Artist of the Month

It may have taken almost 25 years and a sharp thinking festival booker to light the fuse, but Eliza Carthy and Tim Erikson have finally brewed up a Bottle of rare vintage. Here they tell Folk Radio all about it.

Having released one of the best albums of the year so far, we caught up with Jackie Oates to talk about her musical journey from her early days of singing at Topsham Folk Club to pursuing her solo career. We also talk about the making of The Spyglass & The Herringbone.

Eliza Carthy and Tim Eriksen finally found the means to combine their extraordinary talents and a couple of UK tours created the opportunity to open the Bottle in celebration. This is a great record, as accomplished and surprising as you might expect from two of the folk world’s most complete musical artists.

The Spyglass & The Herringbone gathers up all of Jackie Oates promise to date, dusts it down and adds polish to present a sparkling jewel of a folk record. It’s a rare and most refined thing of gift of great beauty and as good a record as you could rightly hope for, that’s all yours for the small price of admission.

Having told us about their Equation days and their early musical beginnings in part one of our interview, Kathryn Roberts and Sean Lakeman now bring the story of their Folk Award winning duo up to date. They talk openly about their challenges, their new album, songwriting and more. They are on tour now.

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.

Drawn to Cornwall for the sun, surf, romance and unique culture our Artists of the Month, The Grenaways, tell FRUK about the magic they have found and channelled into the excellent Be Still Young Heart.

In part two of our exclusive interview Adrian, Becky and Rachel talk about the sourcing writing and arranging and recording of Mount The Air.

In the first part of our exclusive interview with The Unthanks they talk about their singing weekends and a vinyl playback of Mount The Air sees Adrian puncturing a few misconceptions.

Two years in the making and recorded in their own new studio set up, Mount The Air encapsulates all of the contradictions that make The Unthanks so beautifully thrilling.

With his heartfelt songs Kenneth J Nash looks beyond the troubles of his life for the hope that follows The Fall of Eden, here he tells us how the LP helped put him back on track.

Kenneth J Nash has certainly known some hard times and The Fall Of Eden is a title laden with significance. Summoning happier memories this record is a cathartic and road map to a new dawn.