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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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EMILY SMITH – Echoes (WHITE FALL RECORDS – WFRCD007)
With her fifth solo album, Emily Smith has returned to traditional song. I have to say that this pleases me greatly, not because I dislike her songwriting, but because the great canon of Scottish traditional song cries out for her voice to record it. That may be a trifle ambitious ...
RAKISH – Rakish (OWN LABEL)
Sometimes you hear something so fresh that it makes you stop and think about the music. So it is with Rakish who make their recording debut with this mini-album: six tracks, each combining a song and a tune. At first glance I thought they might be Scottish, probably taken in ...
JAMES TRISTAN REDDING – Walking Into Brooklyn (OWN LABEL)
‘If You’re Happy And You Know It, Something’s Wrong’ is the song that convinced me that James Tristan Redding is a man after my own heart. He looks like a clean-cut all-American kid but consider the tight-lipped smile and the dishevelled tie – there’s a streak of misanthropy in there ...
COLEY GARRATT: Coley Garratt (own label)
Coley Garratt began life in the West Midlands but is now based in London and this is his debut album of original songs. As far as I can make out he’s aided by two guitarists, a backing vocalist and a drummer but he gives out information grudgingly – let’s suggest ...
THE RAPPAREES: Re:Session (OWN LABEL)
Re:Session is the third album from Belfast band The Rapparees; an album of songs about Ulster or written by Ulster writers. The material varies from the traditional ‘Slieve Gallion Braes’, an old song about hardship and rising rents to Barry Kerr’s song of ecological revenge, ‘Mother Earth’. This album, particularly ...
JANET DOWD: SAILING AWAY – Blue Cow Records
It’s a brave soul who chooses to record a serious version of ‘Danny Boy’ on a serious album. Whalebone did so and I regarded it as their one lapse of taste but in Janet Dowd’s hands it seems to link her Irish heritage with her taste for Americana – it ...
SPUTNIK WEASEL – EULOGY (Steampunk Crooner Records)
Sputnik states on the sleeve notes of this album “It’s not easy listening…” and I would have to disagree. This collection of tracks is very easy listening. The themes are varied from alcohol to food, from love to fashion and from politics to religion. The lyrics are sprinkled liberally with ...
ROB FINLAY – These Words Aren’t Meant For Me
Hertfordshire musician and film-maker Rob has come up with a first album which is a collection of powerful and catchy - almost anthemic - songs. Rob’s credits include nominations for Best Live Act and Best Folk Act at this year’s Exposure Music Awards, and as headliner on the ‘Folkstock Presents’ ...
ROBB JOHNSON – GENTLE MEN (Irregular Records)
Gentle Men was commissioned for the 1997 Passendale Peace Concert. It has been expanded and re-recorded at an appropriate time as the government prepares to “celebrate” the outbreak of the Great War which now recedes beyond living memory. The gentle men of the title are Robb’s grandfathers, Ernest Johnson and ...
DANIEL NESTLERODE – More Than a Little Guitar (Camp 40 Recordings)
Now and again a new singer/songwriter is introduced to you and the force of their talent hits you like a tornado! This happened to me when I met American singer/songwriter and mandolinist Daniel Nestlerode at a Folk 21 day recently. He had a guest spot during the conference and all ...
Debi Smith’s ‘Hits & Holidays’ Strike Just the Right Note
On Debi Smith's latest album "Hits & Holidays" the vocalist with the three-octave range–– a member of the much loved U.S. folk group the Four Bitchin' Babes and The Smith Sisters––turns her gorgeous vocals to an array of songs celebrating everything from Christmas to Collector Car Appreciation Day (That's July 9th, by ...
Ashley Hutchings’ Musical Star Shines on ‘By Gloucester Docks I Sat Down and Wept’
The remastered re-release of Ashley Hutchings' By Gloucester Docks I Sat Down and Wept is one of those rare albums that is so beautiful it can re-ignite a genre as it leads music lovers to rediscover an artist. It's no overstatement to consider this album a true gift. Hutchings, the Gov'nor ...
Meg Hutchinson Moves Listeners with ‘Beyond That’
One needn't know Meg Hutchinson's background to realize she was a creative writer well before she turned her artistic talents to folk music. One listen to Beyond That, the latest release by the Boston-based Hutchinson, and its clear that this is a woman who knows how to spin a mysteriously ...
Liz Simcock – Friday Night Train Home – Letitia (LET 004)
Liz Simcock is a singer/ songwriter from the Southeast who has been performing for the last 14 or so years and Friday Night Train Home is her fourth album. The 12 songs on the album are all written by Liz and between her, Dave Ellis on guitar and Boo Howard ...
ONE MILE AN HOUR – One Mile An Hour (Snowbird Records)
This debut album by London band One Mile An Hour has a magical quality that deserves the listener’s attention. The opener 'Sunken Ships' starts with a light touch on guitar and Jeff Kightly's voice dreamily floats through the melody. The song builds with the addition of drums and distorted guitars ...
CLOSE TO YOU – Paul Cowley (own label)
The melancholic opener, ‘It’s the Same’, is indicative of what you can expect from this personal journey of Paul Cowley’s. His voice is a blend of Dylan and Petty and is aptly suited to the mood of the album; a selection of folk and blues delivered in a stark and ...
The Roving Crows – Deliberate Distractions
Is it even possible that Deliberate Distractions, the new album set for release by the Roving Crows, is only the group’s third album? Clearly, the five Crows are the Irish Folk equivalent of America’s bluegrass balladeers the Punch Brothers. Each quintet’s members seamlessly meld their playing and vocals into lush ...
TOM MORIARTY – Snapshots Of Reality – Driftwood Records
It’s been a while since Tom Moriarty’s debut album, Fire In The Doll’s House, but we are promised its successor in the spring. In the meantime there is a special edition of that album with four new tracks and this brand-new EP. In complete contrast to the rather bleak cover ...
Judy Dyble – Flow and Change
There are certain people who are born artists. Take Judy Dyble. The release of her fifth solo album, Flow and Change, marks her return to the genre she seems born to inhabit. If anything her voice is more distinctive, nuanced and angelic than it was all those decades ago. It ...
Reaching for a state of mind: Dan Whitehouse
Birmingham based musician Dan Whitehouse’s second album “Reaching for a state of mind” covers a gamut of emotions in his self penned lyrics, on a journey through dark, deep places, questioning and challenging with a searing honesty. Together with compositional input from producer and keyboard player Michael Clarke, the eleven ...
North Atlantic Trio: Some Part of Something
How’s this for a combination? Take a North American harp maestro, pitch her against a Scottish Bluegrass dobro aficionado and mix in an Irish percussive magician wielding the bodhran and other elements! The result is a surprisingly relaxing collection of traditional music (in a not so traditional format) from Scotland, ...
Folking at Cambridge Folk Festival 2013 – Day 3
Those following this blog will know that it would not be complete without an early morning campsite folking shower report - although those on-site would have had a deluge of their own later in the day when KT "rain goddess" Tunstall took to the stage and opened the heavens - ...
Folking at Cambridge Folk Festival 2013 – Day 2
Blimey, its 6.00am and I'm in the shower... what the folking heck is going on. It's not what your thinking... unless you are talking about it being "probably the best festival shower block in the world"... hot water at daybreak - on a campsite - who'd have though it, but ...
Folking at Cambridge Folk Festival 2013 – Day 1
A folking brilliant start to a truly stellar line-up at this year's Cambridge Folk Festival. Now in its 49th Year, it remains a cornerstone event in the folk diary. After finally getting the tent up, losing half my body weight in liquid from my newly erected sauna, I headed from ...
The Comeback Album : Eric Brace and Peter Cooper
The Comeback Album is the third offering from these Nashville musicians/ band leader/ producer/ journalist/ songwriters! The comeback just refers to a revisiting the studios to make an album after a couple of years touring in the US and Europe, and working on exciting projects like recording the children’s songs ...
FAUSTUS – The Guildhall, Leicester 26th April 2013
The historic Guildhall in Leicester, currently next door to the highly prominent Richard III museum, played host to folk trio Faustus on Friday 26th April. A magnificent setting and deserved sell out as Faustus is made up of 3 superbly talented singer/songwriter musicians, 2 of which are well known in ...
FAUSTUS – Broken Down Gentlemen
My mum had a turn of phrase for the opening track of the latest Faustus album and that was ‘rumpy-pumpy’. Although some may see this as disparaging I do know what she meant (she even wondered why I liked ‘folk’ music at all) but ever since I first heard the ...
JERRY DOUGLAS – Traveler
When you’ve got a little black book loaded with contacts you use them don’t you? And in the case of dobro maestro Jerry Douglas that’s quite some book. Paul Simon, Alison Krauss, Eric Clapton etc they’re all in there and only too pleased to lend a hand on this, his ...
Gren Bartley – Winter Fires
Another beautifully crafted album from West Country festival favourite Gren Bartley. Based on the loose theme of Winter fires - physical and emotional landscapes before the Spring thaw, and the flames which keep us going. The style of this album is relaxed bluegrass with a touch of country. Gren's voice ...
As If by Norris-Brown
When you listen to As If, the lush EP by Norris-Brown, think of a shooting star. The beauty of the four songs on the EP is not just spectacular but one-of-a-kind in a very true sense. Sadly, vocalist Ingrid Brown who teamed with guitarist Adrian Norris to create this gorgeous ...
AMY DUNCAN – Cycles Of Life Linn AKD 437
Amy Duncan’s new album opens, and indeed closes, with unshakeable optimism, which is unusual and very welcome these days. The title song is about moving on and putting the past behind but it was the second track, ‘Song To Myself’, that attracted my attention. “I will be there at the ...
Cathryn Craig and Brian Willoughby release Real World
It’s interesting how all of us keep people in certain slots, no matter how we deny it. Consider Brian Willoughby, best known for his work with the legendary folk-rock band the Strawbs. Sure, he’s a guitar master who is much in demand as evidenced by his work with Nanci Griffith, ...
BATTLEFIELD BAND – Room Enough For All Temple Records COMD2106
Battlefield Band never stand still. They’re a forty year old institution but their line-up is fluid – players come, players go and sometimes return. The current twin-bagpipes/twin fiddles set-up of Mike Katz, Ewen Henderson, Alasdair White and Sean O’Donnell has been together for a while - White joined as a ...
Broken Conversations: The Hard Ground
Broken Conversations is the impressive debut album of Cork based band The Hard Ground. Fronted by vocalists Marlene Enright and Pat Carey, who share songwriting credits, the album opens with Pawn, a wonderful attention grabbing musical romp. The songs track the meltdown of a relationship in poetic lyrics that deal ...
LUMIERE – My Dearest Dear (IRL Records IRL075)
The art of successfully bringing ‘folk’ music to a wider audience has been surmounted before by the likes of Steeleye, Fairport and The Corrs and with the duo Lumiere it looks as if we have another artist batting for ‘our’ side. Whether we in the folk world deserve it or ...
CELTICA PIPES ROCK – Rising and Oceans Of Fire (Stringdependent Records)
It’s great to see the mighty Highland pipes take centre stage once again and for those of us that were brought up on bands like Alba, The Tannahill Weavers and Battlefield Band will know just how powerful a tool it is featured in the context of ‘folk’ music. When it is taken ...
BLUES TRAVELER – SUZIE CRACKS the WHIP
Blues Travelers loose bluesy sound can’t always give away their Canadian origins, but I believe they have managed to reflect the themes of a continent in their wide open tunes. The 2012 offering, Suzie Cracks the Whip moves away from the Californian rock of the previous releases like North Hollywood Shootout ...
BROOM BEZZUMS – Wine From A Mug and Winterman (Steeplejack Music SJCD 012 and 015)
Blissful (!) is the first word that comes to mind when reviewing anything by Andrew Cadie (vocals, fiddle, guitar, Northumbrian pipes, percussion and viola) and Mark Bloomer (vocals, guitar, mandola and drums) aka Broom Bezzums. In many ways cast from the same mould as Fox & Luckley it’s their musical ...
ARTO JÄRVELÄ & KAIVAMA
I hadn’t realised that there was a Finnish community in the USA but it should have been obvious. They came to the Great Lakes area a century ago to mine iron ore and like so many became assimilated. Two of their descendants are Sara Pajunen and Jonathan Rundman – Kavaima ...
ALL THINGS CONSIDERED release Dance Through The Storm
Three years in the making, the second full-length studio album by Berkshire five-piece All Things Considered is again a well produced record of singular acoustic music. Dance Through The Storm is “folk flavoured” but that label does not entirely do justice to the multiple musical infusions. Singer Emma Baldwin has ...
JACKIE OATES – Lullabies (ECC Records ECC009)
Covertly perhaps the ‘folk music’ world has taken out shares in Mothercare but then again, maybe it’s just had a case of the ‘January Blues’ as every self-respecting artist appears to have recently kidnapped lullabies and children’s songs with which to regale their listeners. Megson, Pauline Vallance and now Jackie ...
MARTIN HARLEY – Mojo Fix – 60/20 Records 7 21762 97054 6
Martin Harley plays guitar. All sorts of guitar: acoustic, lap slide, Weissenborn, you name it. He also plays harmonica and stylophone but a man’s got to have a hobby, right? Mojo Fix is his fifth album, three of them released as The Martin Harley Band. It’s also something of a ...
BRASS MONKEY – 30th Anniversary Celebration: The Best Of Live (Park Records PRKCD125)
I just knew from the moment the little silver disk(s) arrived on my doormat that here indeed was ‘folk’ celebrity worth celebrating. The glorious noise and band that are Brass Monkey should be heralded as heroes by anyone that feels an affinity with all things ‘British’ and I mean that ...
THE DUBLINERS – 50 Years (Irish Music Licensing IMEXCD0150)
Throughout my learning curve on the ‘folk’ scene one of the constants has been Irish band The Dubliners. Now into their 50th year and no name change…take note Mr Gavin…this superb collection is personally better even than The Ultimate Dubliners CD released in 2003 and is proof positive that longevity can ...
ROBERT VINCENT – Life In Easy Steps – DB Industries DBICD5
Robert Vincent’s debut album comes lavishly packed in a hardback booklet with a bonus disc if you get in quick. The Merseyside-born singer-songwriter has a mighty voice with hints of Iain Matthews and Roy Orbison in his upper range and a tight, powerful band to support him. It opens with ...
CHRIS WHILE AND JULIE MATTHEWS – Infinite Sky Fat Cat FATCD027
Chris While and Julie Matthews have been making music together for twenty years now, first with The Albion Band and currently with St Agnes Fountain as well as solo and as a duo. They make classy records and this, their eighth studio album together, is no exception. The album opens ...
RICHARD TRETHEWEY – DIG WHERE YOU STAND
Richard’s superb debut album is making a noise in the right places! Recently released and already having extremely positive comments. As Richard explains in his cover notes, this album is his exploration of Cornish culture starting from where he stands. He is fiercely proud of his Cornish heritage. His family ...
VARIOUS ARTISTS – Folk Awards 2013 (Proper Music Properfolk14)
Glorious…there’s no other word to describe it. Opening with every folk fans favourite band of ragamuffins Bellowhead and “Roll The Woodpile Down” this 3 CD compilation of the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards positively blasts forth heralding the achievements of all concerned. We in the folk world have a lot ...
IAIN MORRISON – To The Horizon, Sir (Peatfire Records peatfire005)
Not since the first time I heard the distinctive vocal of October Project’s Mary Fahl singing “Return To Me” have I come across a vocalist with such unique character. That’s not to say Iain Morrison sounds like a girl it’s just meant as a pointer to how such a distinctive ...
PAUL CARRACK – Good Feeling (Carrack-UK PCARCD21)
As Foghorn Leghorn might say…”How long, n-n-now I said how long has this been going on?” Well, about forty years according to his illustrious recording career and as Mr Carrack just happens to possess one of the most soulful voices we as a nation have come to embrace over that ...
DAISY CHAPMAN – Shameless Winter – Songs And Whispers SW17/Folkwit Records f0090
Sometimes I really don’t know where to start, other than to advise you to listen to this album as soon as you can. Shameless Winter is Daisy’s second album, on top of two EPs, all original material except for Billy Corgan’s ‘Disarm’, with a small group of musicians in support ...
MIKE SILVER – JACK DANCES –FRCD 0112
You know it is going to be a little gem the minute singer/songwriter Mike Silver releases a new album and his latest - Jack Dances is certainly no exception. All the tracks were written by Mike Silver. 10 glorious tracks are on the album, telling tales of loved ones, wishes ...
MATHEU WATSON – Dunrobin Place (Seer Records SEE002)
I really enjoyed Matheu Watson’s first album and wondered what he’d do to follow it. The answer is: wait three years, travel, play a lot of gigs and come home filled with ideas. He also thanked very kindly the musicians who played on that record and let them go home, ...
BROOM BEZZUMS – Winterman (Steeplejack Music SJCD019)
Mark Bloomer and Andrew Cadie are Broom Bezzums, a duo regularly augmented by Katie Doherty’s vocals. In fact the opening track here, ‘Salt Sea And Coal’, is one of Katie’s songs. Although British, Broom Bezzums are based in Germany where they have released three previous albums, all available from the ...
Review of Martin Carthy, Dave Swarbrick, James Yorkston and The Carrivick Sisters concert in aid of charity for musicians
AN EVENING WITH MARTIN CARTHY AND DAVE SWARBRICK, JAMES YORKSTON AND THE CARRIVICK SISTERS AT THE CECIL SHARPE HOUSE REGENT’S PARK LONDON ON 18th DECEMBER 2012 At the outset let it be known that folk gatherings have never been top of my list in Winter, however, I was very pleased ...
MADDY PRIOR and THE CARNIVAL BAND – A Christmas Caper PARK RECORDS PRKCD124
Nicely in time for Christmas comes this best of set spanning fifteen years and seven albums in the career of Maddy Prior & The Carnival Band. The combination of the band’s early music style and Maddy’s pure vocals was a perfect match from the off with A Tapestry Of Carols ...
Live Review – CC SMUGGLERS – 12 Bar Club, London 29 November 2012
If you think of Mumford & Sons as The Beatles then CC Smugglers are The Rolling Stones. They both inhabit the same folk/ blues/ country/ rock/ Americana landscape but there the similarity ends. The 12 Bar Club on Denmark Street is a very small venue – actually the building is ...
Meet on the Ledge Release Long Shadows
It’s been a 10-year gap between recordings but fans of the folk veterans Meet on the Ledge will rejoice when they listen to the just-released “Long Shadows”. Of course the folk harmonies and masterful instrumentation upon which MOTL built it’s well deserved legacy and following, are beautifully showcased and presented ...
KATHRYN TICKELL – Northumbrian Voices (Park Records PRKCD121)
There can be nobody prouder than a father and raconteur (Mike Tickell) witnessing his daughter entertaining an audience from centre stage and in this case the daughter (Kathryn Tickell) vice-versa. That much is obvious from the camaraderie of everyone involved on this wonderfully crafted 2-disk set from those very fine ...
BELSHAZZAR’S FEAST – STOCKING FILLERS (Unearthed Records EARTHOL003)
You can always guarantee quality from Paul Sartin (oboe/cor angais/violin and voice) and Paul Hutchinson (accordion). Like a paired-back acoustic version of the Albion Country Band (who I first heard doing this sort of stuff) the lads certainly know how to put your laughing gear into action especially if you ...
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