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LUKE JACKSON- This Family Tree (First Take Records FTCD001)
Luke Jackson opened his account with two superb solo albums and he could be forgiven for sitting back and giving us more of the same. He’s still only twenty, after all, and he has time on his side. And that is exactly what he hasn’t done. This Family Tree continues ...
ROBIN ADAMS – The Garden (Backshop Records BSRCD004)
The Garden is the second album from a young singer-songwriter from Glasgow. He plays acoustic guitar and harmonica and is supported on one track by Pete Harvey on cello. I like the record but I’m also troubled by it and I’m going to say at the outset that this album ...
THE YOUNG ‘UNS – Another Man’s Ground (Hereteu Records YNGS30)
The only reason that this album isn’t absolutely perfect is that there isn’t enough of it. It’s not that The Young ‘Uns have short-changed us – there are twelve finely-crafted tracks here – but they make their points with remarkable alacrity and three tracks make it across the line in ...
MORTON VALENCE – Another Country (Bastard Recordings BR11)
Nodding to the desert moods of Giant Sand and Mark Lanegan and the urban claustrophobia of The Cowboy Junkies, the London based five piece, part named from a town in Gloucestershire, are fronted by the dual vocals of Robert Jessett and Anne Gilpin, once described as Belle & Sebastian on ...
MALINKY – Far Better Days (Malinky Music MM001)
I love the music that is being produced in Scotland these days. I love its adventurousness and its imagination. I love the way that musical partnerships come together and split apart as though there is too much music for anyone to stand still long enough to make two albums together ...
THE MEN THEY COULDN’T HANG/MERRY HELL/THE LONDON SEWAGE COMPANY – The O2 Empire, Shepherd’s Bush
This was a prestige gig billed for TMTCH as The 30th Anniversary Reprise Show – nothing like making the most of it. The London Sewage Company are, in Ron’s words, a powerpunk outfit with a lead guitarist inexplicably missing from a heavy metal band. They also have a nice line ...
MIKE REINSTEIN – A Long March Home (Irregular IRR096)
There are some record labels that just inspire confidence. Irregular is one such and so I seized hold of this album, Mike’s second, sight unseen. It doesn’t disappoint. Mike Reinstein is a music teacher and veteran performer with a gift for song-writing, particularly lyrics that make you think and then ...
BRENDAN McAULEY – The McCartneys Of Pennyburn (Copperplate COPP027)
There is a long back-story behind this record. In 1865, one Patrick McCartney bought the lease of Pennyburn House near Derry and his family lived there until 1912. They were an important family in the area by all accounts and played host to Charles Stewart Parnell at the invitation of ...
STEVE PLEDGER – Striking Matches In The Wind (Story Records STREC1657)
Born in Cambridge, raised in St Neots and now based in Somerset, Pledger’s been quietly building a following over the past 20 years, relying on just his voice, guitar and some damn fine songwriting. This is his second album and he describes the song as being concerned with “the power ...
HEG & THE WOLF CHORUS – Rain (own label)
While we still wait for their debut album, promised for 2016, the rather wonderful Heg & The Wolf Chorus bring us the third of their “hand-crafted” EPs with matching artwork by Heg Brignall – a future collector’s item if you have the set, I have no doubt. After the boisterous ...
BLUEFLINT- Stories From Home (Johnny Rock JOROCK021)
This, the third album by Edinburgh banjo-playing singers Deborah Arnott and Clare-Louise Neilson, again draws on influences from both traditional American and English folk, here backed by a core band that predominantly features Danny Hart on fiddle, James Lindsay on double bass, drummer Ali Murray and Davey MacAuley on keyboards, ...
NORAH RENDELL- Spinning Yarns (Two Tap Music TTM016)
Spinning Yarns is a collection of traditional songs mostly harvested in eastern Canada from Newfoundland southwards. Two actually surfaced in Wisconsin but they passed through Canada to get there. Norah is probably best known in Britain as a member of The Outside Track and it’s good that her other projects ...
MERRY HELL – The Ghost In Our House and other stories…(Mrs Casey Music MCRCD5102)
This is Merry Hell’s third album and the band are into their stride. There is a tightness and polish evident in this collection of songs, indicative of a band that is comfortable in itself. This is a jam packed feast of fifteen tracks, so, no sign of writer’s block here ...
KATZENJAMMER – Rockland (Propeller Recordings PPR113)
Katzenjammer is a four piece all girl band from Norway and ‘Rockland’ is their third album. It is a potpourri of differing styles; lacking in theme, but rich in variety. It kicks off with a solo banjo and solo voice. Then tribal wailing vocals join in, shortly followed by the ...
Steve Pledger – Striking Matches In The Wind album launch
Tithe Barn, Dunster, Somerset 14th March 2015 Dunster based singer/songwriter Steve Pledger stunned audiences with his Striking Matches in The Wind album launch in the wonderful setting of the Tithe Barn in Dunster village. It is Steve’s second album and eagerly awaited by his followers. He gained a lot more ...
PHARIS & JASON ROMERO – A Wanderer I’ll Stay (Lula Records LULA 1504)
Where The Handsome Family lead, Pharis & Jason Romero stay closer to their roots. They are otherwise very similar – a husband and wife duo, an impressive beard and songwriting. In their favour the Romeros have, in Jason, a very fine banjo player and a penchant for the dustier byways ...
FOTHERINGAY – Nothing More: The Collected Fotheringay (Universal)
Fotheringay are perhaps less famous for what they achieved than for their unrealised potential. They released a single, ‘Peace In The End’ and ‘Winter Winds’, and an album which was probably one track too short – a reprise of Sandy Denny’s titular song would have rounded it out – and ...
AWNA TEIXEIRA – Wild One (Self Released ART 002)
Po’Girl still on hiatus, Teixeira continues her solo path with a second album that showcases her backporch bluegrass with her prowess on banjo, accordion (heard to gorgeous effect on the gathering swell of ‘A Sailor’s Dream’) and ukulele among countless other instruments as well as adding new dimensions to her ...
LITTLE MOUNTAIN – Self-titled (Fly Agaric FAR001)
Founded by sometime Morcheeba multi-instrumentalist, Ross Godfrey, and also featuring partner Amanda Zamolo and Steven Forshaw, the latter two both handling vocal duties, the trio may be based in London, but their musical spirits are out there in the California of the late 60s and early 70s, the sound of ...
ALLISON MOORER – Down To Believing (Proper PROPCD126)
Her first album since splitting from husband Steve Earle and the former diagnosis of her son with autism, both events inevitably play a significant part in the material. The collapse of her marriage is addressed with fierce honesty in the title track, a waltzing, pedal steel streaked reflection of how, ...
JOE PUG – Windfall (Loose)
Born in Maryland, but now based in Austin after several years in Chicago, Pug was actually ready to call it quits two years ago; burned out by four years on the road and in a crumbling relationship, all the joy had gone out of making music. Although, he had studio ...
BELLA HARDY – With The Dawn (Noe Records NOE08)
Like Songs Lost And Stolen, Bella Hardy’s new album is a set of her own songs. However, With The Dawn has none of the folkiness of its predecessor, which was essentially a collection of her best unrecorded songs one of which, ‘The Herring Girl’, won a Radio 2 folk award ...
RICH McMAHON – Songs Of Exile, Love & Dissent (Knotted Oak Productions KOAK006)
The name of Gerry Diver on an album will always provoke a reaction. I have to say that sometimes it is one of bemusement, other times one of great enthusiasm. There is rarely a middle ground. Gerry produced Songs Of Exile, Love & Dissent and plays everything except Rich’s guitar ...
ALLISON LUPTON – Half My Heart (Learig LM003)
There is refreshing sense of innocence about this album and I hope Allison won’t mind me saying so, given that she’s a seasoned professional, but Half My Heart charmed me from the start. That start is ‘Bonnie & May’, written by Allison with Geoff Somers and Craig Werth. It’s an ...
THE LOST ART – The Lost Art (own label)
I’m beginning to think that this will be a year when a whole lot of musical rules are going to be broken. Actually The Lost Art was released before Christmas but I’m not one to let facts get in the way of a good theory. The Lost Art are Gordo ...
DAVID GRUBB – High Rise (Shake‘Um’Dud SUD001)
Traditional folk meets mood music and jazz with found sound and a few other things in an album I’m still trying to categorise. David Grubb is a fiddle player and composer, born in Scotland, trained at the Royal Welsh College Of Music And Drama and a citizen of a musical ...
AROOJ AFTAB – Bird Under Water (own label)
“World Ambient Music” is not a label calculated to set the pulse racing and it has been applied – or perhaps misapplied - to this album. There is a mesmeric quality to the rolling guitar patterns of Ali Farka Touré and the solo kora of Toumani Diabaté but I suggest ...
DARREN BLACK – Lord Abergavenny’s Hills (own label DBCD004)
Darren Black is well-known in these parts: a musician who has paid more than enough dues to merit some real recognition. I’ve heard him in small cellar bars and on the big stage, supporting Buffy Sainte Marie. This could be the album to do it for him. Lord Abergavenny’s Hills ...
BRIDGET ST JOHN – DANDELION ALBUMS AND BBC COLLECTION (CHERRY RED RECORDS CRCDMBOX 17)
Often described as obscure yet she worked with John Martyn, Mike Oldfield, Kevin Ayers, and Mike Chapman, championed by John Peel (as the leading female singer-songwriter) and even Terry Wogan, during four well-received albums. And that was just in the 1970s. It’s interesting—and crucial regarding career—that Bridget St John was ...
Asleep at the Wheel – Still the King: Celebrating the Music of Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys (Proper)
Willie Nelson, Brad Paisley, Jamey Johnson, George Strait, and Lyle Lovett are just some of the guest artists on Asleep At The Wheel’s soon-to-be-released album Still the King: Celebrating The Music Of Bob Wills And His Texas Playboys. Clearly, leader Ray Benson has some friends who respect his talent. And ...
CHIP TAYLOR – The Little Prayers Trilogy (Trainwreck)
Ask the average person who Chip Taylor is and, if they’ve heard of him at all, most will likely know him as the writer of ‘Wild Thing’ and, possibly, ‘Angel of the Morning’. The more media-savvy may also be aware that he’s Angelina Jolie’s uncle while pop trivia buffs might ...
WES MCGHEE – Bead Mountain, Bad Roads & Borders (Terrapin TRP3CD1714)
Born in Leicestershire, following a seven year contractual battle with a record company that did not warm to his notion of fusing psychedelic rock and country, McGhee finally gained his artistic freedom, formed his own label and, in 1978, released his debut album, Long Nights And Banjo Music. Over the ...
ZERVAS & PEPPER – Abstract Heart (Zerodeo Records BOB020)
The songs on the new album Abstract Heart by Welsh duo Zervas and Pepper are a modern-day mix of Crosby, Still, Nash & Young, Tom Petty and Blackmore’s Night – oh, and accented with some Alan Parsons’ zest. So no, it’s far from your traditional folk-rock music. That is cause ...
STEVE EARLE & THE DUKES – Terraplane (New West)
Taking its title from the 1930s classic car that also lent its name to Robert Johnson’s ‘Terraplane Blues’, Earle’s 16th studio album sees him and the band digging into all shades of Texas blues (though ‘The Usual Time’ does take a ticket to Chicago), the songs paying musical tribute and ...
THE JELLYMAN’S DAUGHTER – The Jellyman’s Daughter (own label)
The Jellyman’s Daughter is a duo comprised of Emily Kelly on guitar and vocals and Graham Coe on cello and vocals. Jenny Hill (double bass), Gerry Kelly (banjo) and Natalie Brown (fiddle) occasionally provide additional accompaniment on the tracks presented on this album. Coe’s versatile cello playing provides the percussive ...
GRETCHEN PETERS – Blackbirds (Scarlet Letter Records/Proper PRPCD124P)
One of last year’s finest albums was Ben Glover’s ‘Atlantic’, and one the finest tracks on that was ‘Blackbirds’, a southern gothic tale of an unfaithful heart murder he co-wrote with Peters and on which she duetted. It resurfaces now for her own version, providing both the album’s title and, ...
THE UNTHANKS – Mount The Air (Rabble Rouser Music RRM013)
Not exactly the sort of album to put to get the party going, the first new studio release by the quintet in four years carries with it the chill of a crisp winter’s day, hoar frost on the leaves and rime glittering on the ground, your breath curling like smoke ...
DAN WEBSTER- The Tin Man (Paper Plane Records PPR1501)
Dan Webster is a singer/songwriter/guitarist with an eclectic taste in musical styles which he employs with great skill on his third album, The Tin Man. The record opens with an impassioned ballad, ‘Dancers’. There’s lots going with a foundation of cello, bass and drums supporting Dan’s voice and guitar. It’s ...
ESMÉ PATTERSON – Woman To Woman (XtraMile)
The answer song is hardly a new idea, examples date back to the 40s although the form was most popular during the 50s and 60s. Generally, the ‘answer’ version would be a response to the original, usually, but not always, sung from the perspective of the opposite sex, sometimes from ...
HANNAH SANDERS – Charms Against Sorrow (Sungrazing Records SGR001)
Hailing from Norwich, Sanders came to folk early, singing with her a capella family group, The Dunns, as a teenager before briefly putting music to one side to travel to America and develop a career as a cultural anthropologist, the album title bearing witness to her study of contemporary witchcraft ...
IAN CARR & THE VARIOUS ARTISTS – Who He? (Reveal Records REVEAL046CDX)
Ian Carr is, as I’m sure you know, the guitarist who has been heard mostly on other people’s records; such names as Kathryn Tickell, Kate Rusby, Kris Drever and Eddi Reader. He’s taken top billing in several duos including an association with Simon Thoumire and a number of fairly obscure ...
FAIRPORT CONVENTION – Myths & Heroes (Matty Grooves Records MGCD053)
Back in the late ‘60s, Fairport Convention fit right into – some would say co-created - the whole Summer of Love music scene with its ingenious mix of traditional and modern sounds. In true avant-garde rock fashion – maybe best delineated by Patti Smith, who last week told a capacity ...
KENNETH J NASH – The Fall Of Eden (Old Hotel Records)
Kenneth J Nash’s fourth album is a slow-burning affair, in keeping with his world-weary demeanour. It’s not just the structure of the album but of the songs themselves – they appear out of the silence with the tiniest of sounds and build gradually to what may be considered a climax ...
GRACE GRIFFITH – Passing Through (Blix Street Records G2-10108)
When the Maryland singer was diagnosed with early-onset Parkinson’s disease in 1998, it cut short a career that, as well as working as a physical therapist, had seen her front two Celtic folk outfits, Connemara and the all-female Hag, partner Susan Graham White in Hazlewood, win numerous Washington Area Music ...
Steve Knightley plays charity gig in Newton St Cyres for Devon Air Ambulance – 15th January 2015
A frosty night in mid January at Newton St Cyres Village Hall was the destination for over 120 people who were going to see celebrated acoustic musician Steve Knightley help raise funds for Devon Air Ambulance. Ably organised by Exeter Rotary Eastgate Chairperson – Nicola Baker and her team, it ...
BRANT CROUCHER – Blanco County Lights (White Cat)
Texas to the core, Croucher was born in Houston, grew up in Dallas and spent valuable years in both Nashville and Austin, all of which have informed his drawled brand of old school Americana; however, while he cites Don Williams as one of his prime influences (as you’ll appreciate when ...
MARTIN CALLINGHAM – Tonight, We All Swim Free (Folkwit F0120)
It has been a long wait but here at last is Martin Callingham’s debut solo album. For those unfamiliar with the name, Martin was the lead singer and songwriter of Bristol alt-folk band Joyce The Librarian – actually I’m uncertain as to the status of JTL, but that’s not the ...
KINGS OF THE SOUTH SEAS – Kings Of The South Seas (D.Wink DWINK CD12)
You may have strong views about the whaling industry and when it comes to the 21st century model I’d agree with you. But when it comes to the practices of two centuries ago go and read Moby-Dick and we’ll talk about it. The point is that all the songs on ...
JIM BOYES – Sensations Of A Wound (No Masters NMCD44)
Robert Riby Boyes from Scarborough was known to his family as Croppie. Like so many of his generation he was called upon to fight for King and country and, like so many of his generation, his was a short war. He was one of the lucky ones: fighting in Belgium ...
I DRAW SLOW – White Wave Chapel (own label)
White Wave Chapel is the third album from Dublin-based quintet I Draw Slow, a band that I haven’t come across before probably because, not unreasonably, they have concentrated on building up their profile in the USA. I Draw Slow is an Irish string band. Their instrumentation: guitar, banjo, fiddle and ...
DARIA KULESH – Eternal Child (Folkstock)
Shortly after I met Kara a cousin, not noted for her interest in folk music, mentioned that she’d heard them at a village fete and remembered Daria Kulesh vividly. Daria is like that: she is memorable, she’s a personality; and while the band is gearing up to start work on ...
VARIOUS ARTISTS – The Eve Folk Recordings (RPM/Cherry Red Records, Retro D957)
It’s not often that a double CD, rather than box-set, provides insight into a crucial historical moment. Thanks to Cherry Red’s broad field-lens, the diverse RPM Records (est.1991) release The Eve Folk Recordings from the boom year of 1965 when the EP format, often split-sided like jazz issues, was being ...
Jon Cleave and The Oggymen moonlight as Cornish wreckers in new single
The Changing Room will release a new single `Wreckers' on 5th January. The first single from the band's eagerly anticipated debut album, the song features Fisherman's Friends front man Jon Cleave and Falmouth-based performers The Oggymen. Jon Cleave's dark and atmospheric lead vocal lends a theatrical quality to this musical ...
VARIOUS ARTISTS – Cynefin Cae Gwyn (Cae Gwyn Records – download)
Cae Gwyn Records is a small independent record label run by the enterprising Dan Amor whose Rainhill Trials was a delightful breath of fresh air this year. Cynefin Cae Gwyn is a compilation of nine of Cae Gwyn’s artists based in the village of Penmachno in north Wales. Let me ...
DANIEL MEADE – Keep Right Away (From The Top Records)
A country/blues/rocker from Glasgow, Daniel Meade made a huge impression with his debut album, As Good As Bad Can Be in 2013. So much so that Morgan Jahnig of Old Crow Medicine Show, with whom Daniel has been compared, offered to produce this album. There followed a trip to Tennessee ...
SHEILA MAC DONALD – Tangle Of Trees (own label)
Tangle Of Trees is the third album by New England singer-songwriter Sheila MacDonald and, I suspect, the first to be made generally available in Europe. The album is produced by Raymond Gonzalez, who also provides most of the supporting instrumentation, although the violin of Emerald Rae is a distinctive part ...
DAVID HUGHES – Songs Of Integrity (The Folk Corporation TFCCD2012)
David Hughes is something of a rebel which should endear him to me but, to be honest, I’ve always been a bit Marmite about him. I’m sure that would please him no end. A solo acoustic gig is probably his forte and this set, recorded at The Blue Boar Hotel ...
AMY GODDARD – Burn & Glow ( Incantus Media)
I tend to approach new singer-songwriters warily. After all, it’s quite something to put your deepest thoughts out there for public consumption and I may not want to know about the inner workings of a troubled psyche. Secondly, new singer-songwriters are usually young and I’m more … not. You can ...
THE ALBION CHRISTMAS BAND – One For The Road: Live in Concert (Rooksmere RRCD114)
And the Christmas collections keep coming, this one courtesy of Santa Ashley Hutchings and his festive troupe’s first live album, neatly coinciding with their annual jollity jaunt. Recorded last December at Kings Place in London as part of their 15th anniversary tour, it features a mix of songs, tunes and ...
J.P.BEAN – Singing From The Floor: A History of British Folk Clubs
Faber & Faber ISBN 978-0-571-30545-2 Musical scenes are rich tapestries that many of us have added our own stitches to as well as sitting back to admire the work of all the people involved. As the folk boom of the 1960s is now a distant memory or even something that ...
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