Emily Portman has shared a live video of Fox’s Song, filmed at Moonko, the Sheffield shop run by Deborah Maire Nelson. For the performance Portman (voice, banjo) is joined by Louis Campbell (guitar, voice) and Lucy Revis (cello, voice). It was filmed by Kate Griffin, with live sound by Andy Bell.
The song is taken from Dominion of Spells, released May 1st via Hudson Records and reviewed here as one of our Featured Albums of the Month. Fox’s Song was among the album’s early releases, and it draws on a Siberian folk tale about a woman who turns into a fox, casting its narrator as a shape-shifting woman-fox. Through her, Portman explores feminism, midlife change and the idea of abandoning oneself to a wilder form of life.
In his review, Thomas Blake described how Portman’s voice — understated but always clear — relates a quietly powerful message about the importance of free-spiritedness, her finely-wrought banjo playing forming a delicate lattice with Campbell’s guitar. The Moonko session captures the intimacy of Portman’s music perfectly, with Revis’s cello completing the trio.
Of all the singers and songwriters in British folk music, few have the ability to encapsulate what it means to be human in the way that Portman does. Dominion of Spells is a real and vital piece of work, something to be cherished.
Thomas Blake, KLOF Mag
Dominion of Spells (May 1st, 2026) Hudson Records
Order Dominion of Spells: https://hudsonrecords.ffm.to/dominionofspells