Emma Tricca and Jason McNiff have both made strong impressions on our writers here at Folk Radio UK. Emma’s Relic album, released on Finders Keepers, was described by Thomas Blake as “a distinctive and quietly beautiful album” whilst Paul Woodgate’s review of McNiff’s ‘God Knows Why We Dream’ declared it as his best to date and “a bounteous mix of the finest roots music has to offer.”
So what has drawn these two beautiful souls together to record an album called Southern Star? It turns out that their friendship was forged over a mutual appreciation of Bert Jansch and John Renbourn (Jason knew Bert and Emma knew John). While that in itself scores bonus points in my book, it’s this lead track from their new album called New York which instantly sealed its place as our Song of the Day. New York is given added poignancy what with Emma’s new material (due in 2017) being currently mixed with Jason Victor, Pete Galub and Steve Shelley in the Big Apple resulting in Emma spending most of this year on trans-Atlantic flights. Let it transport you to New York at four in the morning.
We’re pretty thankful that fortune found them with time on their hands to finally get together in 2015 to record this mini-album which features six songs (three each) and it’s released on Dell’orso Records tomorrow, 9th September.
Some duos are just meant to happen; this is one I hope continues beyond this one album. Go and seek it out.
They play St Pancras Old Church, London on 9th November (tickets)
Tricca McNiff – Southern Star is released 9th September via Dell’Orso
More dates to be confirmed so keep up with them via Facebook