hannah james

Lady Maisery and Jimmy Aldridge & Sid Goldsmith return with “Wakefire: A Summer Album”, a full-scale double album that trumps its predecessor in both ambition and reward. Presented as a largely chronological account of summer, twenty-seven tracks might sound like something of a throwback in today’s climate of instant gratification, but they make it seem like a revolutionary act, and a hugely gratifying one at that.

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.

Folk singer, musician and dancer Hannah James is about to tour her new innovative and inspiring solo show JigDoll. She took some time out before heading on the road to tell us about JigDoll, the inspiration behind it and some of the challenges she has faced.

Lady Maisery have been announced as the headliners at this year’s Baring-Gould Folk Weekend in Devon. Talking exclusively to Folk Radio UK, one-third of the folk harmony trio, Hazel Askew, hints that the festival-goers might be treated to the premiere of some new songs …

Against expectations Chatterbox is one of the freshest and in its quiet way one of the most spectacular albums I have heard this year. Ranging from incantatory to reflective, it is always subtle, vital, and feminine in the most elementary sense of the word. Bartosik and James look to have created an entirely new platform for the accordion, but more importantly the have created a beautiful set of recordings.

This June ten Scottish and English folk musicians will head to the west coast Isle of Eigg to make an album together that reflects on the issue of ‘separation’ in its many forms, through traditional song. They include Karine Polwart, Eliza Carthy, Mary Macmaster, Hannah James and more.

With the great success of The Elizabethan Session those all-star sessions are revived and brought north to Celtic Connections for a final performance at The Mitchell Theatre.