Posted
In 1998, the Luaka Bop label was started by David Byrne of Talking Heads fame in order to release a variety of music from around the world. Their path has taken them to far off lands and often a few releases are framed around a musical theme. ‘The Time For Peace Is Now’ is the… Read more »
Posted
Sandra is a long time contributor to the of the folk music community beginning with performing and recording with Ewan MacColl’s Critics Group. An accomplished multi – instrumentalist playing guitar, dulcimer, autoharp and also teaching English concertina, she is probably best known as the co- writer, with John Faulkner, of the music for Bagpuss the… Read more »
Posted
Long gone are those days when new folk music releases were largely dominated by arrangements of traditional songs. Since Dylan arrived as a singer songwriter inspired by folk but willing to take music in different directions, there has been a flood of new songs written that lend themselves to an acoustic folk style. The inspiration… Read more »
Posted
The Small Glories are Cara Luft, a founding member of The Wailin’ Jennys, and multi-instrumentalist JD Edwards. Theirs is a perfect blending of talents as we see imaged in the title of their new record, ‘Assiniboine & The Red’. A reflective title inspired by the point where two strong and powerful Canadian rivers merge. This,… Read more »
Posted
Arriving home from a recent solo Molly Tuttle performance, I was eager to slip on her CD, ‘When You’re Ready’, to relive the experience. The audience had particularly been blown away by the fast and furious, bluegrass style picking that has led her to win the ‘Instrumentalist of the Year’ award at the 2018 Americana… Read more »
Posted
Could you get further apart in musical terms than delta blues and Indian folk music? When an album comes along that combines such seemingly contrasting and idiosyncratic styles as the Blues and Indian Folk, one’s initial reaction is easily one of trepidation. Ajay Srivastav dispels any such fears instantly with the opening track Six Armed… Read more »
Posted
An album of ‘Appalachian ballads of English and Scottish origin’. I’ve been to the Appalachian mountains just once, the White Mountains in New Hampshire. And it’s easy to see how these green horizons must have welcomed settlers from the British Isles centuries ago. Strangers in a strange, yet familiar, land – and what a land…. Read more »
Posted
There’s been a growing fan base over recent years for the plaintiff bluegrass of the North Carolina duo, Mandolin Orange. Their new record, ‘Tides Of A Teardrop’, has them developing that sound into one that leans more towards a band. It’s a risk in that there are more musicians handling their fragile but beautiful style…. Read more »
Posted
Gilmore gets into the state of the nation on her latest album. Small World Turning leans into the acoustic folk and roots vibe that she has summoned throughout her career. Her songwriting is as on the nose, confrontational and gorgeous as ever, in fact it is perfect for the times we live in. And what… Read more »
Posted
I was going to lump all of the reviews of these Topic reissues for their 80th birthday celebration into one big review. everyone knows these albums, as they are, quite rightly, regarded as something of a gold standard in the British Folk canon. So everybody is familiar with them (what, you’re not?! Get to the… Read more »
