Paul Woodgate

Records this good are worth the wait. After a couple of spins, Blue On Blue feels like a classic from the past but continues to reveal moments of delight long after.

Every new Blue Rose Code album has been a progression from the last, and ‘With Healings Of The Deepest Kind’ is no different. It should be on everybody’s end-of-year list.

Quite how an artist regroups after an effort like this is anyone’s guess. I’ve not heard anything as beautifully intense or personal since Bon Iver’s ‘For Emma, Forever Ago’.

It penetrates your conscious on the first listen and unfolds as all its glorious fecundity comes flooding to the surface. A folk-pop-ambient-electronica soup of loveliness.

Miranda Sykes and Rex Preston, two virtuoso musicians, have created a wonderfully balanced album – that rare combination of immediacy and longevity – a class affair from start to finish. Read our review and watch the video premiere for ‘Good Natured Man.’

Young five-piece Cornish band Flats and Sharps release their new album King Of My Mind – a Saturday night record, a going out, indulgent, unrestrained binge of an album that frequently delights.

Brown has been quoted as saying he’s searching for a new way to say the same things. Whether he’s succeeding or not is somewhat irrelevant given the quality and beauty of the songs on Slow Light, which must be considered a candidate for those end-of-year ‘best of’ lists. Make sure it’s on yours.

Like panning for gold, Stevenson and his producer Mike Scott (Waterboys) have pored over the contents of Freddie’s heart, washed away any excess and conjured small but perfectly formed gems from the stuff of life. And how they sparkle.

Conceived and largely written on the road whilst touring, Franc Cinelli’s new album ‘The Marvel Age’ rumbles out of the groove like a battered freight train, each boxcar a different story, every station strange, and strangely familiar; jump the train and listen.

In their latest release ‘Conflict Tourism, Gilmore and Roberts step over the border, wade through the battles and emerge unbowed… taking us through theatres of conflict that directly and indirectly affect every one of us.

We head to The Islington, London to catch The Deslondes from New Orleans…There’s plenty of lead-swapping going on, so much so that from the back of the room the crowd look like they’re watching a tennis match.

Paul catches up with The Unthanks at Cambridge Folk Festival, they talk about future projects, what they’re listening to, nerves, and their ever popular Singing Weekends.

Prior to her amazing Cambridge Folk Festival performance we were lucky enough to grab some time with Gretchen Peters. She provides a great insight into her songwriting career and tells us what makes UK audiences different.

Paul catches the Ben Miller Band backstage at Cambridge Folk Festival before treating the audience to their own brand of Ozark Stomp…”And we don’t really form our shows, but before you know it you’re in the middle of something and it feels good.” It’s a tour-de-force performance from start to finish!

Sturgill Simpson and his band put on an unforgettable performance in Islington…riding a critically positive wave and tighter than a rusty spur…like standing on the edges of a huge storm and feeling it rush past.

Paul catches up with The Stray Birds who were, for a lot of observers, the highlight of this year’s Cambridge Folk Festival. Plus watch them performing a backstage session and don’t miss their remaining UK dates.

We caught up with Bella Hardy at Cambridge Folk Festival. She provided one of the most deeply insightful interviews and tells us of her plans to visit China as artist in residence by the PRS For Music Foundation and the British Council in Kunming, south China. Plus Download a free live track from Bella’s performance at Cambridge.

At Cambridge Folk Festival this year The Lone Bellow arrived on the back of some decent press and left having stolen the hearts of everyone who watched them. Paul talks to the band back-stage and takes us through some of those magical moments.