We take a look at this year’s line-up for Underneath the Stars Festival which is run by Kate Rusby and her family-run record company Pure Records. With the likes of Lucy Rose, Marry Waterson & David A Jaycock, Show of Hands, Roddy Woomble and more, it’s shaping up beautifully.

Having recently secured three nominations in the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards, Dublin singer and bouzouki player Daoirí Farrell announces a UK Tour on which he will be joining the Damien O’Kane Trio on the first leg.

Last year saw Tim Eriksen reunited for the first time with Omar Sosa since Across the Divide (released 2010). The combination of Eriksen’s Southern Appalachia and New England folk music with Sosa’s jazz, Latin and African influences made a unique concert performance.

Neil McSweeney’s latest offering ‘A Coat Worth Wearing’ is reminiscent of the romantic poets Wordsworth or Shelley, but like Blake, he has a darker side, a rebellious streak and a decisive need to push for positive change. It is a rare songwriter that can combine these elements over the course of an album or even a career. McSweeney often manages to do it in the space of a single song.

The Shake the Chains cast along with special guest Martin Simpson gave a performance to lift the most sullen heart in these trying times and to point the way to a better future. With a finale which saw everyone singing We Shall Overcome, the evening was a potent reminder that together we could be harmonious and unvanquishable.

California-based songwriter Corinne West kicks off her 2017 UK Tour in April 2017. She is also to release a new single; a reworking of the Battlefield Band song ‘The Yew Tree,’ written by Brian McNeill.

Contemporary folk duo Gilmore & Roberts are set to hit the road with brand new songs (and some old favourites) at the beginning of March, covering Germany, the Netherlands and England with their spring tour.

Watch the brand new video from Eliza Carthy & The Wayward Band featuring Teddy Thompson. The band find themselves in a remote village hall with a miserable audience. But things soon brighten up as the band take to the dancefloor. Also new Tour Dates announced!

With it being St. David’s Day today this new video for ‘West Coast Sun’ from Danielle Lewis is perfectly timed, a song that recalls her memories of growing up on the Welsh coast to temporarily living on the East Coast of Australia.

KT Tunstall, Newton Faulkner, Eliza Carthy and Jon Boden, are set to headline the 53rd Towersey Festival (25-28 August 2017, Thame, Oxfordshire). They’re joined by Show Of Hands, Lindisfarne, The Blockheads and Foy Vance, amongst others.

Éilís Kennedy’s new solo album ‘Westward’ features the finest songs from all over the British Isles and from across the Atlantic. The connections Éilís enjoys with her collaborators have helped her share those songs in a memorable and truly enjoyable setting. An exceptional album from one of Ireland’s finest voices.

Listen to Da Ram, the lead single from Liverpool-based trio I SEE RIVERS new EP. Hailing from the Northern, Southern and Western parts of Norway you’ll love these memorable melodies and untraditional harmonies.