This week’s Folk Show is almost entirely all new releases, many of which have recently been featured on Folk Radio UK. We kick off with Stick in the Wheel‘s revisit of Bedlam from their forthcoming new album Endurance Soundly Caged.
That’s followed by a great cover of Clive Palmer’s Chain of Love by Alex Rex (Alex Neilson). It’s one of several tracks in the show (including Burnt Paw, Mike & Cara Gangloff and Sally Anne Morgan) taken from the new tribute album “Spirit of Clive”, a 29-track tribute album to the music of Clive Palmer & Cob. The monies raised will go towards restoring recently discovered rare recordings of Clive from the 1960s onwards and producing a documentary about Clive. Order it via Bandcamp and read more here.
We have another track from The New Faith, the new album from Jake Blount, our Artist of the Month, who we recently interviewed here.
“One of the cool things for me, was to take this old folk music and put it into the context of an evolving, living, breathing, Black folk music tradition, that this is what folk music would sound like, if we did not have the technology to listen to it and feel like we should be copying something. This is what Black folk music would sound like if we had allowed it to continue evolving and reflect new forms of folk music as they arrived.”
Jake Blount, Folk Radio Interview
We also have music from two of our current Featured Albums of the Month – The Unthanks‘ Sorrows Away, which was released today and is reviewed here, and Bonfire Radicals‘ new album, The Space Between, reviewed here.
Alex Roberts revisits his 2013 album Love & Supernatural (out 28 October), which has been remixed and remastered, along with all-new bonus tracks. We’ve included the album’s lead single and opening track ‘Wandering Aengus’. Based on W. B. Yeats’ 1897 poem ‘The Song of Wandering Aengus’, the single opens the album as it means to go on. Sonically playing with medieval themes and mirroring bard’s tales with its construction, Roberts recontextualises timeless tales for a modern setting.
There’s also music from The Magpies‘ new album Undertow reviewed here; superb tunes from Elise Boeur & Adam Iredale-Gray, who have both been immersed in the Canadian west coast’s thriving Irish traditional music scene since their early teens; their new album Fiddle Tunes is out on 25 November.
From Hushman, the new project from renowned folk musician, singer & songwriter Ewan MacPherson, we have his single Bite of Fire, from his forthcoming self-titled album on Hudson Records. Janice Burns and Jon Doran will release their new album ‘No More Green Hills‘ on 28 October, from which you can hear a beautiful rendition of The Corncrake, inspired by the singing of the late Sheila Stewart.
Marlais, the stage name of Michael Culme-Seymour, has released his new album today, Stream of Forms, via Kinship & Treibender Teppich Records. Here he sings the lead track ‘Out of the Window‘, a song he first heard sung by the Donegal singer, Paddy Tunney. The song appeared on Tunney’s 1966 album The Irish Edge, first released on Topic Records.
Welsh singer-songwriter and musician David Ian Roberts managed to quietly release In Clover back in July, it’s an album that deserves far more attention, which is why I’ve included a track here. Make sure you check it out and buy it on Bandcamp.
There’s also music from two albums we recently reviewed – Ellie Gowers‘ Dwelling by the Weir, ‘a fully-fledged contender for end-of-year awards and accolades’; and Sharron Kraus‘ KIN, on which she managed to knit the two threads – seriousness and strangeness – together into one of the most rewarding, accomplished and unexpectedly moving albums of the year.
Enjoy
Music Played
Stick in the Wheel – Bedlam (Endurance Version)
Alex Rex – Chain Of Love
Alex Roberts – Wandering Aengus
Jake Blount – Death Have Mercy
Bonfire radicals – Mary Ashford
The Magpies – Now and Then
Elise Boeur & Adam Iredale-Gray – Winnie Hayes / Gan Ainm / The Monk’s
Hushman – Bite of Fire
Janice Burns & Jon Doran – The Corncrake
The Unthanks – The Great Selkie of Sule Skerry
Marlais – Out of the Window
David Ian Roberts – Stained Glass Dreams
Burnt Paw – Summer’s Night
Ellie Gowers – Dwelling by the Weir
Sharron Kraus – Tell Me, Death
Mike & Cara Gangloff – Suns & Moons
Sally Anne Morgan – Solomon’s Song