The Shovel Dance Collective, a kind of avant-folk supergroup, but without any of the hubris that term implies, once again demonstrate, through their new album ‘The Shovel Dance’, how they are changing the way folk music is created, and doing so with breathtakingly, potent tunes.
The nine-piece ensemble Shovel Dance Collective announce their first studio-recorded album, The Shovel Dance, and share lead single ‘The Merry Golden Tree’, also our Song of the Day.
At Fargrounds stops you in your tracks with the sheer excellence of Jacken Elswyth’s playing and then with the breadth of its implications. This is instrumental music that has a lot to say, and it says it with verve, lightness, and great skill.
Jacken Elswyth has put together a playlist that inspired her during the process of creating Six Static Scenes. Featuring Richard Dawson, Dock Boggs, Voice of the People, Laura Cannell and many more.
If you look deeper at Jacken Elswyth’s Six Static Scenes, it is a celebration of the other, the road not taken, and as such, it shows just how much scope there is for finding new and unrestricted paths in folk music.
Offcuts and Oddities showcase the commitment of the Shovel Dance Collective to playing traditional music that speaks of working-class solidarity. The album features some cracking tunes that will leave you wanting more. Excellent.
Enjoy unique guitar playing with breathtaking creativity and a new Collective approach to traditional tunes on the latest Betwixt & Between Tapes instalment featuring guitarist extraordinaire C Joynes and the Shovel Dance Collective.
Jacken Elswyth returns with the sixth in her series of Betwixt & Between releases. Her guest for this latest tape release is Berlin-based drummer Ryan Eyers whose creative (and unshowy) drumming, turns out to be a strangely complementary foil for Jacken’s own contributions.
Featuring innovative banjoist Jacken Elswyth and Herefordshire duo Alula Down, Betwixt & Between 5 is already proving to be the most irresistible instalment in the series so far.
On this fourth compelling release in a limited-edition series of half-hour “split-artist” cassette tapes organised by London-based banjo player Jacken Elswyth she is joined by Glasgow-based musician Quinie (aka Josie Vallely)
Maintaining the tradition of wrapping their lives into the process of getting their art out into the marketplace, Jacken Elswyth’s end product is a wholly credible, hypnotic and fascinating piece of work. Time to dig out your old tape player perhaps?
