hannah james

Lady Maisery, featuring Hazel Askew, Hannah James and Rowan Rheingans, have announced their fourth studio album and a launch tour in November but they need your help in making it a reality.

Throughout Sleeping Spirals, the debut album from Hannah James and Toby Kuhn, distinct threads of travel, place and self-discovery come together to form a complex but unified whole. It is a journey you will want to take again and again.

Hannah James has created an album that explores life from countless angles. It is sad, fun, wise, angry and thought-provoking in equal measure and it has a real flair for the dramatic. She has established herself as a highly individual and almost unparalleled songwriter.

Lady Maisery and Jimmy Aldridge & Sid Goldsmith join forces for a 9-date Christmas Show featuring an evening of galvanising songs for the wintertime, drawing on a variety of winter traditions from rousing folk carols to more contemplative and hopeful music to brighten the darkest season.

Shortwinger is a distinctive, purposeful and powerful record, and represents a typically well-considered new chapter in the artistic development of its three participants, all on top form and working brilliantly together in sparky and harmonious consort.

The beginning of 2016 saw the release of the Songs of Separation album, a project featuring Jenny Hill, Eliza Carthy, Hannah James, Hannah Read, Hazel Askew, Jenn Butterworth, Karine Polwart, Kate Young, Mary Macmaster and Rowan Rheingans. To mark its end a final film was commissioned called ‘The Album and Beyond,’ watch it here.


Cycle is without doubt, an album stuffed full of formidable singing and excellent musicianship. But more than this, it is an album that has something to say about today’s world and is aware of its place in history. Lady Maisery are unafraid to challenge preconceptions about folk music but are aware of its cultural significance and its historical imperative. This album proves that they are worthy custodians and spirited agitators.

Part Two – Best Folk Music Albums of 2015 including: Bella Hardy, Damien O’Kane, Fabian Holland, Jackie Oates, Karen Matheson, False Lights, O’Hooley & Tidow, Martyn Joseph, Richard Thompson, Rachel Taylor-Beales, Eliza Carthy, John Jones and more.

Songs of Separation is a superlative and essential record, from its initial concept through to the final result; it’s a huge accomplishment by anybody’s standards and all involved have every right to feel justifiably proud of their achievement.

Priddy Folk Festival announce first acts for 2016 including Belshazzar’s Feast, Lady Maisery, Lucy Ward Band, Beth Porter and the Availables and Rory McLeod. Check our festival preview here.

Watch the new video on the making of Songs of Separation ft: Eliza Carthy, Karine Polwart, Rowan Rheingans, Mary Macmaster, Hannah Read, Kate Young, Jenn Butterworth, Hazel Askew, Hannah James and Jenny Hill

Our Song of the Day is taken from the forthcoming lead single for Songs of Separation. Listen to ‘Echo Mocks the Corncrake’ featuring the wonderful karine Polwart.