Featured

Monmouth’s Twelve reflects both Fishclaw’s creative freedom and an ever expanding palette from one of the most exciting and original bands currently working within the loose framework of folk music.

Saskia’s latest offering ‘Are You Listening’ is a sublime and reflective album that will mesmerize the listener, and is always underpinned with optimism and hope for the future.

Our Artists of the Month are The Magpie Arc, a new cross-border folk/rock band featuring Nancy Kerr, Martin Simpson, Adam Holmes, Tom A Wright and Alex Hunter. Read our interview and watch their new video ‘Greenswell’.

A set full of character, depth and textured music made with unpretentious skill and consideration, Under the Red Island Bakery is a special kind of album that doesn’t appear very often. An enduring treat that will be played to death, this one will stick to your stereo and make itself hard to forget.

We chat to the Anglo-Irish quartet The Haar about their wonderful new album of traditional Irish songs set to improvised music. Cue major and minor key switching, intuition and creative satisfaction.

This month saw the release of Sam Carter’s new album ‘Home Waters’, in this special guest feature, Sam talks us through the story behind his song ‘Surprise View’ which is accompanied by a live performance filmed by Thom Atkinson.

A super quality live album that both serves as a broad showcase for the music of one of the modern era’s most gifted singer-songwriter’s, in the classic style of such craftsmen, and a pristine document of a great night out on the live circuit in late 2019.

Featuring Adam Summerhayes, Cormac Byrne, Murray Grainger and Molly Donnery, watch The Haar’s video for Anachie Gordon, a new track that was recorded, filmed, mixed, and made remotely, in lockdown.

At once playful, focused, narratively strong and highly respectful of heritage, Atlantic Edge is a triumph of musical prowess and a master class in beautifully blending traditional music with classical styles. It is an exceptional album.

We need more music like this; spontaneous, alive and affecting, The Haar, featuring Adam Summerhayes, Cormac Byrne, Murray Grainger and Molly Donnery, will take you on a journey and have you appreciating the purest of life’s pleasures. Wonderful stuff.

Thomas Blake interviews the Gigspanner Big Band, our Artists of the Month, who demonstrate they are admirably democratic not just in their music-making process, but also in their interviews where everyone gets their say.

In a special guest post, Hannah Martin (Edgelarks, Gigspanner Big Band) talks about her own journey into folk music and how we can better attract younger people into the folk scene.