Albums

In the first of a 3-part review of the 33rd Orkney Folk Festival Alice Tait sets the scene and shares some of the highlights of Day one including Barrule, Louise Bichan, the Hot Seats and Bruce Mainland.

Seckou Keita’s latest album ’22 Strings’ is his first ever solo album and in this new video interview he provides a valuable insight into the album including the significance of the songs and his kora playing.

Adam Holmes & The Embers continue to follow up the success of last year’s debut album, Heirs & Graces, with live dates up and down the country. On Friday night it was the chance for a Glasgow audience to enjoy the band, thanks to The Fallen Angels Club at the thriving Centre for Contemporary Arts; with up and coming solo performer Genesee providing the opening set.

Having made her mark with The Duke & The King, Simi Stone taps into her Upstate Catskill roots for a debut album of bright, vivid soulful sounds as fresh as the sun-kissed mountain air. Plus watch the premiere of her new video for ‘Got It All’.

Most of ‘Sundown Over Ghost Town’ was inspired by and written in Idaho City, a mostly abandoned former mining centre to the north of Eilen Jewell’s hometown of Boise, where she now lives, and provides the album’s reflective tone and lyrical threads. It is a more reflective, musically subdued work than some of her past outings, but it may well be her best yet.

Building a solid following and already a significant presence on the festival scene, in an age of  shooting stars that flare briefly and pass in the night, Thomas is an artist of solid, enduring substance and a real keeper.

Following hot on the heels of a brace of seriously landmark live gigs: first at this year’s Celtic Connections, and second and most recently in Dublin where they celebrated two decades of straight-down-the-line high-energy music-making Danú ‘s latest offering ‘Buan’ is in every respect a splendid achievement from a premier Irish band still at the very top of their game.

Building on the acclaim for his debut, Rhythm & Reason finds Bhi Bhiman hitting a socially conscious, soul groove and combining the political and the personal with trademark wit and wisdom. Don’t miss his UK and Ireland Tour in June.

Kent Folk-rock sextet Galley Beggar’s latest album does a damn good job of consolidating the tradition that began with Fairport Convention back in the late 60s.

Almost twenty years since their first release, Mellowosity, with Blackhouse the Peatbog Faeries have proven, yet again, that their music, while staying in the same musical vein that keeps live audiences on their feet, they can still move the music forward, provide a fresh approach, and keep that audience coming back time and again.

For such a stripped debut, ‘The Flesh and Bone’ is still abounding with drama and wisdom, where at any given moment Hicklin can turn a phrase or deliver a stunning melody in such a way that it knocks the wind out of you.

Living in Italy, but born in San Fransisco, the globe-trotting Lucia Comnes has returned to her Americana roots for the passionate and sophisticated new album Love, Hope & Tyranny. Lucia is also getting set to make her UK debut in June with a CD Release Concert at London’s Green Note, one you don’t want to miss.