Aoife Nessa Frances may have been caught in the wonder of the moment, trying to figure out where she fits in, yet Protector is a most generous gift, where she plays not to the crowd but to the sound and swirl of her own heart.
Old Spot are a new Old-Time duo featuring Joe Danks and Rowan Piggott. The first video from Old Spot’s debut album sees earthy gourd banjo and the natural beauty of Padley Gorge underpinning the winding Old Time fiddle tune ‘Black Eyed Susie Jane’.
Basin Rock are to release an album of never-before-heard 70s British folk by Trevor Beales, recorded in the attic of his family home in Hebden Bridge when still a teenager. One to file next to Davey Graham, Michael Chapman, Bert Jansch and Jackson C Frank.
Only a few albums warrant being designated genre-defining and/or so important that they changed music…The Watersons’ Frost & Fire is one of them; it remains a revelatory and seminal album and this vinyl reissue by Topic Records is an essential purchase.
On 11 November, Lady Maisery, the combined multi-talents of Hazel Askew, Hannah James and Rowan Rheingans, return with their new album ‘tender’. Watch the accompanying video for ‘bird i do not know’, their lead single, a song of hope, born of turbulent times.
The Foreign Landers are mandolinist David Benedict, who grew up in South Carolina, and Tabitha Agnew Benedict, who started playing 5-string banjo at a young age in her homeland of Northern Ireland. Watch them performing Garden, taken from their forthcoming debut album Travelers Rest.
We talk to Rachel and Becky of The Unthanks about the folk song tradition, collecting songs, and their new album ‘Sorrows Away’, one of their most extraordinary records to date.
With A Tarot Of The Green Wood, Burd Ellen successfully tread entirely new ground. It is a suitably bewitching, disconcerting and often profoundly moving experience from the most innovative duo in folk music.
Eliza Carthy’s Queen Of The Whirl is all top-drawer…the element that fires listeners up the most is that voice. As far as natural-born instruments go, it is one of the best and wow, does she know how to use it.
Our Song of the Day comes from Sara Noelle with Color of Light on the Water; watch the beautiful accompanying animated video by Kelsey Boncato. The track is taken from her third full-length LP Do I Have to Feel Everything, which arrives on January 27.
Watch Native Harrow performing ‘Old Kind of Magic’ live, the title track of their new album. It ripples with that mythologized Laurel Canyon vibe yet also carries that distinct and unmistakable Native Harrow DNA which has become more unique and refined with each iteration.
Shot through with threads of resilience, Samuel James Taylor’s ‘Wild Tales and Broken Hearts’ is an album that reignited his love of music and songwriting.
