Return to Kielderside is, among other things, a document of what has happened between that first Kathryn Tickell release and the present day-It’s like a long-exposure photograph of an important and highly impressive career in constant evolution.
From uncanny atmospherics to heartfelt emotion, The Declining Winter’s ‘Last April’ offers the perfect example of how the combination of sadness, hope and love can be captured in music, perhaps more effectively than any other artform.
Fortunately for us, Christy Moore’s songs, albums, and gigs keep coming, and on ‘A Terrible Beauty’, the tenderness, empathy, solidarity, and absence of pretension never waver – long may it continue.
For anyone already aboard the Sun Ra mothership, Kingdom of Discipline, the latest release from the man and his Arkestra on Dead Currencies, is going to fast become a key missing piece to the overall puzzle as well as a favoured edition from the catalogue.
Robert Macfarlane & Nick Hayes have collaborated on another modern Broadside Ballad which protests the slow death of rivers in the UK & around the world––& sings for their revival.
Our Song of the Day comes from Cynefin – Welsh folk singer and cultural historian Owen Shiers. Taken from his forthcoming album Shimli, listen to his latest single, ‘Helmi’, which presents the words of an obscure cân (a poem or song) by farmer Evan Jones.
Dave McNally takes in the sights and sounds of WOMEX 24 in Manchester, including Ireland’s Clare Sands, Ríoghnach Connolly fronting local legends Honeyfeet and compelling, energetic singer Gladys Samba leading the exhilarating collective, Les Mamans du Congo.
Zachary Lucky’s ‘The Wind’ is in the classic mould of an Americana troubadour album – it’s up there with the best, alongside Guy Clark, Tom Rush, and Townes Van Zandt.
Richard Dawson announces his new album ‘End of the Middle’ and shares his lead single ‘Polytunnel’, the video for which was filmed at several allotments…a beautiful tribute to these communal, alternative spaces.
On 26th October, Jerron Paxton made an impressive BBC Television debut on ‘Later…with Jools Holland’. He was interviewed by Jools and performed two songs, including ‘What’s Gonna Become of Me’, from his new album on Smithsonian Folkways, ‘Things Done Changed’.
Dance of Love feels like it could turn out to be Tucker Zimmerman’s Basement Tapes. Everything about it is fresh and spontaneous, music made on its own terms but with a spirit of collaborative generosity.
The shortlisted nominees for the Scots Trad Music Awards 2024 are revealed including Ryan Young, Project Smok, Laura Jane Wilkie, Malin Lewis, Kinnaris Quintet and many more.
