News

The BBC Radio 2 Folk Award Winners for 2011 were announced tonight following during an award ceremony which went out live. There were many highlights of the evening as well as double wins for Chris Wood as well as Eliza Carthy and norma Waterson. Ewan McLennan also managed to pick up the Horizon Award! Find out the winners here.

A new feature on Folk Radio UK is a favourite weekly video. We decided to start at the top rung level, and this will be hard to beat. This is from a 1989 edition of “Aly Bain and Friends”, with none other than Dick Gaughan performing ‘Both Sides of the Tweed’ from his 1980 “Handful of Earth” album.

This weeks ‘Album of the Week’ is Fernhill’s latest release: canu rhydd which features eight new pieces which really shows their talents off to their fullest. Fernhill have been described as cultural ambassadors for Wales and its music.

Today saw the first UK event of Cape breton Sound, a celebration of the music of Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. Three shows are scheduled from today until Wed 3rd Feb in Manchester, Cardiff and London, and they’re absolutely FREE!

Katriona Gilmore & Jamie Roberts have released their official video for ‘Fleetwood Fair’ which is taken from their 2010 album, Up from the Deep which was self-produced, mixed by Andy Bell and mastered by Megson’s Stu Hanna.

Bristol Folk Festival has taken the wraps off its full artist line up for the Mayday Bank Holiday weekend, revealing a strong programme of top acts from across the UK Folk scene: Show of Hands, Seth Lakeman, Bellowhead, Dervish, Rachel McShane, Bella Hardy, Fay Hield and more!

With the release of her debut album Company of Ghosts in spring 2010, Lizzie’s reputation as a captivating new voice in British folk has continued to grow. It is with great pleasure that we present Lizzie in session at Folk Radio UK

Ashley Hutchings, founder member of Fairport Convention, brings his new band, The Rainbow Chasers, to Square Chapel Centre for the Arts on Sunday 30 January.

Celtic Connections is delighted to be working with the Apple Store on Buchanan Street, Glasgow to feature a series of live in-store performances by festival artists throughout January. The artists will give short taster performances ahead of their Celtic Connections gigs.

Donovan will be presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award at BBC Radio 2’s Folk Awards 2011 on Monday 7 February, as well performing an acoustic version of one of his classic songs.

The following videos are from the Shrewsbury Folk Festival 2010 which featured a host of names I’m sure many of you are familar with including Bellowhead, Dervish and Andy Irvine, Genticorum, Nancy Kerr and James Fagan, Boo Hewerdine and Heidi Talbot to name just a few.

Help Mànran to become the first band in the 21st century to take a Gaelic song into the official UK top 40. Download it today from itunes!