Featuring Lisa Knapp, The Unthanks, Sam Sweeney, Clara Mann, James Waudby, Trevor Beales, Juni Habel, Lady Maisery, Owen Spafford & Louis Campbell, The Carrivick Sisters, VRÏ, Jack Warnock, Breabach, Gavin Fairhall Lever, Clare Sands, Emily Portman and Rob Harbron, Shovel Dance Collective and Gigspanner Big Band & Raynor Winn.
We kick off this week’s Folk Show with a new single from the fabulous Lisa Knapp. The Rowan Tree is out now via Filmtrax (and can also be heard in our Regular Folk Playlist, along with other artists featured here, which I update weekly and is a great way to keep up with new releases). This new arrangement of the timeless Scottish ballad was commissioned for the film LIVING starring Bill Nighy and Aimee Lou Wood (released 4th Nov). The song appears several times in the film, sung by Bill Nighy, and director Oliver Hermanus approached Lisa directly to record a special version of The Rowan Tree for the end credits.
It’s followed by the equally dramatic ‘The Old News’ by The Unthanks, taken from their new album Sorrows Away, one of our Featured Albums of the Month reviewed here.
From our Artist of the Month, Sam Sweeney, we have Feet Together Jump, from his latest offering, Escape That (Order it here), reviewed here…it’s an album favourite; Glenn Kimpton – “…his calm and measured bows conjure up a beautiful tune that repeats tightly and then veers off before slipping quietly away. The accompaniments are also stellar in their subtlety, with each player knowing when to leave space and fill it. Ben Nicholls’ electric bass is particularly satisfying here, coming in after the fourth refrain and plucking a soft part that the other musicians get behind. It is gorgeous, joyous playing.” Keep an eye out for our upcoming interview with Sam.
From Clara Mann‘s EP Stay Open, you can hear Confessions. Like the rest of Stay Open, ‘Confessions’ delivers on the promise of her early demos. It’s described as Clara’s most complete, confident work yet, its insights deepened by experience and introspection. Like all her work, these songs began life as fragments of line drawing and text, disconnected images which slowly formulate into cohesive lyrics. “It’s all quite intuitive,” she says. “I pour stuff out, and then look back at it.”
Recalling the folk revival guitarists of the ’60s but taking new routes with modern influences, Random Reigns is taken from James Waudby‘s forthcoming album On The Ballast Miles (14 January 2023). Waudby was born and bred in the East Riding, a county of fading towns, flat farmland and a brutal coastline that has seeped into his bones. The songs speak of a place where both the industry and the cliff edge have been eroded, leaving a battered but beautiful place where the people and the land persist despite economic and environmental pressures. His playing puts me in mind of Bert Jansch, but he maybe draws a path more akin to that of Trevor Beales and his soon-to-be-released Fireside Stories recorded in the early 70s (out on 2nd December – pre-order Basin Rock | Bandcamp). Beales was strongly affected by Hebden Bridge and its people – “The first seeds of Hebden Bridge’s famed independent streak had been sewn as far back as the 1850s when a co-operative movement was formed by workers in the cloth industry. Over time, those seeds of radicalism and collectivism ensured Hebden Bridge evolved into a place where people could be themselves and all shades of individual oddness not only tolerated but actively encouraged” (read more here).
Described as Norway’s new pastoral folk voice, Juni Habel’s forthcoming album ‘Carvings’ is out on 13th January and Chicory is her latest album single (more here).
On 11 November, Lady Maisery, the combined multi-talents of Hazel Askew, Hannah James and Rowan Rheingans, return with their new album ‘tender’. We recently shared the video for ‘bird i do not know’, their lead single, a song of hope, born of turbulent times.
Another Featured Album of the Month is You, Golden, the first duo record from Owen Spafford and Louis Campbell (Order via Bandcamp). The album is uplifting, probing and exciting, as well as wise and patient; it is an album to return to and savour. AS Glenn said in his review about this particular track – “Songs like Nineties allow Louis to further demonstrate his guitar playing chops and indulge his fondness of players like Nic Jones, with a strong melodic opening that sits back part way through to allow Owen in with a lovely fiddle line before the pair spa and intertwine towards the end.”
The Carrivick Sisters have a new album out – Illustrated Short Stories is the long-awaited seventh album from The CarrivickSisters: the duo’s first studio album since 2013. The 12 original tracks, carefully crafted and selected over the last few years, feature twins Charlotte and Laura sharing the vocal duties, with their signature sibling harmony and tasteful musicianship across various stringed instruments. I loved the old-timey feel of ‘Sally in the Woods’, although it is a darker offering that tells the tale of a mother who lost her baby and now haunts a stretch of road just outside Bath.
From VRÏ‘s latest album islais a genir, and also a Featured Album of the Month (reviewed here), we have Y Gaseg Ddu. As Thomas Blake shared in his review, Y Gaseg Ddu is an urgent, tragi-comic foot-tapper with call-and-response vocals about a man who feeds his beloved horse so much it dies (this is folk music…). Thomas concludes his review: islais a genir is an album that honours variety and positively revels in its own complex, colourful identity, by turns thoughtful and celebratory. A formidable artistic and cultural statement.
Jack Warnock is a multi-instrumentalist and singer from Maghera, Co. Derry. The Faughan Side is taken from his new album ‘Le Solas Faoithine’, which is out now. Throughout his career, Jack has performed as a soloist, accompanist and in groups such as TRODA, Cóiriú and The Doc Flock. He has performed at events, festivals, and venues across the world.
In recent years Jack has been nominated for the prestigious BBC Young Folk Award, won the Senior Accompaniment Competition at Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann, and received the ‘Young Musician’s Platform’ award from ACNI and BBC NI. The album features contributions from Toby Shaer (Honey and the Bear band, Cara Dillon band), Archie Churchill-Moss (Moore, Moss, Rutter, Sam Kelly & the Lost Boys), and Conor Mallon (Connla) – definitely a name to watch for.
Acclaimed contemporary Scottish folk band Breabach are back with their first full-length album in four years, which was released last month. The album entitled Fas is a Gaelic word meaning ‘growth’, ‘developing’ and ‘sprouting’ and is heavily inspired by the natural environment of Scotland and sees the band showcase more progressive elements in their music than ever before.
Formerly known as The James Patrick Gavin Trio, GAVIN FAIRHALL LEVER is James Patrick Gavin (fiddle, vocals), Tim Fairhall (double bass) and Adrian Lever (guitar, vocals, harmonium, piano). Their self-titled debut album is out now (order via Bandcamp). They were keen to find a way of closely recreating the feel and improvisational nature of their live performances in this record, so recording to analogue tape felt like the right way to go. In addition, they wanted to avoid the over-perfected sheen that can sometimes characterise modern folk releases and to make a record with depth and grain in the sound. Working exclusively to tape from start to finish the album has an uncommon, exceptional quality which is rich, joyous, and bubbling with energy.
Following on from the release of her critically acclaimed EP ‘Tírdhreacha Agus Fuaimdhreacha’ (Landscapes & Soundscapes) and smashing subsequent singles ‘Awe na Mná’, ‘Sail On’, and ‘Keep the Flame Burning’, sixth generation fiddler, bilingual singer & multi-instrumentalist Clare Sands has released her self-titled album. The album is a celebration of resilience, love and hope. It explores tradition, the sea, and the power of women through the dark and light, love and loss, and the rise and fall. Written and recorded over two years along the West coast from Mizen to Malin, Clare found a path where the Irish and English languages, Traditional, Folk, and Contemporary music meet (order it here).
Another Featured Album of the Month comes from Emily Portman & Rob Harbron with Time Was Away (reviewed here). In his review Bily Rough Says “Idiosyncratically graceful, Time Was Away is a gorgeously bittersweet listen, beautifully and atmospherically produced by the master that is Andy Bell. It is that most precious delicacy, capturing two musicians at their very best.” He later adds: “With a knowingness and tender approach to the folk tradition, the perfectly matched Portman and Harbron deliver an elegant and understated fragile gem. Take time to savour this treat; you’ll be much rewarded.” The album is out on 25 November – Pre-order here: https://emilyandrob.uk/music
The Bold Fisherman is the new single from the 9-piece folk band Shovel Dance Collective and is the first single from their new album ‘The Water is the Shovel of the Shore’. The album is out on the 2nd of December via Memorials of Distinction / Double Dare, available on CD, limited edition cassette & digital formats. Pre-Order it here.
And finally, from their collaborative new album Saltlines, we have The Gigspanner Big Band and author Raynor Winn. Saltlines is also one of our Featured Albums of the Month, and Thomas Blake described it in his review here as ‘a massive, ambitious and highly unusual project; the fact that it feels perfectly judged at every moment is down to the sheer excellence of Gigspanner Big Band’s musicianship and the touching, clear-eyed nature of everything Winn writes or speaks. It is a constant delight.” You can order the album here – the perfect Christmas treat…sat next to a warm fire.
Music Played
Lisa Knapp – The Rowan Tree
The Unthanks – The Old News
Sam Sweeney – Feet Together Jump
Clara Mann – Confessions
James Waudby – Random Reigns
Trevor Beales – Then I’ll Take You Home
Juni Habel – Chicory
Lady Maisery – bird i do not know
Owen Spafford & Louis Campbell – Nineties
The Carrivick Sisters – Sally in the Woods
VRï – Y Gaseg Ddu
Jack Warnock – The Faughan Side
Breabach – Eadar An Dà Bhràigh
Gavin Fairhall Lever – The Great Debate
Clare Sands – I See No Light But Yours
Emily Portman & Rob Harbron – The Oakham Poachers
Shovel Dance Collective – The Bold Fisherman
Gigspanner Big Band and Raynor Winn – Cadgwith Anthem Overture/Prose/Shower and Sunshine