In this week’s Show, we have another cornucopia of new folk music releases which include our Artist of the Month, Sam Sweeney (interviewed here), and a track from his new album Escape That – ‘a wonderful set, quite possibly Sam’s best yet and one that confirms him as a violinist of the highest calibre.’
From our latest Featured Albums of the Month, we have music from:
Ewan MacPherson’s Hushman, a little masterpiece of confidence and understatement. A seasoned musician, Macpherson allows his songs to exist as simple, fully formed pieces that are only subtly enhanced by the extra musicians – Lauren MacColl, Hannah Read, James Mackintosh and Ben Nichols.
Rachel Taylor-Beales‘s long-awaited follow-up, ‘Out of this Frame‘, is an album that invites you in for a long ride, and it will not disappoint those who invest the time to get on board. On The Ballad Of Pandora And Eve her literate imagination runs wild…
From Lady Maisery, we have a track from ‘tender’, their first studio album in six years. It finds them delivering their strongest collection of songs yet and instantly re-establishes them at the forefront of British folk music.
From Stick in the Wheel‘s live album Endurance Soundly Caged, on which they prove that they can still engage with listeners on the most visceral of levels.
From You, Golden, the first duo record from Owen Spafford and Louis Campbell – this was always one to look forward to. Uplifting, probing and exciting, as well as wise and patient, it is an album to return to and savour.
From the beautifully atmospheric and gently beguiling ‘Time Was Away’, on which the perfectly matched Emily Portman and Rob Harbron deliver an elegant and understated gem.
We also have new music from:
Hack-Poets Guild – a new project from Lisa Knapp, Marry Waterson and Nathaniel Mann – as I said last week…they really do knock the ball out of the park with this lead single ‘Daring Highwayman’.
Celtic Folkweave was first released in 1974 by Mick Hanly & Mícheál O Dhomhnaill and then slipped under the radar, picking up a cult following in later years. This remastered reissue corrects that and includes unreleased bonus tracks as well.
The Deepest Breath is the debut solo album from Eoghan Ó Ceannabháin, a Dublin-based singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist. His musical roots are in sean-nós singing – the style of his father – and he grew up listening to the likes of Sorcha Ní Ghuairim, Seán ‘ac Dhonncha, Colm Ó Caoidheáin and other greats from the tradition. He is also influenced by folk singers from the English language tradition, such as Liam Weldon, Luke Kelly, Anne Briggs, Margaret Barry, and Thomas McCarthy. While his debut builds on his sean-nós singing foundations, he also combines hard-hitting lyrics with other musical influences to create a rich, contemporary sound.
David Carroll and Friends are set to release Bold Reynold on 20th January on Talking Elephant Records. The album features David Carroll alongside Gryphon’s Dave Oberle, Graeme Taylor and Brian Gulland, plus Fairport Convention’s Chris Leslie and Dave Pegg, with Tom Spencer from The Professionals and The Men They Couldn’t Hang, and Lucy Cooper. This one’s quite a gem.
For ‘Dialogues’, Scotland-based cellist Su-a Lee celebrates her folk music friendships with Duncan Chisholm, Jenna Reid, Patsy Reid, Donald Shaw, Phil Cunningham, Karine Polwart, Julie Fowlis, Natalie Haas and more. It’s a triumphant album; you won’t hear a more rewarding album in a long time.
The essence of The Little Unsaid’s songcraft is that good things (strange and remarkable things, too) can come out of bad times or uncomfortable situations. Their music is all about those contrasts, and Fable illustrates them more sharply than anything they’ve done before.
The self-titled debut album from Sligo Harpist Brídín is out now, featuring MuRli, Sharon Shannon, & Stephen Rea. Speaking of the release, Brídín says, “My self-titled debut album ‘BRÍDÍN’ has become for me, my favourite work to date. I am so proud of every song and piece on this album and what they mean to me. Along with my amazing band, we have captured my mindset in this moment. From start to finish, I believe my album takes you on a journey of grief, pain and anxiety to a place of great peace and acceptance. Through writing and recording these songs and pieces, I have learned and grown so much, fine tuning my style and writing the music I want to hear.”
The award-winning Orcadian violinist and composer Catriona Price (Fara, Twelfth Day) released her debut solo album Hert on 20th January 2023, with a launch at Celtic Connections. A suite in nine movements for nine musicians, the album explores the meaning of home and sets to music the words of eight Orcadian writers and poets to represent the rich tapestry of Orcadian life.
Under the name of All The Brave Hunters, Galway songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Alain McFadden is a member of the award-winning folk group Ye Vagabonds. “Rising was inspired by the idea that within every heart, there was a painted glass window, that you can look through but never fully know its warmth within. Reflecting through the glass at the darkening days of winter and by sinking into the darkness, we lift ourselves up and grow into the light.”
If Anna Mieke has not registered on the radar of all folk and acoustic music lovers over the past couple of years, that could all be about to change with her new album Theatre. The whole album walks the line between warm, fuzzy memories of the past and feelings left behind in childhood experiences re-awakened by sounds, locations and sensations whilst simultaneously pinning a perceptive awareness of the banal, workaday realities of modern living.
Elspeth Anne’s ‘Mercy Me’ is her third album, and the subjects of many of its songs come from a series of dreams and nightmares prompted by the covid lockdown. It is an album full of ideas, but more importantly, full of feeling, a raw, moving triumph.
Bert Jansch at the BBC is a truly glorious collection that has been extensively researched and features radio and TV sessions from 1966 to 2009. It’s an outstanding boxset release. This version of Blackwater Side is a great duet with Irish band Altan.
Music Played
Hack-Poets Guild – Daring Highwayman
Stick In The Wheel – White Copper Alley [live session]
Mick Hanly & Mícheál O Dhomhnaill – The Glasgow Barber [Song]
Eoghan Ó Ceannabháin – Anáil na hOíche
David Carroll and Friends – Follow Me Up to Carlow
Su-a Lee – Mill O’Tifty’s Annie (Feat. Karine Polwart)
Sam Sweeney – Ruby
Hushman – Playing Giants
The Little Unsaid – Far Gone
Brídín – Waves
Catriona Price – Hert
Rachel Taylor-Beales – The Ballad Of Pandora And Eve
Owen Spafford & Louis Campbell – Ditty III
Lady Maisery – Rest Now
Emily Portman & Rob Harbron – Meeting Point
All the Brave Hunters – Rising
Anna Mieke – For a Time
Elspeth Anne – With The Thaw I Am Renewed
Bert Jansch – Blackwater Side (Later… with Jools Holland, BBC2, 1996)
Photo: A farm near Easton, Pennsylvania. Source: New York Public Library (Public Domain).