Simon Holland

With a little help from Sam Lakeman and Boo Hewerdine, The Changing Room’s debut Behind The Lace proves a brilliant tribute to the sun, sea and salt air of the Cornish southwest. It is one of those delightful little gems, one you should all seek out.

With each successive work Spiro seem to get better, as the hours playing with and for each other have their effect. Intense, calming, complex, minimal, meditative and playful the Spiro machine whirs into majestic life to Welcome Joy Welcome Sorrow drawing its fuel from the life to be lived.

In the first of our two part exclusive interview we take Kathryn Roberts and Sean Lakeman back to their musical origins. They provide us with an exclusive and fascinating insight into their early days and folk supergroup Equation. Kathryn and Sean are our Artists of the Month for April.

We were recently given the opportunity of an exclusive insight into Dan Walsh’s musical life from his inspirations and roots to his new album ‘Incidents and Accidents’ and the exciting collaborations that fit in between. How could we resist: Dan reveals all from crowd surfing in New Zealand to his all-time favourite songwriter.

The first of what promises to be a varied set of EPs, Music For Exhibition & Film finds Aidan O’Rourke in visionary mode. Music to file under electronic meditations and could be described as visionary in that it plays on your mind’s eye and promotes visions and as such lives up to its title admirably. The mental movie is yours for the making.

Their third album, The Ghost In Our House And Other Stories, finds Merry Hell at the rebel heart of folk-rock adding real sophistication to their high energy good time mix. As they say on their website “Our pleasure is to please: let the audience be the acid test and let the music speak for itself…”

Simon heads off to London’s Sebright Arms to catch New Zealand based Indie-folkers Streets of Laredo plus we have an excellent and exclusive bedroom demo from the band for ‘Need A Little Help’ taken from their current album Volume I & II which was a Featured Album of the Month on Folk Radio UK.

Breda Mayock has the voice and her self titled album the songs of enchantment, beautifully played and arranged this is music that creates its own serene, inviting world. It cuts through time itself and rearranges the world around you in blissful harmony, it’s absolutely entrancing from start to finish. Pick up a copy and treasure it.

We have a lovely video premiere for you today with ‘Say It’s True’ taken from the forthcoming 7-Song-EP from Siobhan Wilson, formerly known as Ella The Bird. She is currently supporting Idlewild on tour and is also lined up to support Lau on their forthcoming tour. Lau’s Aidan O’Rourke is one of several notable guests on the forthcoming record.

Seth Avett & Jessica Lea Mayfield Sing Elliott Smith is simply that. Two fans pay a beautifully crafted tribute to the late songsmith for the sheer love of his music. One on which the songs are naturally littered with things that you can take to reference Elliott’s troubled and too short life.

Hailing from south Yorkshire, growing up in Sheffield and Barnsley, Richard Kitson has quietly emerged as one of the best guitar pickers of his generation, one who marries blues and folk styles into a fresh new sound. His latest album also proves that he has the songs and a storyteller’s gift. All of us need our time to escape and 40 minutes on ‘Hermit Hill’ is as good a place …

Here’s a nice exclusive and Song of the Day, with a video for Scott Matthews’ 86 Floors From Heaven created by his good friend Adam Bulley. The intimate solo performance captures the comparatively rare sight of Matthews at the piano and was shot in the shed that is the creative epicentre of Scott’s music making.