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Jacqueline McDonald and Bridie O’Donnell, better known as Jacqui & Bridie formed the first full-time British female folk-song duo in 1964. They went onto set up a folk club in Liverpool which was the early stomping ground for the likes of Christy Moore, Tom Paxton, Martin Carthy and Peggy Seeger. It celebrated it’s 50th Anniversary and final night back in January this year.

Win tickets to this year’s Folk by the Oak at Hatfield House on Sunday 24th July plus wine from festival sponsor Casillero del Diablo! The line-up this year includes Seth Lakeman, Show of Hands, Drever, McCusker, Woomble with Heidi Talbot, Bella Hardy, Adrian Edmondson and the Bad Shepherds, Kathryn Roberts and Sean Lakeman and Tyde!

Welcome to the Friday Folk Music Club when we feature videos, tunes and the occasional free folk music track that all convey the spirit of Folk Radio UK. In our first we feature: The Watersons, Sea of Bees, James Vincent McMorrow, John Fahey, Tim Eriksen, Spirit Family Reunion and Lisa Hannigan. Plus free tracks from Lucy Ward and Southern Tenant Folk Union!

This week, we heard about an idea, now in fruition but spawned at Cambridge Folk Festival by Damien O’Kane, David Kosky and Joe Rusby. An Irish instrumental album called The Mystery Inch also feat. John-Joe Kelly, Danny Cameron & Carmel O’Dea.

Moussu T e lei Jovents take their inspiration from Marseille in the thirties, a veritable musical melting pot, where Provençal songs could be heard alongside local operettas by Vincent Scotto or the black music bursting onto the scene at the time (i.e. blues and jazz, with music from the West Indies and Brazil too).

Folk Radio UK is off to Priddy Folk Festival tomorrow, we’ll be reviewing the festival and taking in the acts. The line-up is fantastic and the atmosphere will be great. You can still watch performances and more if you have no ticket so come along!

Other Lives release Tamer Animals in the UK on 29th August which promises to be an opening salvo of ambitious scope: densely textured and uncompromisingly sophisticated, yet instantly appealing and alluringly mysterious.

Watch Kris Drever performing some impromptu sessions with pals Alasdair White of the Battlefield Band and Irish tenor banjo player Eamonn Coyne!

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.