Alex Gallacher

These are Folk Radio UK’s favourite Top 100 Albums of 2021 selected from the many albums that were reviewed over the past year covering folk, roots, alternative and global music. Dig deeper by listening and reading our reviews.

Analog Africa, Lankum’s Ian Lynch, Dan Torigoe of Doleceola Recordings and Landworker’s Alliance are among those that delivered some spectacular compilation albums this year. Here are our favourite Top 10 Compilation Albums of 2021.

West Co. Sligo native BRÍDÍN does not do things in small measures. For her EP launch, she performed on a Boeing 767 that her dad transported from Shannon Airport, along the west coast of Ireland to Sligo by tug and barge. Watch the launch here.

Max Richter is to give the only British performance in 2022 of his acclaimed work ‘Voices’ and his classic piece ‘Infra’ at the COVENTRY Warwick Arts Centre. Whether you are new to Richter’s work or not, this is sure to be a moving and unforgettable experience.

Sub Rosa release collaboration between the late Ghédalia Tazartès and Rhys Chatham. “…the trace of a rare moment in a Parisian garden, it also summons a ghost, that of a loved one that is gone, and of his voice, which is fully alive here.”

EFDSS return once again with one of our favourite video series “In The Archive With…”. Their guest is Peggy Seeger who gets to hunt out some choice folk music from their archive. Peggy has also just announced her first Farewell Tour for Spring 2022.

Rowan:Morrison have announced their new album ‘Bride of the Wintertide’, the third album in their trilogy of winter-themed albums. Listen to the album opener “The Snow it Melts the Soonest”.

Alongside a UK & EU tour, Portland-based country-soul group The Delines, featuring Willy Vlautin and Amy Boone, return with their third studio album, The Sea Drift, in February. Watch their video for their irresistible retro-soul single ‘Past The Shadows’ which is released tomorrow.

Taken from their latest album Tonebeds For Poetry and featuring the artwork of writer, illustrator and printmaker, Nick Hayes, Stick in the Wheel have shared a visually stunning and haunting video for “The Seafarer”, a 10th Century poem.

A Broken House is a moving documentary that tells the story of Mohamad Hafez who comes to the U.S. on a single-entry visa to study architecture, and, when he realizes that he can’t return to his home country, conjures home in his art.

Previously known as Rainy Day Woman, Hannah Pawson and Gabriel Wynne relaunch as Fritillaries and share new single ‘Working Late’, a brooding song of anger and frustration about the treatment of asylum seekers in the UK.

We shine the spotlight on French duo Cocanha (Lila Fraysse & Caroline Dufau), who sing in Occitan, a beautifully poetic yet endangered language. Their latest album, Puput, is one of the most adventurous folk music albums we’ve heard in some time.