News

After a decade, the MG ALBA Scots Trad Music Awards return to the city of Inverness on St Andrews Day (30th November) to once again celebrate and showcase Scotland’s flourishing traditional music scene.

The paths of West Coast canyon dweller Katie Schottland, aka Swimming Bell, and Sheffield-born Cosmic Choogler Bobby Lee are set to converge next month for a co-headline UK tour.

Kathryn Tickell shares her new single, Sycamore Gap, in honour of the tree that was, in a mindless act of vandalism, felled in 2023. She has revealed that the tune will also be on the forthcoming album ‘Return to Kielderside’.

After a four-year music hiatus, BBC Radio 2 Folk Award nominee Jack Cookson returns with his new single Laira, an ode to blissful aimlessness and cycling, in particular through Laira, a district of Plymouth, UK.

Legendary British singer-songwriter Ralph McTell will embark on his most extensive tour of Ireland to date in 2025. Spanning 20 shows over four weeks, the tour will kick off on 24th April in Wexford, wrapping up on 18th May in Sligo.

Genticorum, an international leading voice in traditional Québécois music, premiere their video for ‘Old Yamaska’, taken from their eleventh album Au Coeur de l’Aube (The Heart of Dawn). It’s a real treat for the ears.

Steve Knightley, frontman of folk roots legends Show of Hands, announces ‘The Winter Yards’, his first solo studio album in 17 years. Watch the video for emotionally charged ‘Requiem’, featuring The Lost Sound Dartmoor Folk Choir.

Spiers & Boden have announced their Spring Tour dates for 2025. Watch them performing ‘Bluey Brink’, a strange tale…as Boden told us, “Such a weird type of hero, sheep shearing and drinking acid. Brilliant!”

Christy Moore signs to Claddagh Records and shares his new single ‘Black and Amber’, taken from his forthcoming new album ‘A Terrible Beauty’, to be released on Friday, 1st November 2024. 

Today sees the release of Junior Brother’s new single, ‘Take Guilt’, accompanied by a Lyric Video by Dylan Gomery. With a UK tour in October, he is currently working on album number three, with famed producer John “Spud” Murphy (black midi, Lankum) at the helm.

Bill Callahan shares a new visualiser for ‘Coyotes (Live)’ – “I was looking for footage that was neither here nor there. Not of the earth or the cosmos. Somewhere between, which I think a lot of life hangs in places like that.”

Making Tracks returns this autumn with a fresh lineup of eight extraordinary musicians, including talents from the UK, Syria, Kenya, Denmark, Finland, and Xinjiang who will embark on a journey of musical exploration and collaboration inspired by diverse cultures and the natural world.