News

Sarah McQuaid is just back from Ireland, where she finished recording and mixing her new album – It’s a bit of a departure from my previous solo CDs in that the emphasis this time round is on my own original songs.

We are continuing to introduce new music from the past and present to the Folk Radio UK playlist which offers a mix of both contemporary and traditional folk music from the British Isles and further afield. We have our second big tranche of new tunes on the way in next week, Enjoy!

Originally hailing from Canada, Po’ Girl weave a blend of musical influences, sweetness, grit & soul into their fresh and original sound. Catch them on their UK & Ireland Tour in 2011!

Bellowhead put on a cracking performance at Glastonbury and pleased the crowd no end. Watch them perform New York Girls below.

We’ve been very busy updating our music on Folk Radio UK over the past week with the addition of new albums as well as some folk music classics from the past. Below is yesterday’s playlist to give you a flavour. This is just a fraction of what we currently play so expect more new music to brighten up your summer!

Emily Barker & The Red Clay Halo paid a visit to the BBC studios for a session for Dermot O’Leary’s show on BBC Radio 2. Listen to it now and hear her perform her new single ‘Pause’.

This set of videos of Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh has featured before on Folk Radio UK on our old site back in 2009. Caoimhín is one of my favourite fiddle players so I’m going to indulge myself…

The following video of James Irwin and his band was shot by ASTW in the woods of Oka, Quebec… James writes twice a day—songs, poems and stories, first thing in the morning and late in the afternoon, always with a coffee.

I have just heard that Mike Waterson passed away in the early hours of this morning at 3.00 a.m. Our love and thoughts go out to his family. Mike’s singing voice is well known to anyone who has followed The Watersons through their history which began during the 1960’s English folk song revival.

Martin Simpson is to release a new album on September 5th through Topic Records titled purpose + grace. Jon Boden, B J Cole, Dick Gaughan, Fay Hield, Will Pound, June Tabor and Richard Thompson will be joining Martin along with his regular band of Andy Cutting, Andy Seward and Keith Angel.

We’ve been adding a lot of new music to Folk Radio UK recently so here is yesterday’s playlist to give you a flavour of the sounds we’ve been playing.

Gerry Diver’s fascinating ‘The Speech Project’ has received Arts Council England funding for Gerry to take his work on a tour of England in March 2012. The project features exclusive spoken word contributions from Christy Moore, Paddy Moloney, Martin Hayes and Danny Meehan.