Shovel Dance Collective

With “Everything in Readiness”, Shovel Dance Collective have combined vision and virtuosity, intuitive gristle and scholastic rigour to create the best folk album of the year. This is folk music in its most potent form. By allowing itself to be hybridised and mongrelised by other influences, they are getting closer to what’s most vital and true about the form.

Shovel Dance Collective’s “Everything in Readiness” is due 23 October on Glitterbeat’s tak:til imprint. “Jer the Rigger” is their third single, part of an opening suite that is accompanied by a video from Tim Plester and Rob Curry featuring footage from the Doc Rowe archive. The band say the arrangements were constantly tinkered with on the road, sometimes paying off, sometimes not.

Nick Granata’s debut solo album, “My Heart is Running Backwards! A Martial Artist! With a Closed Fist! Woof!”, is an ambitious album of astonishing breadth and endless personality. A member of the Shovel Dance Collective, Granata largely plays down the wackiness of that title in favour of genuine sonic experimentation and a joyously queer heart.

Nick Granata, a vocalist and organist with Shovel Dance Collective, announces their debut solo album, “My Heart is Running Backwards! A Martial Artist! With a Closed Fist! Woof!”, out 24th July via Double Dare, and shares double single “Rabbits! / Birdies!”.

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 Shovel Dance Collective reveal their new single and video “The Rolling Wave”, a stunning and beautifully moving rendition of a traditional Irish song and a final preview of their forthcoming album ‘The Shovel Dance’.

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.

The Shovel Dance Collective’s The Water is the Shovel of the Shore is one of the most forward-thinking and original collections of traditional material you’re likely to hear this year, or any year.

Listen to London-based Gentle Stranger’s new track ‘Since the Plough’ – they are hosting their own mini-festival – ‘Two Nights Of Unlearning’ – at the Horse Hospital on 19th & 20th November.

The 9-piece folk band Shovel Dance Collective announce their new album ‘The Water is the Shovel of the Shore’, exploring resonances of river Thames, and share their lead single ‘The Bold Fisherman’.

Broadside Hacks and Shovel Dance Collective are among those who will come under the spotlight in a new documentary that tells the story of the young vanguard of UK artists sharing radical interpretations, proto-feminist narratives and queer histories through the lens of British traditional folk song. Watch an excerpt here.

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.