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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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JEB BARRY – Milltown (DollyRocker DR2015-1)
Barry grew up and still lives in a mill town in the Berkshire hills of rural Massachusetts, so he knows of what he sings when, on ‘Milltown #2’, he talks about how, in his daddy’s day you could find honest pay before the 80s came and everything changed, destroying hope ...
MALCOLM HOLCOMBE – Another Black Hole (Gypsy Eyes Music)
Having released The RCA Sessions retrospective re-recordings last year, Holcombe makes a swift return with a 10 song set of brand new material, recorded in Nashville with regular collaborators Jared Tyler (dobro, baritone guitar, banjo, mandolin), Dave Roe (bass), Ken Coomer (drums), swamp legend Tony Joe White (electric guitar), drumitar ...
BOREAS – Ahoy Hoy (Isle Music ISLE04CD)
Ahoy Hoy is the debut album from Boreas, the latest expression of Scandi-Scottish music fusion. Britt Pernille Frøholm and Irene Tillung represent the Scandinavian side while Lori Watson and Rachel Newton wave the saltire for the Caledonian contingent. An all-female, mostly string line-up – including Hardanger fiddle and electroharp – ...
JED GRIMES – North Face (Blue Guitar Records BGCD016)
After the full-blown Heart & Hand Jed Grimes takes himself back to basics. North Face is all traditional, featuring Jed’s multi-layered strings and with just Michael Doonan for company. The only problem is that it’s far too short, just six tracks even with the extended instrumental, ‘Spalpeen Aroon/An Phisloach’. Jed ...
THE JAMES BROTHERS – The James Brothers (Drover Records DROVCD001)
The James Brothers aren’t brothers, of course. They are James Fagan and Jamie McClennan and nowhere near as mean as the look on the cover. James is Australian but it might be less well-known that Jamie was born in New Zealand – so it was just a matter of time ...
ELEANOR MCEVOY – Naked Music (Moscodisc MOSCD4014)
Its title derived from the recording process, an exposed intimacy designed to capture the one voice, one instrument, feel of her one woman shows, McEvoy’s 13th studio album features four exclusive artworks by celebrated painter Chris Gollon, themselves created in response to the songs and the album concept, who is, ...
MIRANDA SYKES & REX PRESTON – The Watchmaker’s Wife (Hands On Music HMCD40)
When I last heard Show Of Hands I couldn’t help but note Miranda Sykes’ contribution to their sound. Not just her double bass playing but particularly her voice and I felt that she should be better known in her own right. The Watchmaker’s Wife is her third album with Rex ...
ROB HARBRON & EMMA REID – Flock & Fly (own label ROBRECD002)
Flock & Fly is the second album from Rob and Emma and I have to confess that the first one escaped me. Rob Harbron is a musician with a hand in so many projects, particularly where Sam Sweeney is involved, while Emma Reid is best know here as a member ...
PHIL HARE – The Twilight Tone (March Hare Productions MHPCD01)
The Twilight Tone is something like Phil’s ninth album although many of his early recordings are now lost in the mists of antiquity. This record is entirely solo with no overdubs and according to Phil ought to played late at night. Actually, I’d like to think it was recorded then, ...
PAUL McCLURE – Songs For Anyone (Clubhouse CRUK0035CD)
Less than two years on from the release of Smiling From The Floor Up, the warm-voiced Rutland troubadour (formerly frontman for The Hi and Lo) returns with an album he freely admits is not the one he set out to make. By this he means that he handed over the ...
VARIOUS ARTISTS – Songs of Separation (Navigator NAVIGATOR094P)
An ambitious project, this is the brainchild of double-bassist Jenny Hill who, in the period running up to the Scottish independence referendum in 2014, found herself frequently on the road away from her Scottish home. As such, and being English, she was struck by the different messages being directed at ...
MERRY HELL – A Grand Night Out (Focal Media)
Three albums to the good and a growing reputation, Merry Hell, have seen fit to release a live DVD. Having seen the band perform live and reviewed their last excellent album The Ghost In Our House and other stories..., I slipped the DVD into the player with some anticipation. I ...
VARIOUS ARTISTS – The Journey Continues (Fellside FECD272)
Paul Adams’ Fellside Recordings has been doing its thing for forty years now. That includes giving young artists an early break, reissuing long-deleted albums and putting together collaborations like Song Links. The label celebrates with this triple-CD compilation – at a very attractive price given the number of rarities and ...
RUNRIG – The Story (Ridge RR078)
Three years on from celebrating their 40th anniversary (they began life in 1973 as a trio, The Run Rig Dance Band), the Hebridean folk rock outfit have decided to call it a day, bringing down the curtain with a farewell tour and one final studio album, their 14th. I remember ...
The Essential Gretchen Peters
Twenty years on from Gretchen Peters’ debut solo album, The Secret Of Life, comes a career retrospective double CD set – half greatest hits, half demos and rarities. Gretchen is almost as well known as writer of songs for other singers and a collaborator as for her solo work so ...
DIANA JONES – Live In Concert (Proper PRPCD135)
I heard Diana Jones on stage many years ago, playing support to Richard Thompson, and I thought then that she was a cut above the run-of-the-mill support act. It took a long time for recognition to come – for most people her career began ten years ago! Live In Concert ...
SHOW OF HANDS – The Long Way Home (Hands On HMCD39)
This year marking their 36th anniversary and their 15th studio album (18th if you count three earlier cassette releases), Devon duo Steve Knightley and Phil Beer have long been an English folk institution, making regular appearances in many a folk awards lists. This latest release sees them returning to their ...
CIARAN ALGAR – The Final Waltz (Fellside FECD270)
The Final Waltz is Ciaran Algar’s debut solo album – something to do in his gap year, allegedly – and it’s sort of what you’d expect but, then again, not really. We know Ciaran as a particularly fine multi-instrumentalist and he has added to his band another in shape of ...
FAY HIELD – Old Adam (Soundpost Records SOPO 5003)
Fay Hield’s third solo album is all traditional except when it isn’t. That is, except when the tune is by Hield herself and/or Jon Boden or the song is written by Rudyard Kipling and Peter Bellamy or Tom Waits. Although not given full billing on the front cover, The Hurricane ...
THE UNTHANKS – Archive Treasures (2005-2015) (RabbleRouser Music)
The limited edition Memory Box is all sold and we lesser mortals must content ourselves with these fourteen tracks to celebrate The Unthanks’ tenth anniversary. Actually, the last piece dates from 2000 but that is The Unthank Family Band so we won’t be picky. All the tracks are rare or ...
MARINA FLORANCE – This, That & The Other (Folkstock)
Marina Florance is one of the new wave of female singer-songwriters emerging from nurturing by the Folkstock organisation alongside Maz O’Connor, Kelly Oliver and Daria Kulesh. This, That & The Other is her second studio album. She came late to performing but brings a wealth of experience to her work ...
SERIOUSKITCHEN – The Whispering Road (WildGoose Records WGS413CD)
Should you be looking for an album to confound all your expectations and destroy your preconceptions look no further, I say. Seriouskitchen are a combination of storyteller Nick Hennessey and musicians Vicki Swan and Jonny Dyer and The Whispering Road is a work they have been performing for three years ...
ANDREW CLEGG – Tiger And The Lily (Flying Tiger Records)
Tiger And The Lily is somewhat outwith our usual scope but our borders are flexible and if we like something that’s good enough. Andrew Clegg is a classical guitarist who has played everything from tapas bars to European festivals. All the material here is original and Andrew is expanding the ...
SINGLES BAR
A round-up of recent EPs and singles that have come our way ANGE HARDY releases a seasonal single, ‘When Christmas Day Is Near’, all multi-tracked a cappella full of joyous optimism which is something we all need plenty of these days. The tune insistently reminded of something I couldn’t quite ...
MARION FLEETWOOD – Holding Space (own label)
First off, I owe Marion a sincere apology. She sent me a link for her album ages ago when I was away from home and there it languished, lost and forgotten on a hard drive until I heard her singing with TradArrr barely a week ago. Ashamed or what? So, ...
THE GREAT BRITISH FOLK FESTIVAL, Skegness, 4th-7th December
The idea of holding a folk festival in Skegness in December probably raised a few eyebrows when it was first mooted. The suggestion that it should be held at Butlin’s may have caused a pursing of lips but it makes perfect economic sense. The artists have a major venue and ...
STEEL THREADS The Rule Of Three (own label)
The Rule Of Three is the third album from Steel Threads and also signifies their restoration to a trio with the addition of Tracy Beardmore on bass, violin and vocals. The first track is typical of the band’s style. ‘Helpless’ begins gently with acoustic instruments and then the bass thunders ...
KATE RUSBY The Frost Is All Over (Pure PRCD40)
Although it’s not one that comes round often enough, Rusby’s Christmas albums have become something of a tradition. Following on from 2008’s Sweet Bells and 2011’s While Mortals Sleep, this is her third and, once again, finds her rummaging through the South Yorkshire songbooks for their pub singalong variations of ...
RIC SANDERS’ TRIO – Standin’ On The Corner (Dotted Line Ltd. DLCD001)
In a lot of ways, it’s difficult to review an album by an artist to whom you feel emotionally attached. You struggle to maintain your credibility as a critic but it’s difficult not to make excuses for some musical stumbles. Rejoice! Standin’ On The Corner, the new album by Ric ...
JOHN BUSHBY/GORDON PHILLIPS – The Square & Compass (Shearwater Music SWCD005)
The artists behind this album are somewhat reticent about their identities on the cover of this album but it’s important to give them full credit. The words are by author Gordon Phillips and were originally conceived as a cycle of poems and song lyrics and the music and lead performances ...
ELLE OSBORNE – It’s Not Your Gold Shall Me Entice (9th House 9thCD2)
Although this is her third album, until now my only aural encounter with the Sussex-based folkie was her collaboration with James Yorkston, playing fiddle on a very brief a capella ‘My Doffing Mistress’ on the 2012 Daily Worker benefit album We’re All In It Together. However, my extended introduction fortuitously ...
PETER GALLWAY Muscle And Bone (Gallway Bay Music GBM 109)
Six months on from musical partner Annie Gallup’s recent solo album, the other half of Hat Check Girl releases his own first collection of new material since 2013’s ‘Hello Stranger’. Described as a plea written in outrage, sorrow, anger, shame, hope, hopelessness, expectation, regret, belief, release and prayer in response ...
MARRY WATERSON AND DAVID A JAYCOCK Two Wolves (One Little Indian tplp1284cd)
When her brother, Oliver Knight, decided to take a break from music, Marry Waterson found herself with something of a quandary. Not playing any instruments herself, while she might have the words, setting them to music was a bit of a problem. However, an unexpected, and frankly unlikely, new ‘musical ...
AMY DUNCAN Undercurrents (Filly Records CD001)
Undercurrents is Amy Duncan’s fifth album. It’s a smooth and accomplished work produced by Calum Malcolm featuring harpist Fiona Rutherford and Sijie Chen, Jane Atkins and Donald Gillan borrowed from the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. Providing the foundations are Lawrie MacMillan and Liam Bradley on bass and drums. The first track, ...
SHOW OF HANDS The Forum Bath Gig (12th November 2015)
There can be few acts in any genre that would opt to open a concert with a song that their audience had never heard them perform. Yet this is precisely what Show of Hands did on Thursday evening amidst the art deco opulence of the Forum; then proceeded to showcase ...
SKETCH Highland Time (Skye Records SRCDX003)
I know about bagrock and whatever Saor Patrol call their blend of pipes, electric guitar, drums and more drums but techno piping is a new one. Which is very remiss of me since Highland Time is Sketch’s second album. It should come as no surprise that the man behind Sketch ...
PAUL COWLEY Rural (Lou B Music LBM004)
OK, let me put my hand up and admit that, while I know the basic roots and background and the familiar names, I’m no connoisseur of classic Delta blues. That said, I get on with the genre better than I do more contemporary electric blues, so this, the fourth album ...
VARIOUS ARTISTS Downtown Compilation (Folkstock FSR 22)
Downtown is a compilation released to coincide with two concerts curated by Folkstock Records at the London Folk & Blues Festival. It’s a limited edition with several tracks recorded specifically for the project so you may want to make your purchase with due alacrity. The set opens with ‘Miles To ...
BELLSTOP Karma (Self-Released)
I’m used to hearing all shades of country and Americana from Great Britain, Europe and Scandinavia, but this is a first. A self-styled Folk & Roll duo from Iceland, Bellstop are Rúnar Sigurbjörnsson and Elín Ólafsdóttir and this, following five years living in China, where they self-released their debut, is ...
KATY CARR Polonia (Deluce MDL513)
Carr has clearly found herself a successful niche market. coming from a Polish-Anglo-Scottish heritage, since her third album, Coquette, she’s been focusing her songwriting on stories related to Poland. Her last album, Paszport, was based around Poland during World War II with the inspiration for the material partly derived from ...
FLEADH The Peacocks Feather (Copperplate LC13476)
Fleadh’s third album comes to us riding high on the success of their second, The Creggan Bay Disaster. That they are not exactly a household in Britain is due to the fact that they are one of the biggest Irish folk bands in Germany. I was a bit dismissive of ...
BLACKBEARD’S TEA PARTY Reprobates (own label BTP004)
Blackbeard’s Tea Party’s fourth album starts out quite gently … for all of ten seconds. Then it launches into one of the strangest songs I’ve heard in many a long year. Stuart Giddens’ ‘The Steam Arm Man’ tells of a soldier who loses an arm at the Battle Of Waterloo ...
KRISTA DETOR Barely (Tightrope 255 114)
Krista Detor’s latest album, her sixth, is described as “spare” and “pared down” but I rather like it that way. The songs are predominant but there is always enough going on in the background with Krista’s guitar, accordion and keyboards and partner and producer David Weber’s guitar keeping things interesting ...
SINGLES BAR
A round-up of EPs and singles that have come our way JAKE AARON is a singer-songwriter from London with a distinctive spiky guitar style and a youthful voice and outlook that seem at odds with the grey in his hair. I’m still puzzling over the first two songs on his ...
RAGGED UNION Hard Row To Hoe (Shining Castle Music SCM1501)
A new name on the bluegrass circuit, fronted by husband and wife team Geoff and Christina Union, although the percussion-free Colorado-based six piece string band have been playing for a few years they’ve only just got round to recording their first album. Clearly the time spent paying dues has paid ...
PAUL ARMFIELD Found (PSA Records)
Born in Birmingham and now based in the Isle of Wight, singer-songwriter Armfield’s sixth album is a collection of 15 songs inspired by photographs found over the years by his friend, Elinor, in the flea-markets of Berlin. Held in high regard by Guy Garvey and Chris Difford, Armfield’s a workmanlike ...
FEROCIOUS DOG From Without (own label)
Ferocious Dog’s eponymous first album was a wild and raucous affair, not unlike their live performances but there have been changes since last year. Three members of that line-up remain: lead vocalist Ken Bonsall the Mohican man, multi-instrumentalist Ellis Waring and fiddler Dan Booth are now joined by guitarist Les ...
PAGODA PROJECT Clarion (Sylvafield SYLVA001)
Paul Hutchinson is a man who frequently confuses the piano-accordion with a musical instrument. No, that isn’t a joke or a dig – if you’ve heard him play you’ll know what I mean. He plays so well that with Balshazzar’s Feast he can play badly without missing a note, take ...
CHRIS CLEVERLEY Apparitions (Chris Cleverley Music CLEV001)
The debut album from singer-songwriter Chris Cleverley really doesn’t fit a pattern and that’s great. It’s so refreshing to hear someone who doesn’t obey the rules – every time you think you have a handle on this record he dances away to something new. Apparitions opens with a short solo ...
Scottish Music Exam Harp Grades 1 to 5 book (Publisher: Taigh na Teud)
When we in Wales look at the flourishing traditional music scene in Scotland, we ask ourselves how we could possibly emulate the musical strength and confidence of our Celtic cousins. One of the answers is in education, and the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland is to be applauded for its programme ...
JOHN McSHERRY DÓNAL O’CONNOR SEÁN ÓG GRAHAM Ulaid (own label JD5001)
Here we have three of the finest players in Ireland today. John McSherry (Uillean pipes and low whistles), Dónal O’Connor (fiddle and keyboards) and multi-instrumentalist Seán Óg Graham have been founders and members of so many great bands – names like Lúnasa, Beoga, Lá Lugh and Fiddler’s Bid. So you ...
Scottish Music Exam Accordion Grades 1 to 5 book (Publisher: Taigh na Teud)
As an English accordionist I have to admit to a certain amount of envy that Scotland possesses an examination body, The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, that treats folk music more seriously. For the most part I am impressed with the content and layout of these five books. At every grade ...
Turnpike Troubadours The Turnpike Troubadours (Bossier City Records)
Taking their name from the Indian Nation Turnpike, a 105-mile parkway stretched across southeastern Oklahoma, having tickled the Billboard 200 with their last album, Goodbye Normal Street, which peaked at #57, the quintet’s eponymous fourth album saw a dramatic breakthrough, reaching #17 on the Hot 100 and going Top 3 ...
ANDY MAY TRIO About Time (Ash Wood Records ASH 002)
The members of the Andy May Trio have been friends for years and played music together for all that time and it sounds like it. Their debut, About Time, really is an ensemble piece in the best sense of the word. Andy is a well-known exponent of the Northumbrian Smallpipes ...
CC SMUGGLERS Write What You Know (Absolute)
It’s been two years since CC Smugglers’ debut album since when they’ve been building a reputation as a class live act partly through their penchant for busking outside other bands’ gigs until they got invited inside. The culmination was an appearance at Celtic Connections alongside The Old Crow Medicine Show ...
TINA REFSNES No One Knows That You’re Lost (Vestkyst Records VEST32)
Tina Refsnes comes from the small Norwegian seaside town of Floro and, after four years living and studying in Liverpool, she moved to Oslo where she found the key to her music. From there she travelled to Toronto to meet producer Robbie Lackritz. The resulting collaboration produced this, her debut ...
SAM KELLY The Lost Boys
This is the album that the folk world has been awaiting for months, given Sam Kelly’s unique musical history and his seemingly putting his solo career on hold to work with The Changing Room. The Lost Boys are an expanded Sam Kelly Trio with Ciaran Algar and Graham Coe joining ...
DAVE ELLIS & BOO HOWARD Facebook Friend (Doghouse Records DGHCD 528)
Dave and Boo have a long musical history but that was then and this is now and I’d like to think that Facebook Friend will bring them new friends of a more substantial nature. There is a theme of dislocation running through the record and if you need a soundtrack ...
WILL VARLEY – Postcards From Ursa Minor (XtraMile)
Tipped as one of 2015’s Rising Stars by Time Out magazine, based in Deal, Kent, the 27-year-old singer-songwriter clearly has something of a determined work ethic, having toured his 2011 debut album, Advert Soundtracks, totally on foot, walking 130 miles carrying his guitar and tent, playing shows along the way ...
India Electric Co & The Girl I Left Behind Me
folking have featured India Electric Co. in the past in our tour news section and I recall being impressed at the time reading, that a band that I had never heard of before, was supporting Midge Ure on tour. However, that thought was soon replaced by the million of other things ...
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