This is such a bold, big-hearted album that it cannot fail to make you smile. Mikey Kenney is based in Liverpool and is known for his prowess with the fiddle and his compositional skills (he is also a multi-instrumentalist and a preserver of traditional English and Irish fiddle music), and Tiny Little Light (Produced by Mikey and Holly Harman of Penny Fiddle Records), is his fourth studio release. Apparently keen to couple his interest in traditional fiddle music with his penchant for the more experimental and idiosyncratic side of folk music, this one gets the balance just right.
A beautifully weighted album, featuring Michael Paul Metcalfe (drums), Awen Blandford (cello), John Ellis (piano), Nick Branton (clarinets), Beth Porter (cello), Biff Roxby (trombone), and Andy Raven (guitar, bass), Tiny Little Light begins immediately at the more psych-folk end of the scale, with Scarecrow Festival, a splendid piece of village folk built around an ace fiddle line that dances like the devil with Michael Paul Metcalfe’s insistent drums. Mikey’s free vocal, with hints of Sam Lee’s abandon, perfectly lands between trad-folk and folk horror soundtrack. This vocal hits a more dramatic and almost comical note in the following song, The Doing of the Bee, an upbeat number with a fun drum tattoo and a jaunty fiddle line. Again, the freedom and energy in both the music and the rangy vocals are irresistible, making you want to dance around the room.
Far more serious in character is Oh Duet, a quite beautiful instrumental led by John Ellis’s gorgeous piano playing and joined by a slow fiddle line. At the same time, Nick Branton’s Bass Clarinet is a real delight, bringing an extra dimension to a piece.
Further on, Wavertree, Shake-A-Bush sets us in a more traditional dance world, with a fun and spacious reel that brings banjo into duel with the underpinning drums and fiddle. And it does feel like the drums and fiddle partnership, recorded mostly live together in the same room to bring intimacy and immediacy to the music, is the key to the album and the springboard for the added arrangements to flourish.
That said, lovely miniature Cornish Journey, a minute in length, is a real highlight and the simplest tune here, with just dulcitone and space backing a clear vocal. It is gone before you know it, but lingers long and packs a surprising punch for such a slight piece of music.
At the other end of the scale is the closing song, The Dish and the Drain, which clocks in at nearly ten minutes and has a more modern, almost rocky nature, thanks to Andy Raven’s electric guitar and Mikey’s bass guitar. Mikey’s vocal also has a touch of reverb that combines well with the fiddle to bring that psych-folk-rock vibe in, and there is even a hint of Jefferson Airplane’s (Don’t You Want) Somebody to Love in there, which was unexpected. And it is that unexpected side of Mikey’s music that makes it truly exciting, as demonstrated throughout Tiny Little Light, an album chock-full of musical delights that somehow manages to maintain a steadiness and sense of cohesion throughout. Remarkable stuff.
Tiny Little Light (September 26th, 2025) Penny Fiddle Records
Bandcamp: https://mikeykenney.bandcamp.com/album/tiny-little-light