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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MIRACLE MILE – East Of Ely (MeMe Records CD/LP MM21)
A decade on since the last album, but sounding like they’ve been playing together forever, Trevor Jones and Marcus Cliffe have revived their shared connection for East Of Ely, a ninth excursion, basking in the warm glow of bitter-sweet melancholia, musing on memories, friendship, the passing of the years and ...
RAINTOWN – Acoustic Heart (BMB002CD)
Don’t be too late. Raintown released Acoustic Heart on April 26th. I came across it a week or two later and have spent a week or two listening to it to double check what I first thought about a duo that were new to me. They describe the album as, ...
JASON McNIFF – Everything’s A Song (TR2031)
Jason McNiff, Yorkshire born but now based on the south coast, is an artist who certainly does his bit to support live music and other musicians. He hosts a weekly acoustic session in Hastings as well as playing gigs around the country. If that wasn't enough to keep him busy ...
MOJNA – Väntenätter (Heilo HCD7410)
Scandinavian trio Thomas Eriksson, Helga Myhr and Anna Malmström have worked together for three years but Väntenätter (Nights Of Waiting) is their first album under their group name, Mojna. Eriksson composes and plays guitar, Myhr plays Hardanger fiddle and Malmström plays clarinet and bass clarinet. This may seem like an ...
PAINTED SKY – From The Blue (Gilded Lily Records)
Painted Sky’s From The Blue is a lovely album of British folk music from the siblings George and Holly Brandon, which juxtaposes soft acoustic strummed harmonious songs, “gypsy jazz”, a “Morris jig”, and a joyous banjo pluck or two against a Thomas Hardy Casterbridge eerie signpost superstition, all amid a ...
GEORGE BOOMSMA – The Promise Of Spring
This recently released album from George Boomsma – The Promise Of Spring - is an absolutely delightful album which seems to be living permanently in my car sound system! At first listen I was hooked. George uses his talents of singer/songwriter/musicianship to the full with his beautifully written songs about ...
JENNY COLQUITT – Staring At The Moon (own label)
Staring At The Moon, her second full-length album, co-produced and performed with David Gorst, sees Colquitt building on her considerable strengths as both writer and musician, ranging across pop, folk and rock with total assurance. It opens in contemplative form, tentative piano providing the intro to ‘Bravest of the Brave’, ...
FEROCIOUS DOG – Kleptocracy (Graphite records GRAPHFAR61)
Government by theft, then? At least, that’s my take on it, a criticism, I imagine, rather than an aspiration, Red Ken and his bondage trouser philanthropists no strangers to a bit of agit-prop. And mighty fine fare it is, too, their energetic folk-punk now claiming studio album number five. In ...
ANGELINE, COHEN AND JON – Grace Will Lead Me Home (Invisible Folk)
That’ll be Morrison, Braithwaite-Kilcoyne and Bickley, then, partnering up for a concept album its themes bookended by the 250th anniversary of ‘Amazing Grace’ in 2023 and 2025’s 300th birthday of its writer, John Newton. One of the world’s best known hymns, recordings of which range from Judy Collins, The Byrds ...
ANGELINE, COHEN & JON – Grace Will Lead Me Home (Invisible Folk)
Is this the year for ‘Amazing Grace’, as it appears once more, and this time as the focus, barely a week after its inclusion on the latest from Blue Rose Code? Here, rather than a mid-album surprise, this time it is the whole history and background of the song that ...
ELAINE PALMER – Half Moon Rising (Butterfly Effect BEFFECT036CD)
For her fourth album, Half Moon Rising, the North Yorkshire-born country singer-songwriter headed to San Diego for an eight day session, mostly recorded live, the magic evident from the get go with balladeering soaring opening track ‘Heart and Soul’, a straightforward supportive love song (“I’ve danced with your demons/Now I ...
NOTIFY – Airneán (Liosberg Records)
Notify are a six-piece Irish band and Airneán is their first album in eight years and only their third in total which explains why their name didn’t strike a chord. Formed by concertina player and composer Pádraig Rynne, the band now comprises fiddler Tara Breen who is also a member ...
SADIE GUSTAFSON-ZOOK – Where I Wanna Be (own label)
Raised in a Mennonite community in Indiana, her mother a pastor, where she regularly attended quilt auctions (not, I suspect, as much as an influence as her parents being folk musicians), Gustafson-Zook came out in her mid-20s, something that inevitably informed her debut album, ‘Sin Of Certainty’. Where I Wanna ...
TIM EASTON – Find Your Way (BMR078)
Seasoned American songwriter Tim Easton releases Find Your Way on May 17th. ‘Seasoned’? Easton was born in 1966, spent his formative years in Japan and in Ohio, and his older youth busking in various European countries. He returned to the US in the mid-1990’s and recorded his debut solo album ...
JACK BADCOCK – Cosmography (own label JKBK003CD)
Frontman and founding member of world-folk outfit Dallahan, since 2021 Co.Kilkenny-born Badcock has also been following a solo career, Cosmography being his full length debut. It opens with the near nine-minute heady opus ‘Life In Three Dimensions’, which, following the title, comprises three verses of being grateful for the life ...
ELEANOR DUNSDON & GREGOR BLACK – Let No Man (Goatskin EDGB01)
Eleanor and Gregor burst on to the folk scene with an innovative, beautifully delivered, and ear-catching set of five tracks which will doubtless be an imprint for future success. The unusual combination of harp and percussion would have been sufficient to stimulate interest, but added to this are the beautiful ...
ADEEM THE ARTIST – Anniversary (Four Quarters Records/Thirty Tigers)
Raised in a conservative Christian household in North Carolina, a self-declared non-binary pansexual, married father previously known as Kyle Adem and now sometimes going by Adeem Maria, Anniversary is their eighth studio album and one that, through Americana colours and the concept of muscle memory, explores different anniversaries, both personal, ...
THE DICEMEN – Double Six (own label)
The Dicemen release their new album Double Six on My 3rd. The band, based in Watford, consist of Ken Spearpoint on acoustic bass, Kevin O’Brien on guitar and Richard Brandon on mandolin, bouzouki and vocals. The album has twelve tracks, six new and six singles/re-mixes. The album opens with ‘Living ...
THE KIMBERLEYS – The Shape Of A Year (Popla Disque)
Six years ago we reviewed the first album by The Kimberleys and I must confess that I’d forgotten about them until a week or so ago when their name cropped up twice. I therefore acquired a copy of their second album, The Shape Of A Year. Isobel and Jim Kimberley ...
ROSS COUPER BAND – The Homeroad (Ross Couper Music)
We proudly present the second of our podcast reviews by Paul Johnson. The Ross Couper Band - The Homeroad. Buy the album from https://rosscouper.bandcamp.com/album/the-homeroad ...
SINGLES BAR 101 – A round-up of recent EPs and singles
NIGHT FLIGHT, Sam Holmes and Harry Phillips, release their new EP, English Noise, in early May. The title track, reflecting on the end of a relationship amid the bustle of life, has already graced these pages and that is followed by their current single, ‘Monster’. It’s a richly orchestrated song ...
RAY COOPER – Even For A Shadow (Westpark Music)
Even For A Shadow is a sublime singer-songwriter album from Ray Cooper, also known as (the beloved) Chopper from his twenty-three-year stint with the great Oysterband. And, yes, this music has the always relevant attitude, with many a melody to burn. The very first lyric, “The lights are changing in ...
RUM RAGGED – Gone Jiggin’ (LHM Records – LHM077)
Newfoundland has a distinct identity. It’s an identity forged amid a history of colonisation and migration, with its oldest art form – its traditional music - playing a vital role. This musical heritage is richly celebrated in Rum Ragged’s fifth album, Gone Jiggin’. I’ve felt a sort of connection with ...
KATHRYN WILLIAMS AND WITHERED HAND – Willson Williams (One Independent Records)
Willson Williams is music that is (to invert the words of Charles Dickens) “the worst of times” and “the best of times”. Maverick British singer-songwriter Kathryn Williams has joined forces with Good News guy Withered Hand (aka Dan Willson) to create an album with an “overreaching theme of grief” that ...
MALIN LEWIS – Halocline (Hudson Records HUD051CD)
Halocline is the debut album by trans bagpiper, fiddler and composer from the western isles, Malin Lewis. It may help to know what a halocline is as its definition explains two short pieces, ‘Freshwater’ and ‘Saltwater’, so a halocline is an interface between layers of fresh and sea water which ...
GENTLEMEN SOLDIERS – Gentleman Soldiers (probably own label)
It’s twenty-eight years since The Pogues ceased trading as a full-time band but they are certainly not forgotten – principally because of one man and one song. Gentlemen Soldiers from Pomona County, California haven’t forgotten them either – their eponymous debut album is a collection of Pogues covers (plus a ...
BANTER – Heroes (Mrs Casey Records MCFCD4202)
The album so named as it pays tribute to their musical heroes, this is the fourth from the acoustic four piece of keyboardist singer Nina Zella, Mark Jolley on bass guitar, fiddle and guitar, drummer and caller Tim Walker and Simon Care on melodeon, a cocktail of covers, traditional numbers ...
BEN GLOVER – And The Sun Breaks Through The Sky (Goldrush Records)
Glover is neither the first nor the last Irish troubadour to find the comfy shoes of a downhome Americana fit him very well. Very well indeed, in fact. It seems a while since his last solo release, 2018’s Shorebound, but this now Nashville native has always preferred the slow simmer ...
ANNIE DRESSNER – I Thought It Would Be Easier (Dharma Records DHARMACD54)
We last encountered Annie Dressner via her 2020 album, Coffee At The Corner Bar. Now we have I Thought It Would Be Easier – great title by the way – her just released new record. Annie is a New Yorker who relocated to England several years ago and has become ...
PHOEBE REES – Bring In The Light: Si Kahn’s Songs Of Courage And Resistance (Strictly Country Records SCR-91)
For those who need bringing up to speed, Si Kahn is an American singer-songwriter, civil rights activist and founder of Grassroots Leadership while Rees is a multi-instrumentalist (primarily fiddler) and singer from Oswestry. Bring In The Light, her first full-length album, was recorded in the Netherlands with Dutch musicians on ...
RENAISSANCE – Tuscany (Esoteric ECLEC32870)
Originally founded in 1969 with the line-up comprising Keith Relf and Jim McCarty from The Yardbirds, along with John Hawken, Louis Cennamo and Relf's sister Jane, they were reborn with a new roster in 1972, going on to become the definitive progressive symphonic rock band, melding folk, rock and classical ...
NAVARO – Songs From The Darkwood (digital download)
Here at folking we’ve followed Navaro’s career since Beth Navaro’s 2007 solo album. I even ventured into the wilds of St Albans to hear them – a memorable gig featuring a guest appearance by the late and much lamented Gareth Turner. Steve Austin tells me that nowadays Navaro are playing ...
BEAU – The Last Confessions Of A Saboteur (Cherry Red BEAULC1)
Incredibly, on The Last Confessions Of A Saboteur, his 18th album for the label (released digitally), Trevor Midgley is in as sharp a satirical form as ever, this time, again armed with his 12-string, the tabloids, cancel culture and champagne socialism amongst those under his withering gaze. Cascading chords set ...
TOM JENKINS – Meadow Parts 1 & 2 (Xtra Mile Recording)
Tom Jenkins’ Meadow Parts 1 & 2 sing with the honest melodies of Tom’s own sheep farming experience, stone barn walls, a cold west Wales morning, an old oak tree graced with family ashes, and, of course, the warm loyalty of the family Border collie. Now, to clarify, there are ...
HEATHER LITTLE – By Now (Need To Know Music NTK2401HL)
While her songs have spawned hits for others, Miranda Lambert and Sunny Sweeney among them, the Texas-born musician has rarely ventured into her own spotlight, By Now being only her second full-length release, some eleven years after the first. Assembling a stellar line-up of backing musicians that include Duke Levine, ...
PHIL ODGERS & JOHN KETTLE – Far Rockaway (Vinyl Star Records VSRCD015)
Greenwich Village in the 1960s was a focus of art, literature and music but many names are now fading from memory; Fred Neill, Dave van Ronk, Eric Anderson and, perhaps most notably, Phil Ochs. Ochs was a major figure but died tragically young leaving a legacy of songs. Phil Odgers ...
THE ROLLING FOLK – East Of Elsewhere (Drop In The Drink)
This the first in a series of podcast reviews presented by Paul Johnson from his studio. He begins with the debut album from The Rolling Folk - East Of Elsewhere. Artists' website: https://therollingfolk.bandcamp.com/album/east-of-elsewhere ...
MATTIAS LIES – Rösten Från Det Karelska Näset/The Voice From The Karelian Isthmus
The Voice From The Karelian Isthmus is a collaboration across time between two Swedish Finns. This is the seventh album by Finnish singer-songwriter Mattias Lies, and he’s described it as a collection of blue, white, and yellow songs. Those are the colours of the flag of the Swedish Finns, and ...
MARTIN SIMPSON – Skydancers (Topic TXCD613)
A seemingly moveable feast, Hen Harrier Day (which draws awareness to the illegal hunting of these birds, named for their former habit of preying on free-ranging fowl) is part of Hen Harrier Action, a website which celebrates and protects the wildlife of our uplands, the title song, ‘Skydancers’, being commissioned ...
THE STRANGE ENCOUNTERS – All In The Mind (Ports of Call Music)
Or Kreutzmüller and Armstrong, that too probably enough to evoke blank looks, unless you live in Germany, that is, where the band/duo have been a fixture, give or take pandemics, since 2018. The name, Joe Armstrong, a singer and guitarist, may scratch an itch, having been a musical associate of ...
THE LEGENDARY TEN SECONDS – Folk Rocktronica (own label)
The brainchild of Ian Churchward, a Torquay-based musician whose fairly prolific output revolves around songs with a historical basis, encompassing ones about Devon and Cornwall, the Wars of the Roses and, in particular, Richard III, not to mention, for the niche market, Mer de Mort, commissioned by the Mortimer History ...
LOUISE BICHAN – The Lost Summer (Adhyâropa Records AR00058)
Orkney born, now resident in the USA, Louise Bichan releases her second album, The Lost Summer, some eight years after her debut. Louise is a fiddle player and is supported here by producer and string player Ethan Setiawan, guitarist Conor Hearn and Brendan Hearn on cello as well as a ...
DAVE LOWRY – Songs Of A Devon Man (WildGoose Studios WGS443CD)
Dave Lowry's Songs Of A Devon Man is a CD project that has taken several years to come to fruition, a delay partly due to Covid and the sad death of one of the people behind it. For more than five decades, Dave Lowry has built his reputation as a ...
JULIE ABBÉ – Out Of The Ashes (ANIS002)
Julie Abbé releases her second album, Out Of The Ashes on April 5th. Abbé is French by birth, she moved to England in her twenties to study vocal jazz, is now a Bristolian as embedded in English and Irish folk music as she is in French or American traditions. For ...
PIERS LEWIN & JOHN PATRICK ELLIOTT – Lost Songs Of Scilly (Carbon Moon Records)
Lost Songs Of Scilly is something of a misnomer because all the music here is newly minted. The reason is that, uniquely in the British Isles, Scilly has no indigenous musical tradition or, at least, not one that has survived. Of course, there may be the equivalent of the Dead ...
WILL PAGE – Still Standing (Union Music Label UML024)
Well, here’s a splendid solo debut album from the young singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist/Noble Jacks frontman from Sussex. Still Standing has nothing to do with Elton John (fortunately) but does feature a collaboration with Steve Knightley and support from percussionist Cormac Byrne and bass-player Jack Hosgood. Will began his career as a fiddle-player, ...
GOOD HABITS –Quarter-Life (own label)
Good Habits’ new album, Quarter-Life, dances like a melodic scarecrow, amid a fresh field of ancient autumnal wheat. The first song, ‘All That She Wanted’, zigs and zags with Bonnie Schwarz’s joyous (double-tracked!) voice which is like the see to her cello’s saw. And there’s slight cajon percussion to accent ...
SINGLES BAR 100 – A round-up of recent EPs and singles
From Kent hails singer/songwriter/guitarist/banjo player SAM BROTHERS and his new EP, The Folksinger. The title and the name of the opening song, ‘Seasons’ should flash warning signs but no. The EP title may be a bit cheesy but ‘Seasons’ dispels any doubts. It’s a very clever song about a girl ...
PETE MORTON – Fair Freedom (Further 004)
Pete Morton has just released Fair Freedom and is currently touring the album. I guess most readers of folking.com will have come across Pete Morton, so let’s mull over the new album in the context of just how (self-understatedly) good he is. ‘Troubadour’ – we borrow the word from the ...
DAWN LANDES – The Liberated Woman’s Songbook (own label)
Released in the wake of Women’s History Month, in tandem with producer Josh Kaufman, Landes has interpreted and expanded songs from The Liberated Woman’s Songbook, originally published in 1971, the year before Roe vs Wade, with a chronologically ordered selection of women’s activism numbers from 1830 to 1970, with messages ...
THE BREWER’S DAUGHTER – Made Undone (own label)
It’s been a while since I last heard from The Brewer’s Daughter, or Rhiannon Crutchley as her mum and dad call her. She’s back now with added pizzazz and a new album, Made Undone. In the interim she’s formed a musical partnership with guitarist/pianist Magnus Martin and acquired a little ...
TWM MORYS & GWYNETH GLYN – Tocyn Unfford I Lawenydd (Recordiau Sain – SAINSCD2851)
For non-Welsh speakers, Tocyn Unfford I Lawenydd translates as ‘One Way Ticket to Happiness.’ As its name suggests, the title track is about a train journey, and journeys, are very much at the centre of this album. Through new and traditional songs, Twm Morys and Gwyneth Glyn explore such topics ...
MORGAN HARPER-JONES – Up To The Glass (Play It Again Sam)
Hailing from Rochdale and describing herself as a 70-year-old woman trapped in the body of a 25-year-old musician who loves knitting, afternoon-tea, baking and listening to old songs, Harper-Jones thanks the therapy she undertook to deal with the grief and mental health repercussions of losing her paternal great grandparents and ...
YANN FALQUET –Les secrets du ciel (own label)
Yann Falquet’s Les secrets du ciel is a French-Canadian Quebecois folk album that sings with melody, drama, and introspection. Just so you know, he is one-third of the great band Genticorum. But this album is a very different folky intimate venture from his band that echoed the lead voice with ...
GARY CAIN – Outside The Lines (Bluestown Music)
Outside The Lines is the third album from blues (well, mostly blues) virtuoso Gary Cain. Cain was born in Canada but is now based in Austin. He sings, writes songs – and boy does he play guitar (I may have adopted that line). Sometimes an album comes through to review ...
SUE DECKER – Keeping Time (own label)
From British Columbia, Decker’s been described as the love child of Ry Cooder and Lucinda Williams, from which you’ll gather her music embraces blues, soul and country with a healthy order of slide guitar. Joined by Nashville sessioneers Dave Jacques and Justin Armaral on bass and drums with producer Steve ...
RICHARD TRETHEWEY – Two Halves (own label RT002CD/LP)
Two Halves was originally conceived as a vinyl release, with one side inspired by the river estuaries of his native Cornwall and the other by the county’s industrial heritage as explored on his 2012 debut, Richard reunites with producer Phil Innes and enlists various fellow locals, among them Iain McKnight ...
COWBOIS RHOS BOTWNNOG – Mynd Ȃ’r Tŷ Am Dro (Sbigyn Ymborth SY037)
I first encountered Cowbois Rhos Botwnnog via their first album which I rather liked. That was back in the noughties but since then nothing came my way. I began to think that there was some truth in the stories that the Welsh border was closed to prevent cheese smuggling – ...
BILL DODDS – Closer (own label)
Following in the footsteps of Norman Paterson, Dodds, a retired railway driver and keen cyclist (he’s one of the few to have cycled round the globe) from Newcastle, is the latest late bloomer to release a debut album. Venturing into songwriting during the pandemic, he began attending online workshops and ...
DIANE BIRCH – Flying On Abraham (Topanga Creed Records)
Musician and singer-songwriter, Diane Birch is set to release her fifth project, Flying On Abraham next month. The collection marks Birch’s first new release in nearly a decade. Immediately apparent upon perusal of the tracklist for Flying On Abraham is an idiosyncratic approach on the part of Birch with regard ...
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