Billy Rough

There has never been a force of nature quite like the exhilarating juggernaut of bombastic, swaggering, buffed, multi-coloured big band folk that is Bellowhead and it is unlikely there ever will be again. Pandemonium presents highlights from Bellowhead’s incredible career.

Read our live review of The Shee at Findhorn, on their recordings the girls pride themselves on capturing an authentic live sound and after hearing them in the flesh that’s certainly true!

The Shee are known for their mix of folk, bluegrass and trad delivered with affecting vocals and lush instrumentals, ‘Murmurations’, their third release, delivers once again this fine balance.

The Whisky River Boat Band: Four guys and a girl, laden with guitars, fiddles, banjos and a double bass on “a canoe powered musical odyssey down the River Spey!

Marry Waterson and Oliver Knight’s ‘The Days that Shaped Me’ is the result of nearly four years musical collaboration but is ultimately the result of a lifetime of experience. Read our review and hear excerpts below.

Ewan Robertson, part-time fire fighter and guitarist/vocalist with rising Scottish folk band Breabach, has delivered a debut solo album which demonstrates his fine playing and eclectic mix of musical interests.

Kerry Fowler’s solo EP, Dance of the Selkie, is a fine introduction to a promising singer songwriter who’s garnering some much deserved praise for her well-crafted and atmospheric ballads.

Fife’s Big Tent Festival, held in the beautiful location of the Falkland estate under the watchful Lomond Hills, celebrated its 5th birthday with another outstanding weekend full of superb music, delicious food, charming company and ecological enlightenment.

Following on from their equally thematic album (Take Yourself A Wife) Megson’s Longshot takes another topic as its key – this time it’s working life that is played out in the polished narratives and well-crafted arrangements.

The eponymous debut album from young folk trio Tyde is an exciting and dynamic breakthrough piece of work. Finalists in the BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Awards in 2009 Tyde comprise of Heather Gessey on fiddle and vocals, Seth Tinsley on guitar and Andrew Waite on accordion.

The mighty Saltfishforty, comprising of Orcadians Douglas Montgomery on fiddle/viola and Brian Cromarty on guitar, mandola and vocals have steadily been wowing audiences with their infectious and feisty rhythms since the release of their debut album Goose Music way back in 2003.

It was a slightly subdued East Neuk audience that welcomed Spiers & Boden and Saltfishforty to the stage at the Byre Theatre, St Andrews on Friday, perhaps that was due to the heat of the warm July night. The boys, however, didn’t take long to rouse the audience and by the end of the night the quartet had the normally reserved St Andrew’s audience taping and clapping away they way …