Gigspanner Big Band talk about their new album, Turnstone, revealing an insight into an album that exists in a tradition of sprawling and inclusive experimentalism and where variation and difference are celebrated and encouraged.
Gigspanner Big Band’s ‘Turnstone’ is a great example of how traditional song can provide a template for exciting new musical discovery. It’s also a career-defining release from one of folk’s most powerfully creative groups.
Don’t miss Gigspanner Big Band and Raynor Winn’s live dates this month for their Saltlines project. Jackie Oates will be joining them as she steps in to cover for Hannah Martin whilst she takes maternity leave.
We talk to those involved in Saltlines, a massive and ambitious project, that includes the author Raynor Winn, members of Gigspanner Big Band and Deborah Knight. The tour has a few days left and the accompanying double album is out now.
Saltlines is a massive, ambitious and highly unusual project; the fact that it feels perfectly judged at every moment is down to the sheer excellence of Gigspanner Big Band’s musicianship and the touching, clear-eyed nature of everything Raynor Winn writes or speaks. It is a constant delight.
Taken from Saltlines, the new show and collaborative project from The Gigspanner Big Band and author Raynor Winn, listen to Ten Thousand Miles and read John Spiers’s personal insight into the song collected by Cecil Sharp. Saltines is on Tour in July.
The Gigspanner Big Band have announced a collaborative project with Raynor Winn, author of The Salt Path, the Sunday Times best-selling memoir of walking the South West Coast Path. Saltlines is a Portrait of the South West Coast Path in Old Songs and New Words.
It’s great to see some of our favourite bands back on the road again. Don’t miss Edgelarks, The Gigspanner Big Band (now also with John Spiers) and the newly formed duo of Miranda Sykes and Hannah Martin.
Henry Martin, the latest offering from Edgelarks (Hannah Martin and Phillip Henry) is an album filled with positivity – resolutely optimistic, brilliantly played and a joy from start to finish.
Edgelarks announce the release of their new album ‘Henry Martin’ which was recorded at home during the lockdown. Listen to opening track Greenwood Laddie and pre-order the album today.
The Gigspanner Big Band announce official launch gig for Natural Invention this month, to be live-streamed on Monday, September 21 via Oxfordshire’s famous Nettlebed Folk Club.
Folkroom announces the Pillow Fort Folk Festival on June 6th ft. Sam Lee, author and artist Chris Riddell, Edgelarks, Ewan McLennan, Ben Walker, Kirsty Merryn, Hickory Signals AJIMAL, Native Harrow and more.
New album series launched to support Grassroots Music Venues in the UK which are at imminent risk of being closed permanently. First release Features Billy Bragg, Emily Barker, The Little Unsaid, Edgelarks and more.
Hannah Martin (Edgelarks, Gigspanner Big Band) talks about the impact of the lockdown on musicians and how they are making ends meet. There may also be positives…such as placing a greater value on music.
Thomas Blake interviews the Gigspanner Big Band, our Artists of the Month, who demonstrate they are admirably democratic not just in their music-making process, but also in their interviews where everyone gets their say.
In a special guest post, Hannah Martin (Edgelarks, Gigspanner Big Band) talks about her own journey into folk music and how we can better attract younger people into the folk scene.
Natural Invention is a piece of music that feels thrillingly, frighteningly, beautifully of our time. With the Gigspanner Big Band, Peter Knight has assembled a group of musicians intent on making some of the most important and exhilarating art ever to sit under the banner of folk music.
The Gigspanner Big Band take to the road again next month with an expanded lineup which, as well as Edgelarks, now includes John Spiers. Watch them performing Awake Awake which will feature on their new album set for release in April 2020.
