Fragmented, scrapbook recordings documented at his mother’s house, Mike Hadreas’ debut Learning is the kind of angst-ridden poetry that succeeds by being so shrouded in mystery and a tender incoherence that we are left intrigued rather than irritated. These lo-fi recordings echo the Woods, his vocals Sufjan Stevens’ girlish whisper and Neil Young’s pained falsetto.

Seasick Steve heads a posse of top acts for the third annual Southern Fried Festival of American Roots Music in Perth, Scotland. The festival takes place in Perth Concert Hall, Perth Theatre and a variety of other venues nearby. All the roots music bases from blues and country to rock ‘n’ roll, gospel, soul and R&B will be covered in this packed weekend of song, dance, food, workshops, kid’s events …

Folk-shoegaze five-piece A Weather have been quietly lurking around since 2006, releasing The Feather Test 7 inch in 2007, followed by debut LP Cove the year after. This year’s Everyday Balloons, in keeping with the previous releases is out on Conor Oberst’s record label Team Love, and was produced by Adam Selzer who has worked with the likes of Norfolk & Western and M. Ward.

Paul Curreri is renowned for his inspired songs, bright voice, and talented finger-style playing as well as his wife, Devon Sproule. He has also been described as  “A ruffled gypsy gutter cowboy, a true life adventurer…”. He has been touring in the UK promoting his latest CD, California. In some ways the album came about due to a vocal-cord injury which forced him off the road, which he had been …

An intimate setting in Stirling’s Tollbooth theatre was the location for a double bill featuring Cormac Cannon, a Uilleann piper from Galway and a performance of Jenna and Bethany Reid’s The Shetland Bus Cormac Cannon is one of a talented group of young Uilleann pipers in Ireland today. Learning music from an early age, his influences include Galway pipers Eammon O’Broithe and Tommy Keane. He has avidly imbibed the techniques, …

Wig Smith is the other half of folk duo The Hand which comprises Bristol singer-songwriter Rachael Dadd. At the end of April he announced the release of his solo debut A Means of Escape Through a Hedge. There was little background information I could track down on this album other than the plentiful insights from the artist himself – the best we could have hoped for! Much like the lyrics …

If you’re at a loose end this weekend or fancy a great festival why not head upto the Lake District for the Imploding Acoustic Inevitable Festival! The festival takes place in Fell Foot Woods, home of Pancosmic Pyromanticism! IAI is an intimate 2 day festival and offers the finest underground urban folk and poetry that the UK has to offer. You will see many Frukie artists in the line-up! Looks …

This festival line-up just keeps getting better, just when I think they’ve topped it they add another top band that we love! Indie giants Modest Mouse, gothic-Americana act Iron & Wine, conquering London guitar trio The White Lies and the single most exciting irish act of the last few years, Villagers, have all been added to this year’s 12th Open House Festival in Belfast, 7th – 12th September!

This is not the easiest of albums to review, because it’s near-perfect – and a string of superlatives is not very exciting after a paragraph or two, is it? But bear with me – you know that moment – as a player, as a listener, as a random passer-by – when a session suddenly takes flight? That gear change that can only happen when every musician is playing at the …

Brampton Live 2010, the biggest folk roots festival in the north of England, has been cancelled. The 16th Brampton festival was due to take place near Carlisle between July 16-18 with a bumper line-up of artists from the UK, America and Canada. But founders Ken and Sue Bradburn and their fellow directors of Brampton Live Ltd, Mick North and Steve Henderson have issued the following statement:

Duncan Chisholm has released Canaich, the second instalment in his Strathglass trilogy, on Copperfish Records. This follows on from Farrar, the award-winning first album in the trilogy, inspired by the highland landscapes populated by his ancestors. In 1988 Duncan Chisholm was a founder member of Wolfstone; within two years the band had become a full-time job and one of Scotland’s most talented musicians was at the start of an impressive …

In August Moishe’s Bagel release their long-awaited third album ‘Uncle Roland’s Flying Machine’, produced by David Keay and with specially commissioned artwork by renowned cartoonist Glen Baxter. Thrillingly original cutting-edge klezmer and folk music from some of Scotland’s finest musicians. An intoxicating, life-affirming mix of Eastern European dance music, Middle Eastern rhythms and virtuoso performances.