Featuring Harley Kimbro Lewis, Dawn Landes, Piers Faccini & Blick Bassy, Old Salt, Dyad, Cocanha, Cath & Phil Tyler, Tim Eriksen, Milkweed, Aèdes, Jenny Lysander & Gunda (Гәында).
The show opens to Harley Kimbro Lewis – a new trio gathered from Knoxville to Nashville via Hertfordshire and featuring Martin Harley, Daniel Kimbro & Sam Lewis in their first collaboration together. This self-titled gem drops on 22 February.
The cover of Fair And Tender Ladies by Dawn Landes is taken from A Beating Drum compilation album – the label is run by Piers Faccini, who also features on this weeks show with Blick Bassy with a great cover of an old classic ‘Make Me Down a Pallet On Your Floor’. Also released on Beating Drum is Dancing On The Edge by Jenny Lysander, taken from her 2015 album ‘Northern Folk’. If you’ve not checked out Beating Drum then I encourage you to do so and maybe take out a subscription which is also great value: https://beating-drum.bandcamp.com/
From their new live album ‘Live in Room 13’ we have a track from Belgium-based Americana band Old Salt.
Another new release is from Milkweed – we reviewed their debut EP here.
“They seem intent on reviving the more outlandish, eccentric traditions of folk music, where old and new religions intermingle and where strange, bewitching sounds proliferate. This can only be a good thing.” Thomas Blake on Milkweed
The rest of the songs that make up the mix are a selection of personal favourites that seemed at home here. They include Dyad who make traditional Appalachian mountain music tainted by modern times and Tim Eriksen who will be familiar to many of you who shares a past through ‘Cordelia’s Dad’ with Cath of Cath and Phil Tyler who also feature.
Cocanha are a French duo who sing in Occitan, a beautifully poetic yet endangered language which I wrote about at length here.
Aèdes (main image) are another Occitan duo featuring Lutxi Achiary and Thomas Baudoin. Their album is available via the brilliant Pagans Record label who also released Puput, the latest offering from Cocanha.
Finally, Gunda (Гәында) is another superb release from Ored Recordings – another label I’ve tremendous respect for. The album, Professional Abkhazian Folk Music, was recorded during a visit to Abkhazia in July 2014 with The Sayat Nova Project. Gunda are a vocal and instrumental ensemble founded in 1977 by Rosa Chamagua, who to this day remains its leader. Discover more here.
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Music Played
- Harley Kimbro Lewis – Grey Man
- Dawn Landes – Fair And Tender Ladies
- Piers Faccini & Blick Bassy – Make Me Down A Pallet On Your Floor
- Old Salt – Pasture’s of Plenty/Charlie’s Dog
- Dyad – Hogeye
- Cocanha – La Comair mosca / Sus la nosta trilha
- Cath & Phil Tyler – Boys The Buzzards Are Flying
- Tim Eriksen – Bonny Bay of Biscay
- Milkweed – when joseph wedded was
- Aèdes – La hèira d’Estang
- Cath & Phil Tyler – Song of the Lower Classes
- Jenny Lysander – Dancing On The Edge
- Dyad – Cripple
- Гәында – Ашәарыцацәа рашәа
Photo by Alex Gallacher (Broomfield Hill, Somerset)