Now in its seventh year, Manchester Folk Festival returns next month (19th to 21st October) with a unique collaboration, an expanded program of over 60 artists across nine venues throughout three days, a range of free events, and a move to the city’s heart.
As well as reflecting their values on equality and maintaining a balanced gender, there is also a rich diversity of folk music featuring many artists we’ve waxed lyrical about here on Folk Radio.
This year, the festival gets to boast of a new listening experience (literally), thanks to a collaboration with The Breath and d&b Soundscape at the newly refurbished New Century Hall. If you’ve witnessed their other installations at WOMAD and places like Kings Place for Sound Unwrapped, then you know you’re in for a treat. Traditionally, sound engineers cram what you hear into a stereo image (left and right channels) coming from the direction of the stage. With d&b Soundscape, those sounds are placed in the space around you, creating a deep 360-degree listening experience. I experienced this in a live setting for Erland Cooper and Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh, and it was a beautifully intimate experience considering the large space. The Breath, featuring the partnership of Ríoghnach Connolly and Stuart McCallum, is sure to be equally sublime. The duo are releasing their third album, Land Of My Other, via Real World Records on 13th October 2023. We shared their lead single a while back, and they gave us an insight into how they work so well together:
“We work like two halves of a single songwriter,” says McCallum, the Manchester-based composer and producer. “Imagine a guitarist and a singer who are not separate but are separate people. We just have this really special connection that lets us listen, adapt and evolve a piece of music together.”
“Stuart is the yin to my yang,” says Connolly, the BBC Folk Singer of the Year, her north of Ireland accent un-tempered by two decades of Manchester living. “He has one face. I have many. He’s very measured. I’m not. I like mayhem. He doesn’t. I know where I am with him.”
Manchester Folk Festival has relocated to the heart of the city’s vibrant Northern Quarter and Ancoats, taking full advantage of the city’s premier live music venues. The iconic Band on the Wall, recently refurbished to perfection, becomes the musical hub of this year’s festivities.
I have no intention of running through all the artists listed; to do that, head to their website, where you can download a timetable. Here are just a handful of highlights that I would be looking forward to seeing.
Described in these pages as one of the most vital voices of today’s folk generation, Chris Cleverly kicks things off on the Thursday evening before we head into the territory of choosing which venue to go for. I’ll be honest: I would struggle to choose between Iona Lane, Katie Spencer and Bryony Griffith and Alice Jones. Their latest albums were all exceptional, each with unique qualities. Iona’s album Hallival was a masterful debut, one to lose yourself in, enhanced by the poetic depth of Iona’s words – this one continues to reward with each listen. As Glenn Kimpton said of Katie’s The Edge of the Land, “I’m a firm believer in the audible qualities of an album recorded live with minimum fuss…The Edge of the Land is an album that doesn’t feel the need to over-embellish its sound; it has the spontaneity that live performance captures combined with arrangements that are unfussy but interesting and quietly adventurous. Wonderful stuff…”. As for Bryony and Alice – A Year Too Late And A Month Too Soon was their first recording together, and it certainly stands out for its fresh, vibrant and direct approach. David McNally concluded his review: traditional folk music at its most beguiling.
My late evening finale would be in the company of Hack-Poets Guild – featuring three of the finest musical minds that the British folk scene has to offer – Lisa Knapp, Marry Waterson & Nathaniel Mann. As Thomas Blake said in his review, it’s tempting to say that Blackletter Garland is a blueprint for how folk music should be made, but prescriptive statements like that are narrow and limiting, and Blackletter Garland is the opposite of that. It shows many possible futures of folk music, all of them varied and vibrant.
For the Friday, my eyes were drawn to Ward Knutur Townes – In case you missed our premiere – for the first time in 5 years, the much-loved Derbyshire-based performer Lucy Ward returns to the studio for a new UK-Icelandic-Canadian collaboration – teaming up with Iceland’s mesmerising modern-day troubadour Svavar Knútur and Canada’s Adyn Townes, purveyor of pin-sharp, heartfelt songs.
The extraordinarily talented Eliza Marshall is also in the house. I am more used to seeing her in a project setting such as Freedom To Roam or performing in Ranagri (who are also performing), so I’m intrigued by this one. Also, Cambridge-based New Yorker & Alt-folk Singer Songwriter Annie Dressner is performing – last year, she delivered 48 Hours – an unassuming but rather lovely collection of songs with David Ford, and she’s equally gifted at transporting listeners solo as she so ably demonstrated on Coffee at the Corner Bar.
The later evening then becomes a further struggle of choices as Manchester favourite Ríoghnach Connolly gets into the swing of it with Honeyfeet. This will be hugely popular, and you may recall they released It’s Been A While, Buddy last year, which Dave McNally described as dollops of theatrical fun amongst more honest, personal, heartfelt lyrics whilst always inhabiting a sprawling terrain of musical forms.
More choices then arrive…
Martin Carthy and Jon Wilks – who are touring this autumn winter – during which Martin will perform and reminisce about his illustrious career in folk song to date, with musical interludes and conversation with his talented friend, musician and journalist, Jon Wilks. Martin certainly is a great storyteller – just check out the article we ran on Martin’s Homegrown at Home, interview and concert, a series started by The American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.
Lady Nade – Bristol Americana Folk singer Lady Nade is a lyrical tour de force. Her 2021 album ‘Willing’ saw her breaking new ground and rapidly growing her audience of fans. Earlier this year, she covered Gillian Welch’s ‘Everything is Free’ to highlight the fight for ‘fair pay and fair play’. You can read about it in our interview here. Here’s a more recent song:
Michele Stodart has only just recently released her new album Invitation, which Mike Davies reviewed: “it’s a thing of perfection…Clearly, a highly personal album informed by recent changes she’s gone through in her life…yet still emerges as one of strength, acceptance, resilience and ultimately hope in those transformations.”
If you want to get lively, then Merry Hell will deliver this by the bucket load, while those looking for refined and outstanding musicianship need look no further than Will Pound and Jenn Butterworth, who delivered their Volume 1 album earlier this year, on which Johnny Whalley had plenty to say:
Volume 1 is an album packed with outstanding musicianship while Will and Jenn show themselves to be brimming over with ideas and possessed of a determination not to be confined by others’ expectations of what constitutes their style. Having chosen Volume 1 as an album title, we can surely expect to hear more from them before long. Will has the last word; once he gets his breath back, he utters just the one, “blimey”.
If you’ve still got some steam left, then head for Festival Club at Band on the Wall for some late-night performances from Ranagri, The Often Herd and Amy Thatcher and Francesca Knowles –
For the festival’s final day, there is no let up in choices. It’s great to see Nunnery and Norheim in the listing – they are an Alt-folk duo featuring screenwriter, award-winning playwright, songwriter, and singer Lizzie Nunnery and Vidar Norheim, a multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and producer originally from Norway. The duo released their new album ‘I Saw the City’ on September 15th), a folk synth ballad weaving stories of cities remembered and imagined.
I strongly recommend Bristolian singer-songwriter Clara Mann, who may still be a new name to some; her public presence has grown thanks to some beautifully crafted singles like I Didn’t Know You Were Leaving Today, Thoughtless and Station Song, which all share an instrumental sparseness that places her mesmerising vocals centre stage. She also recently supported Grizzly Bear’s Daniel Rossen on tour.
Jon Wilks recently released Before I Knew What Had Begun I Had Already Lost – which, as noted by Billy Rough in his album review – found Jon stepping away from his curation of Birmingham folk songs and with more of a focus on traditional tracks alongside a few self-penned tunes too. He concludes it’s “an album of celebration, a record about recovery and hope, and the history and legacy of folk traditions. At its soul is the love of song, of collaborating with friends, and of discovering old tunes and creating new ones. Above all, it is a bloody good listen.”
Here he is performing Lofty Tall Ship, learned from the singing of the Yarmouth fisherman, Sam Larner:
Recently premiered on Folk Radio, ME LOST ME is led by Newcastle-based artist Jayne Dent. Originally an ambitious solo project, ME LOST ME has since transitioned to a collaborative project with acclaimed North-East jazz musicians Faye MacCalman and John Pope. Those folk influences are more visible in the opening of ‘Festive Day‘, the video we premiered – it was directed and edited by Jayne, who also created the 3D models and textile design you see in what’s like a moving collage with a choreographed performance by Mark Insley in the Cotswold Morris tradition.
This November, Sheffield-based musician Rosie Hood presents The Rosie Hood Band’s new album, A Seed Of Gold (released 3rd November 2023). This is her first album since 2017’s critically acclaimed The Beautiful & The Actual. Rosie
(vocals, tenor guitar, baritone ukulele) is joined by fellow Sheffield-based musicians Nicola Beazley (fiddle, five-string fiddle, vocals), Rosie Butler-Hall (fiddle, five-string fiddle, vocals), and Robyn Wallace (melodeon, percussion, vocals) to form the four-piece Rosie Hood Band.
Talking about the new album, she said: “I feel privileged to be working with Nicola, Rosie and Robyn to bring this material to life. Their playing creates a wonderful chamber sound, and I feel like it adds a real depth to my songs. Since we started rehearsing together early last year. I’ve been so much more inspired to write, and a lot of that is down to being able to imagine how it will sound played by the band.” Here they are performing Les Tricoteuses:
Another personal highlight for me is Mishra, who deserve all the attention they can get. They’ve taken their music their music to another level. For 2021’s Reclaim, their debut follow-up, Johnny Whalley opened his review: It’s not often that, at first listen, an album almost literally takes your breath away. But Mishra‘s Reclaim has a freshness and a lightness of touch that did just that…Mishra’s music is enthralling and, like any adventurous music, capable of transporting your mind to new and exciting places.
Earlier this year, they released Devil’s Nine Questions, on which they were joined by Indian classical vocalist Deepa Shakthi. You don’t want to miss them.
Suntou Susso is a multi-instrumentalist: Kora player, percussionist, singer and composer from The Gambia who has numerous collaborations under his belt, inclusing the Indian-Welsh fusion project Ghazalaw and is also a key member of Norway-based ‘Kristin Asbjornsen Trio‘.
Also performing are some folk giants – the mighty Oysterband, who have lost none of that energy which always makes them a festival must-see. Plus, Maddy Prior and Forgotten Lands – an opportunity to learn, experience & explore traditional folk song with some of the very best vocal teachers in the business in a 2-hour vocal technique workshop
Blackbeard’s Tea Party will be on hand to electrify you with their riotous modern folk rock, while John Smith will no doubt be in high demand. His last album, The Fray, was one of his most captivating offerings, offering some of the most vulnerable music of his career to date.
Throughout the Saturday, there are also several International Folk concerts showcasing music from South Korea, Sweden and Flanders.
Among those performing are:
Symbio who are regarded as one of the most prominent new bands from the Swedish Folk and world music scene.
Broes was founded in 2009, with Florian De Schepper (guitar) and Anouk Sanczuk (violin) as a strong base. In 2012, Elke De Meester (chromatic accordion) joined them. The experimenting with new folk sounds, seasoned with lots of exotic influences and improvisation, became their trademark.
Gonia is a jazz group with a sophisticated understanding of Korean rhythms and high-level performances.
The group has already proved itself on the jazz scene and is drawing attention at home and abroad through in-depth research on Korean rhythms and collaboration with traditional Korean instruments.
As mentioned earlier, attendees can now enjoy a range of free events. The Band on the Wall Bar Stage will host daily live music sessions, while The Smithfield Market Tavern welcomes traditional music sessions. On Saturday, 21st October, the all-female dancing group Boss Morris – who seem to crop up everywhere these days – brings their vibrant performances to Cutting Room Square for all to enjoy.
‘Once again an amazing line-up has been put together for what is arguably the UK’s leading urban folk festival – which given its relatively short history is a real endorsement of the event.’ – Mark Radcliffe.
There is plenty that I haven’t covered, so be sure to check the festival website here.