Wild Hxmans finds Sweden’s answer to Tindersticks’ Stuart Staples and Nick Cave combined brooding on a world in transition, the X replacing the U in the title symbolic of the way we cross others out and ignore them.
Hieroglyphs That Tell the Tale is so wonderful that words really can’t do it justice. As nature writer Robert McFarlane once said “Language is always late for its subject. Sometimes …I just say ‘wow’”. Listen and be wowed. Her best album yet.
Kirsty Merryn arrived in London to deliver a fabulous concert at Camden’s Green Note in support of her highly regarded debut album She & I. The emotion she conveyed and her breathtaking vocals were the stars of the show.
The album’s strongest standalone tracks come in the middle, as the LP slowly builds its own sort of momentum between the lo-fi Elliot Smith sounding ‘out of your mind’ and ‘blue-red horses’. In between, ‘cradle’ has a gorgeous serenity that recalls Julie Byrne’s 2017 release Not Even Happiness.
While on tour, Dublin-based singer Lisa O’Neill visited the childhood home of John Lennon in Liverpool. While there, Lisa, accompanied by two supporting musicians, performed the popular traditional ballad Leaving of Liverpool which is also our Song of the Day.
Our song of the Day comes from Paul Sartin, Benji Kirkpatrick and Saul Rose who collectively make up the English folk trio Faustus. Watch their new video for The Death of the Hart Royal a mythological tale in which The Lord of the Greenwood – Robin Hood – encounters a dying stag.
This week’s Folk Show features music from Julie Fowlis, Declan O’Rourke, The Furrow Collective, Fara, Talisk, Breabach, Lisa O’Neill, Sam Lee, Gilmore & Roberts, The Trials of Cato, Landless, Cruinn, Seth Lakeman and Sgorrabreac.
It’s hard to think of a band that has achieved so much and made such an impact on the trad music scene in their first 3 years, as Glasgow based trio Talisk. ‘Beyond’ is the next thrilling step on that journey as they bring ever more craft and excitement to their music.
Experiencing Declan O’Rourke’s ‘Chronicles of the Great Irish Famine’ live is frankly quite unlike any other show I have ever seen. It is both completely engrossing and literally unforgettable.
In Comet, Carly Dow reclaims tales of loneliness and heartbreak: she is willing to admit when she is afraid, but proud to proclaim when she feels fearless. No stone is left unturned in this resonant ode to female independence.
In April this year The Model gallery in Sligo, owners of a selection of Iconic Images of the greatest Celtic Epic, The Táin, was host to an interpretation of this ancient epic which married three art forms. Find out more and watch a performance of Scread Ceann Sualtaim.
Following the sell-out success of the first ever Walton Folk Festival, another amazing lineup is set to light up the Riverhouse Barn on Saturday 4 May 2019 including False Lights, Daria Kulesh, Edgelarks, The Trials of Cato, Lukas Drinkwater and Hannah Ashcroft.
