Melanie McGovern

With one foot in Bristol and the other in Japan, UK folk artist Rachael Dadd isn’t one to settle in any place for too long, and her latest release Bite the Mountain certainly reflects this love of people and travel. Released on Broken Sound Records this third LP from the songstress comprises a rich tapestry of songs composed in various locations across Japan. “Making my album in Japan was important”, …

While the pace of ‘The Harrow and the Harvest’ may be ponderous and patient, it recalls a return to greatness from Gillian Welch and Dave Rawlings, this album reads like her debut Revival, like a classic folk album and like the new praise worthy collection of songs it is – three in one.

Devon Sproule’s latest recording ‘I Love You, Go Easy’ fleshes out the contemplative jazzy folk of this Ontario born and Virginia based musician, and her live performance at Notting Hill’s The Tabernacle, the perfect setting for these crisp, new arrangements and their personable lyricisms and vocals to take shape.

Marissa Nadler’s fifth self-titled album, and the first released on her own label Box of Cedar, is an evocative, layered aural world…a step ahead in many ways, deftly balancing the mystery of her musical world, so often described as dream-folk, with a weighted frankness.

Chris Bathgate’s latest release is a record of great joy and pain which neatly couples itself with Bathgate’s cathartic recording process. He has marked himself as an adept lyricist and musician, constructing an alt-country affair tumultuous passion and despair in equal measure, and yet by the end we’re convinced of a little light relief and the thawing of this Salt Year.

While on first appearances an ambitious album, perhaps uncertain of what it wants to be, it succeeds in displaying an expression of sound and an intricacy with detail that shows deft skill in experimentation, something more than making up for moments that don’t quite gel.

Alela Diane has proven herself capable of a somewhat reinvention whilst never shedding her roots, and while her voice dazzled in its powerful country twangs and intonations, it was often the softer spoken plaintive tones that resonated more deeply.

Give The Felice Brothers ‘Celebration, Florida’ a consistent dose of straight-through plays and you have probably their best album to date. It is both broad, unplaceable and still somehow retentive of their beginnings.

Given the paralysing despair of his debut solo recording Last of the Country Gentlemen, Josh T Pearson’s live persona is a pretty chirpy guy in contrast to his recorded portrait of a lonesome folk troubadour.

In contrast to a career spanning two decades and over a dozen recorded albums – including those as his earlier moniker Smog – to his name, Bill Callahan is a man of surprising few words onstage. It’s forgivable however, as captured in his dry wit and deep seated vocal wisdom are enough tales of surrealist simplicity to make up.

Melanie catches up with Vadoinmessico and talks to them about their history, influences and plans for the future.

Dan Haywood’s New Hawks set comprised of songs which flitted between folky laments, coupled with intricate Celtic fiddle from two onstage violinists, to more bizarre and lightly psychedelic flirtations which would see Haywood stand nicely (though perhaps uneasily) beside David Thomas Broughton’s spontaneous, alternative folk performances.