News
We have some great nights coming up for The Levels Collective at Bridgwater Art Centre in Somerset with Alasdair Roberts & Kitty MacFarlane this month followed by Solarference and The Dead Rat Orchestra in April and a special event in May featuring Sam Lee & Friends. It’s all happening so try and come on down.
Kris Delmhorst provides our Song of the Day with the title track of her album Blood Test which she performs live with Anders Parker. Kris is promoting the album on her newly announced UK tour next month. This is a rare opportunity for fans to see the Brooklyn-born singer-songwriter who last toured here in 2008. So nab those tickets quickly!
We have a great video premiere to share with you today from Rich McMahon. Ten Thousand Miles From Dublin features on his latest album ‘Songs of Exile, Love & Dissent’ which was produced by Mercury and BBC Folk Award nominee Gerry Diver. The song was inspired by the new generation of economic migrants that are leaving Ireland for Australia.
To mark the release of her new Toerag Sessions album Emily Barker heads out on tour this month with Gill Sandell who also has an album out (with Chris T-T) on 23 March. Emily has also announced her album launch plus solo dates and record store appearances. Watch her latest video for Little Deaths and get those all important dates in your diary.
Our Song of the Day is a track premiere from Swedish songwriter Jenny Lysander. Northern Folk is the title track of her highly anticipated debut album which was produced and arranged by Piers Faccini. Jenny is both a confident and unique voice and her debut album will hopefully giver her the spotlight she so richly deserves, we are all the richer for her music.
We have a video premiere today from Dan Walsh for ‘Whiplash Reel’, a track that features on his latest album ‘Incidents & Accidents’, one of our featured albums of the month. Dan also shares with us the story behind this tune which is rooted in his obsession with Indian classical music which culminated in an amazing trip to India in February 2013.
This is a short film featuring Blair Somerville, a New Zealand based inventor, artist and self-confessed tinkerer. His inventions are made from recycled parts, his mortgage free and he relies on solar power. He has a very simple philosophy that has been driving his creative juices for years, as testified by his Lost Gypsy Gallery, a wonderland of homegrown wizardry and a playground for kids and adults alike.
Here’s a nice exclusive and Song of the Day, with a video for Scott Matthews’ 86 Floors From Heaven created by his good friend Adam Bulley. The intimate solo performance captures the comparatively rare sight of Matthews at the piano and was shot in the shed that is the creative epicentre of Scott’s music making.
Our Song of the Day is a Child ballad (210) from Anglo-American folk music duo Cath and Phil Tyler. Bonnie George Campbell is from their new 6-track CD The Song-Crowned King which is available now and was recorded with Phil Begg in Newcastle upon Tyne. You’ll be hearing more from in the Folk Radio UK playlist.
So who are False Lights, how were they formed? We have the answers in an exclusive video feature today in which Sam Carter and Jim Moray talk about the formation of False Lights, the other musicians in the band, and how they could have been called “Sam and Jim’s Special Relationship”. How can you possibly not want to find out…
We have a great video premiere from Simi Stone who describes her soulful sound as Mountain Motown. Good Friend is taken from her forthcoming self-titled debut album on Reveal Records. You may well recognise the name as Simi was part of The Duke and The King, the quartet, for whom she sang and also played violin, in a line-up which also featured Simone Felice.