Albums

An intimate setting in Stirling’s Tollbooth theatre was the location for a double bill featuring Cormac Cannon, a Uilleann piper from Galway and a performance of Jenna and Bethany Reid’s The Shetland Bus Cormac Cannon is one of a talented group of young Uilleann pipers in Ireland today. Learning music from an early age, his influences include Galway pipers Eammon O’Broithe and Tommy Keane. He has avidly imbibed the techniques, …

Wig Smith is the other half of folk duo The Hand which comprises Bristol singer-songwriter Rachael Dadd. At the end of April he announced the release of his solo debut A Means of Escape Through a Hedge. There was little background information I could track down on this album other than the plentiful insights from the artist himself – the best we could have hoped for! Much like the lyrics …

This is not the easiest of albums to review, because it’s near-perfect – and a string of superlatives is not very exciting after a paragraph or two, is it? But bear with me – you know that moment – as a player, as a listener, as a random passer-by – when a session suddenly takes flight? That gear change that can only happen when every musician is playing at the …

Duncan Chisholm has released Canaich, the second instalment in his Strathglass trilogy, on Copperfish Records. This follows on from Farrar, the award-winning first album in the trilogy, inspired by the highland landscapes populated by his ancestors. In 1988 Duncan Chisholm was a founder member of Wolfstone; within two years the band had become a full-time job and one of Scotland’s most talented musicians was at the start of an impressive …

The Cunningham family (Brian, Irene, Ashline, Michael and Lorraine) of Sean Nós dancers from Connemara in County Galway have performed with many of Ireland’s greats; Sharon Shannon, De Dannan, Altan, The Chieftains to name just a few. Recently they’ve been wowing audiences in Ireland with their own show, Fuaim Chonamara (Connemara Sound). This energetic show combining the ancient Sean Nós dance forms with more modern step dancing was presented at …

Portland, Oregon sextet Blitzen Trapper released their fifth LP Destroyer of the Void this week. Following on from predecessor Furr (2008) and the Black River Killer EP (2009) their latest is again released on Sub Pop. The recording took place in an attic studio in the Januarys of 2009 and 2010, where frontman Eric Earley and bandmates worked alongside studio engineer Mike Coykendall (Bright Eyes, M Ward) to create their …

A tiny sticky-floored venue which I had shamefully never been to before, hidden somewhere between the fast-food chains of Notting Hill Gate, lies this shabby-chic club: battered leather couches and a stage area that is more akin to a garage practice space…but perhaps is it this that gives the venue and the on-going night Communion its cosy, homely feel. From the minute we stepped down the stairs to the Mumford …

Following on from his third album, Low Culture, Jim Moray has delivered another outstanding work which flawlessly mixes traditional song with modern sensibilities and musical arrangements. In an entirely characteristically brave move Moray has taken the decision to pre-release In Modern History to a wide audience as a free 8 track CD through Songlines Magazine in April 2010, the full 10 track CD is realised in June.

Given his work with Flook, Shona Kipling and, more recently, his partner Kate Rusby, I expected Damien O’Kane’s debut solo album to be a collection of perfectly executed banjo tunes with the occasional song. Oh how I love to be educated. I was wrong; very, very wrong. In Summer Hill Damien has given us something rather special. Something with astute instrumentation, thoughtful arrangements and contributing musicians of the highest calibre. …

Andy Cutting is much in demand and has been for some time, even more so since he won the BBC Radio 2 Folk Musician of the Year award in 2008. At last, though, he’s found time to put together a CD in his own name. This first release on Lane Records from Derby is available to order online and goes on general release in August. Melodeon player and self-confessed former …

Described by Gilles Peterson as “a great artist” Matt Sage started out in a band with musicians who moved on to find success working with Faithless and Dido, after which he turned his efforts to solo projects while holed up on a canal boat in Oxfordshire. Since then he has played at WOMAD, started up a hugely successful acoustic night in Oxford called Catweazle, and created a platform called Big …

This release by Mr McFall’s Chamber on the classical label, Delphian, is the result of a long planned collaboration between Martyn Bennett and Robert McFall that was never realised during tragically short life of one of Scotland’s most admired and accomplished musicians. What may be one of the most innovative albums of the year gets off to a surprising start with Martyn Bennett’s Cuillin, Part 2. It’s a challenging start …