler first came to our attention back in 2016 and have been popping around ever since. It started for us with their EP, Colour Of Change, and a live album although their debut album was The Ghost Of Beauty Lost in 2010. The line-up has changed somewhat with ...
GEORGE BOOMSMA – The Promise Of Spring ‘Live’ (Faber Alt)
The Promise Of Spring Live is a first anniversary version of George Boomsma’s critically acclaimed The Promise Of Spring acoustic album, although this latest edition is a recorded live version. A raw edge album recorded at two prestigious venues – The Regal in Tenbury Wells and Camden Town’s Green Note ...
KEMP HARRIS – The America Chronicles (Kemp Harris Music)
Black and gay, life in America for Harris was never going to be easy. Under the current administration, it’s even more difficult. Which is pretty much the starting point for the third from the now 72-year-old North Carolina-born singer-songwriter who’s also an actor, activist, author and an award-winning educator. Recorded ...
SINGLES BAR 115 – A round-up of recent EPs and singles
Having self-released Part A of their two EPS, COULDN’T BE HAPPIERS - Jodi Hildebran and Jordan Crosby Lee - now combine that with Part B as Couple(t)s. A review of the previous songs can be found on this website and again this comprises two love, protest and folk story songs, ...
KAI CROWE-GETTY – The Wreckage (own label)
The Wreckage, the debut solo album by the frontman of Virginia rock outfit Lord Nelson (no, me neither) is custom built for those who can’t resist a Petty-esque Mid-West nasal drawl, jangling guitar and alt-country vintage college radio hooks, opening with ‘A Southeast State’, a reflective song about familial history ...
JIM CAUSLEY – The Georgic (Hrõc Music HROC10)
If you have a theme or a project to develop and if it involves the west country then Jim Causley is your man. Jim has spent much of his career enthusiastically and successfully exploring the songs, stories, folklore and language of his native Devon. The Georgic grew out of a ...
KEEPING IT LIVE: Retford Book Festival – Tom Kitching and Marit Fäit
Keeping It Live is the title of a set of occasional reviews based on, err… , live music. So why Retford Book Festival on the folking.com webpages? Retford is a small town in Nottinghamshire and June saw its first ever book festival. Amongst those who were – do you say ...
CLEMENTINE LOVELL – Westbound (own label CLWESTBOUND2025)
Promotional material, by its nature, shouldn’t always be taken too literally. So, when I read promotional material for Clementine Lovell’s debut album, Westbound, comparing her voice to Joan Baez, Emmylou Harris, and Sandy Denny, I didn’t take it too seriously. Then I listened to the album and from the opening ...
PETER & JANE – The Traveller’s Cloak (own label)
Peter & Jane are a duo from East Anglia and The Traveller’s Cloak would appear to be their third album. Using their given names gives Mr and Mrs Reeves a certain homespun quality which suits their music – a mixture of original compositions and traditional pieces. Peter plays guitar and ...
GIANNI TBAY’S BLUES AGAINST YOUTH – The Blues Against Youth (EFT088)
Gianni Tbay is Turin-based and variously described as troubadour, song-crafter and slide guitar master. The Blues Against Youth is his seventh full-length album. Given the title, you’d expect something bluesy. It’s there, but there’s a line in the accompanying notes which says, “the blues-matrix is still there but the sound ...
MARINA FLORANCE – Shadows (own label)
Her fifth album, Shadows, comprising four studio tracks with fiddle and bass and mandolin, one live, two spoken-word and one mix of spoken-word and vocals, is a familiar mellow folk and American-tinged affair with songs that touch on the personal and political. It’s love and comfort on the dancefloor that, ...
LUNATRAKTORS – Quilting Points: Invitations and Open Calls 2019-2025 (Broken Folk Records)
Carli Jefferson and Clair Le Couteur can never be considered conventional as a study of the 18 panel fold out cover of Lunatraktors’ will confirm. Even by Lunatraktors’ standards Quilting Points: Invitations and Open Calls 2019-2025 is not a conventional album. The fourteen tracks have been remixed from recordings recovered ...
BLIND RIVER SCARE – Flashbacks And Polaroids (Creosote Records, CR606CD)
Four years on from The Mileage Made, South Wales-based Tim Manning returns with his sixth Americana-veined album, working in a four piece format with Jem Ponsford on drums, bassist Stuart Loosemore with co-producer Mike Hopkins variously on mandolin, Appalachian dulcimer and keys. Flashbacks And Polaroids opens with the loose-limbed New ...
ODETTE MICHELL – The Queen Of The Lowlands (Talking Elephant TECD507)
While she’s featured on disc as part of Michell, Pfeiffer and Kulesh, it’s been five years since the Yorkshire-born, Cambridge-based singer-songwriter released her well-received debut album. Again playing guitar and bouzouki, she returns now with this highly anticipated follow-up, The Queen Of The Lowlands, ten self-penned songs in the folk ...
SIMON SCARDANELLI – Underneath The Singing Tree (Resonator Records RES0117)
Born in London and based in Brittany, Underneath The Singing Tree is Scardanelli’s ninth solo album and, a cocktail of heady pop, folk and jazz, one of his strongest. Opening with a swirling Eastern flavour and featuring Sophie Caudin on flute, the title track is a cautionary tale about being so ...
JON PALMER ACOUSTIC BAND – Light Goes Low (Splid Records SPLIDCD35)
I should start by thanking Jon for using my description of his Acoustic Band on his publicity since his previous album. A bit of buttering up never goes amiss. If you need a reminder, the band comprises Wendy Ross on violin, bassist Eddy Green, Iain Cunningham on a plethora of ...
SAM KELLY – Dreamers Dawn (Navigator, NAVIGATOR109 )
Joined by a stellar Lost Boys line-up of Jamie Francis on banjo, guitars, octave mandolin and bass, cellist Graham Coe, Evan Carson on percussion, accordionist Archie Churchill-Moss, Lukas Drinkwater behind the double bass and Toby Shaer accounting for flutes, whistles and fiddle, Dreamers Dawn is the long-awaited follow-up to 2021’s ...
POI ROGERS – Twilight Blues (own label)
From Santa Cruz, Gerard Egan doubling on acoustic guitar and triple neck steel and Carolyn Sills on stand-up bass, the punningly named duo channel 50s honky tonks and the tropical lounges of 1930s Los Angeles with both self-penned and vintage Americana, playfulness being the keynote. Case in point is the ...
DONALD W.G. LINDSAY – Two Boats Under The Moon (own label DL001 though Birnam)
A name that maybe means more in the arcane world of bagpipe makers than to those who enjoy their sound, Lindsay is the inventor of the Lindsay system Scottish smallpipes, Based around the Lindsay system chanter, this he designed between 2005 and the prototype delivery in 2013/4, it and the ...
THE BOOK OF MOONS – Strange & Wylde Majick (own label)
Taking their name from the seventeenth century Bedlam ballad “Tom o' Bedlam’ and referencing an ancient book of strange and wylde magick) , Norfolk duo singer Leighton Melville and Tim Lane on guitar, bass and keys make their progressive rock/folk album debut with a collection of original songs delving into ...
SINGLES BAR 114 – A round-up of recent EPs and singles
Only available on Bandcamp for a limited time with all proceeds going to The Belonging Fund to benefit Nashville's immigrant community, The Belonging EP Vol. 1 (Oh Boy Records) is a wonderful collection of rare covers by JOHN PRINE, two previously unreleased. It opens with a homespun fingerpicked ‘My Old Kentucky ...
FREYA RAE – Divergence (Mere Cat Records – MCRCD001
In 2020, when many of us were looking for challenges to get us through lock down, Freya Rae set herself a target of writing a new tune every week for twenty weeks. The project bore fruit, and eleven of the tunes are now included on Divergence, her new album. Freya ...
HOUSE ABOVE THE SUN – Restless Idealist (own label)
House Above The Sun are a London based quintet who describe themselves as Americana Indie Rock, which covers quite a few bases. Restless Idealist is their second album but certainly hasn't been rushed, following the début album Five Hours North in 2017 and the 2020 EP Time I Got Goin'. ...
MÀIRI MACMILLAN – Glaschu: Songs To A City (own label MMM2CD)
There is a trend for artists and songwriters to write about their surroundings; either the places where they were brought up or the places where they now live. Màiri MacMillan falls into the latter group, having been born on South Uist her new album Glaschu: Songs To A City is ...
DANNY HORN & THE SHARED MYTHS – The Death Of Lucy (own label)
The Death Of Lucy is the third album by Danny Horn & The Shared Myths. It will be released on June 6th. It’s a fun and easy to listen to album. The style is folk-band mixed with Americana mixed with occasional tinges of other genres such as gypsy violin or ...
RUPERT WATES – Father To The Man (Bite Music BR12119)
Depicting the journey from childhood, through manhood to fatherhood, featuring just vocals, guitar and double bass, all twelve songs on Father To The Man (all bar one written aptly in DADGAD tuning) are inspired by and dedicated to Wates’s four year old son, Gabriel. As such, it’s a very pastoral ...
MIKE & KATE TURNBULL – Folklore (own label)
Mike and Kate Turnbull also operate under the name Briar:Bramble which can be confusing when both are printed on the album – I chose the name with the largest font size. Between them, Mike and Kate play half a dozen instruments and both sing which provides opportunity for plenty of ...
MARTIN CARTHY – Transform Me Then Into A Fish (HemHem Records)
Martin Carthy is 84 today, the day that Transform Me Then Into A Fish is released. I first heard him live in 1968 or 69 and many times since and a great deal of water has flowed under the bridge since then. To celebrate his birthday, he has taken as ...
THE GENTLE GOOD – Elan (Bubblewrap Records BWR080CD)
The previous album by Gareth Bonello as The Gentle Good, Galargan, was a pared back acoustic affair using old songs from The National Library of Wales. Elan continues with an historical theme but in a very different musical style. This is a full band effort, including ‘Desert Of Wales’ recorded ...
VINNY PECULIAR – Things Too Long Left Unsaid (Shadrack and Duxbury, SADCD025)
Over the course of the ten years and five albums between 2011 and 2021, Alan Wilkes amassed a growing pile of songs which, for whatever reason, never made it onto the albums for which there were written. So, as a sort of spring clean, he’s gathered ten of them here, ...
TRIP – In Terra’s Keep (own label)
In Terra’s Keep is the second album by Glasgow six-piece Trip following their 2022 debut, A Drop For Neptune. They base their sound on the traditional Scottish piano continuo courtesy of Rory Matheson and it’s Rory who we hear first hear rumbling at the left hand end of the keyboard ...
SUE HARDING – The World (own label)
The World is Sue Harding’s third solo album and the word on the street is that it’s caused some surprise. Reviewing the single, ‘Barflies’, I was quite taken with its imagination but I was more impressed with the “B-side”, ‘Capitano’. In comparison with her debut album, Flight, it did come ...
MARK RADCLIFFE & DAVID BOARDMAN – Hearsay & Heresy (Talking Elephant TECD509)
You all know the name of Mark Radcliffe but David Boardman may not be so familiar. Mark and David are both members of, and principal songwriters for the alt-Anglo-country band FineLines. And if you can come up with a better description of them please let us know. As well as ...
DAPHNE’S FLIGHT – Favourable Light (Fat Cat CFATCD056)
Daphne’s Flight launched in 1995 and have just released their fifth album. Favourable Light is the second with the current line-up of Chris While, Julie Matthews, Helen Watson, Melanie Harrold and Miranda Sykes. Nine of the ten songs are originals, the tenth being a cover of ‘Don’t Wait Too Long’ ...
PATCH & THE GIANT – Fragments (Folkroom Records)
Their first new material since 2017, Patch & The Giant still line-up as singer Luke Owen on acoustic guitar, Angie Rance on digital accordion, trumpet, flugelhorn, and piano Nick Harris on bass and banjo, violinist Gabriel Merryfield, and Derek Yao on cello and double bass with Tobias Humble on drums ...
PAUL ARMFIELD – Between the Covers (own label PSA004)
Lesson learnt. Don’t judge a book by its cover and don't judge an album by its title. I was expecting Between The Covers; 9 Songs For Bibliophiles to be a scholarly, or at least mindful, exercise in the role literature has played in history and culture. What I didn't expect ...
MERRY HELL – Rising Of The Bold (Merry Hell Music MHMCD00125)
A new Merry Hell album is something always eagerly anticipated at Folking Towers, and Rising Of The Bold, the latest from our semi-regular “Best Live Band” winners, is no different. The first new since 2020, there has been one tweak to the then line-up, as will become apparent, but the ...
IONA LANE – Swilkie (own label ILR003CD)
From the Highlands and written during three residencies on the Isle of Eigg, te Isle of Mull and Sanday and recorded in a boathouse on the West Coast of Scotland, Swilkie is largely contemplative affair variously involving shruti box, banjo, fiddle, bagpipes, clarinet, double bass, piano and guitar with songs about basking ...
CHRISTINA ALDEN & ALEX PATTERSON – Safe Travels (own label)
After a gap of four years since their Hunter debut, accompanied by John Parker on double bass, the couple return with an album that, per the title, takes a three year journey through their lives since its release, embracing themes of new parenthood, home and family. Informed by their own ...
SCOTTISH FIDDLE ORCHESTRA – Sleeping Warrior (own label SFOCD1001)
If I’ve done my sums correctly there are one hundred and eighteen members of The Scottish Fiddle Orchestra including flautists, pipers, accordion players and percussionists although I don’t think they all appear on Sleeping Warrior. Don’t worry, I’m not going to list them all except to say that the SFO ...
MARK MULHOLLAND – Fighting With Your Shadow (Ports Of Call Music POCM2501CD)
From Edinburgh and now based in France, Mulholland has had a decidedly eclectic career, variously working with Captain Sensible, Toumani Diabaté and Damon Albarn. Fighting With Your Shadow, his fourth solo album, draws on an assortment of musical strands, particularly working with French percussionist Stéphane Doucerain and Paris-based musicians bassist ...
SINGLES BAR 113 – A round-up of recent EPs and singles
The Frog, The Mouse, The Ship, The Cabin Boy is a new 100 copies limited edition EP (FreakFolk) from the endearingly and uniquely breathily voiced (think Kate Bush meets Shirley Henderson) London-based Italian-Australian alt folk singer BITY BOOKER. It comprises her take on two traditional numbers, the first, also included ...
THE SOUND OF THE SIRENS – The Other Me (own label)
The fourth album by Exeter-based duo Abbe Wood and Hannah Walker takes their acoustic blend of folk and pop to the next level with a wider, more sophisticated and deeper musical scope, albeit perhaps at the cost of immediately catchy melodies and hooks, although they do imperceptibly pull you in ...
STOUT – Make Way (own label)
Stout are a German duo: Simon Schere and Mario Kuzyna (who bears a disturbing resemblance to Sid Kipper). Both sing and play guitar while Simon plays banjo and mandolin and Mario plays accordion and they are supported on fiddle and bass by Oorni and Jens. Their starting point is Irish ...
THE BEAUTIFUL FAILURES – Cowboys In Tangier
Cowboys in Tangier was recorded in summer 2024 but is only recently released. It’s worth the wait – there’s some neat playing and clever song writing on the nine tracks of this album. From Manchester, The Beautiful Failures has eight members. The vocals are shared between Cathy Williams and Warren ...
KATE RUSBY – When They All Looked Up (Pure PRCD80)
Her 23rd album and her first non-seasonal release in six years, When They All Looked Up mixes her settings of traditional songs as well as covers and original material. Opening, Ron Block on banjo and Sam Kelly contributing guest vocals, with ‘How The World Goes’ which is credited to her ...
BEAU – Palace Of Light (Cherry Red BEAUPOL1)
With near thirty albums to his name, it’s fair to say that as long as there’s self-important self-interested arseholes, social iniquities, political buffoons and popular discontent in the world, there’ll always be fuel and a place for another from Beau’s witty, sardonic, ironic and provocative pen. Musically, the tunes may ...
TRACK DOGS – Tracks Laid, Tracks Covered (Mondegreen MGR1125)
Based in Spain with two Irishmen (frontman Garrett Wall and bassist Dave Mooney), an Englishman (trumpeter Howard Brown) and an American (Robbie K. Jones on cajon and banjo) and named for workers on the New York subway system, the quartet came together in 2006 since which time they’ve released eight ...
DAVID COLLINS – Sundown (own label)
Once a semi-finalist in Young Folk Musician Of The Year, David Collins returns to music after a break with his debut album, Sundown. David is a singer-songwriter with a strong feel for traditional songs who combines the two strands on this album and whose own songs could easily be mistaken ...
KING’S GAMBIT – The Elder And The Lost Bet (own label GA250608)
King’s Gambit are a seven-piece band from Northampton who play, I think we are obliged to say, folk-rock. The songs are written by Chris Startup but laced with traditional tunes driven by Phil Searing’s fiddle. However, if you’re looking for something conventional in that genre you should look elsewhere. After ...
MILTON HIDE – Bungaroosh (Howdys Records)
The title of Jo Church and Jim Tipler’s new album, Bungaroosh, comes from a building trade term referring to the slapdash way in which walls that were put up cheaply and quickly in the Regency period, mainly in the Brighton and Hove area, filled with a variety of materials including ...
STEVE TILSTON – Last Call Tour – Exeter Folk Club, Friday 11th April 2025
An excellent evening that was enjoyed by all who had come to see highly acclaimed and award-winning singer/songwriter, and consummate guitarist Steve Tilston magically weaving his stories, songs, and humour (Steve blaming the one pint of Doom Bar from the barman). Flanked by double bass virtuoso Hugh Bradley and special ...
TERENCE BLACKER – Misfits’ Jamboree (own label TB006)
Terence Blacker has been, at various times, a writer, journalist and songwriter. More recently he has concentrated on his music and is about to release his sixth album Misfits' Jamboree. For a London based artist he's somebody I've not come across, which is a great shame because he writes songs ...
GIGSPANNER BIG BAND – Turnstone (own label GSCD009)
I have to make a confession. When Peter Knight unveiled the Big Band I was somewhat less than whelmed. I was so in thrall to the original trio and the way they did things that this development seemed like an aberration. But with their third album, Turnstone, they have absolutely ...
SHEILA K CAMERON – On Sanity’s Shore (Glalell – SKC1711CD)
Whatever you’ve been listening to this year, I doubt that you’ll have heard anything quite like On Sanity’s Shore. Sheila K. Cameron – or SKC – is a Glasgow based, Canadian folk and blues singer/songwriter, whose career has followed an unconventional path. After early attempts to establish a career as ...
THE TWANGTOWN PARAMOURS – The Wind Will Change Again (Inside Edge IER006)
The Wind Will Change Again is the latest release from The Twangtown Paramours. The duo are Mike T Lewis and MaryBeth Zamer and describe it as their first folk album in twelve years. I suspect the word ‘folk’ relates to the predominantly acoustic sound of the album as The Wind ...
THE WILDWOODS – Dear Meadowlark (own label)
Comprising husband and wife guitarist and songwriter Noah and Chloe Gose on violin and lead vocals alongside best friend bassist Andrew Vaggalis, Dear Meadowlark is their fifth collection of breezy folk and Americana, steeped in the Nebraskan landscapes that backdrop their lives. Their interweaving harmonies are showcased on album opener, ...
FOLKLAW – Catch The Sun (Fiddle Of 8 Records FO8RO4CD)
Co-produced by long-time Gerry Colvin sideman Lyndon Webb, who also plays mandolin and guitars, Catch The Sun is a welcome return after a six-year gap for the Nottinghamshire-based folk-rock sextet led by fiddler founder Nick Gibbs, here variously featuring accordionist Paul Hutchinson with brass from Emma Vogwell (alto sax), Steve ...
FINDLAY NAPIER – Outsider (The Bothy Society TBS21)
Findlay Napier never stops working. Solo albums, guest appearances, collaborations and projects, including a particularly fine album. The Ledger (https://folking.com/findlay-napier-gillian-frame-with-mike-vass-the-ledger-cheery-008/) have filled the last decade. Now he returns with Outsider, a collection of accumulated songs. Outsider is also the first release by The Bothy Society to combine a CD and ...
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