Niamh Bury’s ‘Yellow Roses’ is a record that can lead the charge for the Irish Folk scene at a time when the competition is fierce. This is no small accolade, for sure, but with an album this strong, it is an almost unavoidable statement.
A new KLOF Mixtape featuring Las Lloronas, Matthew Halsall, Orchestre tout puisaant marcel duchamp, Cosmo Sheldrake, Sam Lee, Awen Ensemble, Daisy Rickman, Lucas Santtana, Cocanha, Emahoy Tsege Mariam Gebru and more.
Martin Simpson’s Skydancers is a beautifully packaged album. The music exudes class and quality, but what impresses most is the restraint. No notes are wasted and all instrumental flourishes land, enhancing each song. It is an excellent record from a master of his craft.
Listen to another Monday Morning Brew playlist, featuring Mark Fry, Daisy Rickman, Ryley Walker, The Keithe Lowrie Duet, Mich Blue Smaldone, P.G. Six, Nico, Ed Askew, Jim Ghedi, Mugwort, Dando Shaft, North Sea Radio Orchestra, Carol Kleyn, These Trails, Appendix Out, Anne Briggs and more.
Jonathan Day has released a moving new song and video for easter/Ostara featuring portraits by Anne Brierley made during the Gaza conflict – “These beautiful faces are lost to us now – we will not hear their laughter, see their drawings, hear their music.”
Mind, Man, Medicine finds The Secret Sisters at the peak of their powers, delivering an album that fully deserves another Grammy nomination for Best Folk Album.
Daisy Rickman’s Howl is a wonder, an ancient pastoral dream of an album full of contemporary resonances existing at a kind of crossroads where the early freak-folk pioneers collide with a more recent strain of rural hauntology. The result sounds like a whole new genre.
While Moris Tepper’s life has taken directions far off the beaten path, his muse and music are legendary. Challenging and charming, Building A Nest marks a welcome return that adds to that legacy.
Drag City announce a Gastr del Sol box set, We Have Dozens of Titles. Listen to the song “The Seasons Reverse,” recorded at their final show during the 1997 Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville.
Sam Lee’s ‘Songdreaming’ pleases on so many levels, the significance of the stories told by the lyrics build in your mind while powerful arrangements do what music does best, evoking emotional response after emotional response.
Samana—Rebecca Rose Harris and Franklin Mockett—have announced the release of their third self-titled album and shared the opening track ‘The Knife’ – “…a freeing of stored weight and emotion; the confrontation of somatic memory…”.
Nobel Jacks frontman Will Page makes his solo debut album Still Standing featuring Cormac Byrne and Steve Knightley of Show of Hands. An impressive and, at times, inspirational album.
