Jenn Butterworth announces debut album

Jenn Butterworth

On February 28, 2025, award-winning Scottish musician Jenn Butterworth will release her highly anticipated debut album, Her By Design. A stirring blend of traditional folk and contemporary artistry, the album focuses on women’s narratives and places their strength, struggles, and stories at the forefront. With eight meticulously crafted tracks, Her By Design stands as a feminist reimagining of traditional folk music, offering a new and contemporary lens on age-old tales.

Folk music is synonymous with storytelling, but women represented in folk tales have historically been overlooked or undervalued, with stories focusing on their beauty or their vulnerabilities rather than their strengths. Butterworth’s work on Her By Design seeks to readdress that. “I’ve always been drawn to songs with women at the centre,” she explains. “But often, traditional songs were sung about a woman’s physical appearance, her inferiority or at times her exploitation. I wanted to create an album where women’s experiences are explored on their own terms.” The album opens with Sandy Denny’s ‘All Our Days,’ an epic poetic reflection on the changing of the seasons, that encourages the listener to step back from the concerns of our inequalities and view humanity as one; collectively in awe at the power of the earth we live upon. From there, Her By Design explores a wide range of themes: a warning about courtship and relationships in ‘Little Sparrow’, the layered symbolism of women’s safety in ‘Fair Maids of February’, and the silent endurance of the unpaid labour carried out in the home in ‘The Housewife’s Lament’.

Crafting Her By Design was a deeply personal journey for Jenn. The self-produced album builds on her celebrated career as a guitarist and folk accompanist, and centres her as a solo artist, vocalist, arranger, writer and producer.

“This is the first time I’ve taken complete control of a project from start to finish”, she says. “I wanted to challenge myself not just artistically but as a producer, and that meant being responsible for every step of the process. It’s been a steep learning curve, but incredibly rewarding.”

The road to Her By Design began in 2023, with recording sessions stretching into mid-2024. “As a woman creating her own music, it could have felt daunting to walk into a recording situation and take the lead,” Butterworth shares. “However, I was fortunate to work with a talented team of engineers and artists who encouraged and empowered me and quickly helped me feel right at home.” The album features an all-star lineup of collaborators, including one of Scotland’s finest string arrangers Seonaid Aitken (violin, string arrangements), Breabach’s James Lindsay (bass/moog) and Admiral Fallow’s Louis Abbott (drums/ percussion). Recorded in Scotland at Castlesound, Chem19 and GloWorm studios, the album’s multilayered production is seamlessly woven into one cohesive and powerful sound. Butterworth worked in fine detail on the mixes with acclaimed studio engineer Andrea Gobbi before the album was mastered by Cicely Balston at the iconic Abbey Road Studios.

Each track on Her By Design brings a unique story to life. ‘A Toast’ is a gripping tale of jealousy and consequence, while ‘One in Ten’ shines a light on the overlooked struggles of women with endometriosis, a condition that affects one in ten women globally. In ‘Jeannie’, Butterworth reframes the narrative of traditional song ‘Anachie Gordon’ to focus the story of forced marriage from the woman’s perspective. The album closes with ‘Her Bright Smile Haunts Me Still’, a timeless ode to the echoing legacy women leave behind. Art Meets Music The concept of ‘design’ extends beyond the music. Her By Design is accompanied by nine bespoke illustrations drawn by artist Somhairle MacDonald, inspired by blueprint-style technical drawings that Butterworth felt resonated with the album’s theme. Each of the eight songs on the album has been illustrated, along with a bold front cover which displays Butterworth herself as a multi-layered schematic.

Her By Design is more than an album; it’s a statement. By amplifying women’s voices in folk music, Butterworth not only challenges traditional narratives but also adds a voice to women’s storytelling in the genre.

“In 2025 it’s so empowering to be part of a vibrant community of women artists who are telling their own and each other’s stories, actively searching out traditional repertoire and writing new music to fill in the gaps”, shares Butterworth.

Available on Vinyl, CD, and Digital Download Her By Design will be available in vinyl, CD, and digital formats on Bandcamp, and available to stream on all platforms. Two lyric videos for ‘All Our Days’ and ‘Little Sparrow’ accompany the release, providing visual storytelling to complement the music. Butterworth has also crafted a beautiful series of wooden lyric blocks to accompany a 24-page booklet of the artwork for those who wish to experience the whole piece of art but no longer use CDs or vinyl.

Butterworth has a full touring schedule in 2025 working in her collaborations with Kinnaris Quintet, Will Pound, Laura-Beth Salter and Bella Hardy, but plans to perform a stripped back version of the album. Jenn Butterworth is a prominent figure in the Scottish music scene, celebrated for her innovative approach to folk accompaniment. Known for her skill as a guitarist, she now takes centre stage as a vocalist and producer with Her By Design.

Artist’s website: https://www.jennbutterworth.co.uk

‘Little Sparrow’ – official video: