When you’re chummy with the likes of The Treacherous Orchestra and locked in with Croft No Five you can’t help but be an eclectic thinker. Duncan Lyall is therefore a polyglot musical soaker and I don’t mean that as disparaging in any way, it’s a compliment totally!...
Pigeonholing musicians is a convenience for discussing music but it's a nuisance for the more creative artist who wanders a diverse artistic path. Almost by definition, what the latter creates is more interesting but tends to lead to cult status rather than mass...
If you spy a group of people with determined looks on their faces, carrying a couple of shot guns you don’t need to worry, your local banks and building societies are safe, it’s just Gadarene hunting down the bloke who’s reviewing their new album for Spiral Earth....
Artists have always been creative, and the pandemic has led them down all kinds of paths to creatively generate income. Whether a first or not, ‘Reassembled’ is a recording of Bellowhead’s live streamed performance from Stabal Mansion in December 2020. Its 74 minutes...
Through adversity triumph tastes all the sweeter. Joe’s last studio album ‘Royal Tea’ had a tortuous road to completion and as the man himself said he felt almost ‘cursed’ as physical mishaps and the pandemic delayed all best laid plans. Despite these obstacles his...
Described as 'alt-folk' there comes a point where the 'alt' bit becomes more current or progressive than alternative and 'The Missing Star' fits that definition in that it’s a good indicator of what is happening now in many folk circles. It contains a melange of...
Soo Line Loons, (loons as in diving birds, check your Observers Book of, other identification guides are available,) are a happily diverse crew of rockers who tip their hat to all kinds of roots music. The Soo Line bit of the name is apparently a Minneapolis railway...
Songs are made of words and music and it is rare to find a songwriter who has the balance exactly right. Greg Hancock has though. The musicianship on this album is exquisite, with help from some heavyweight friends in George Arnold, Lucas Drinkwater on various...
David Cambridge and Jenna Walker have been playing together since 2016, the duo having been born from sharing stage and songs at the Blackfen Folk club in Cambridge. Every musical partnership reaches a point where releasing an album is natural and right, both for them...
Cohen is perhaps best known for his work with Granny’s Attic, but he is no stranger to solo recording having released ‘Outway Songster’ back in 2017. This is a collection with a theme of outsiders and misfits and it’s good. All the music was recorded live in the...
Currently an original copy of this item in decent playable condition will set you back a couple of hundred pounds or so. Good job then that here’s a new reissue through Bread & Wine/East Central One at least the curious can hear Clive Palmer, John Bidwell and Mick...
Banter have been with us what seems but a short while, actually six years, in that time they’ve established a deserved reputation for daring, creative diversions and good time gigging. Even as they wrote and shoved huge chunks of funk and jazz into the process somehow...
So, what’s a roke? Dialect meaning informs it’s a mist which rises at certain times in the year from a marsh, particularly in fen country. Both Honey and her Bear hail from Suffolk so that pins them down as regional champions, along the lines of Seth Lakeman or Show...
This CD from Bristol-based David Marquiss features excellent playing on nylon strung guitar combined with a fine baritone voice and a good selection of self-penned and traditional tunes and instrumentals reflecting influences as diverse as Skip James and Nick Drake....
A collection of instrumental releases using traditional instrumentation common to the folk music from Ireland, Belgium, Japan Finland and the UK but utilized for contemporary creations. The tin whistle, hurdy gurdy, fiddle, accordion, viola, kantele and shakuhachi...
It’s fine for musicians to admit their influence, it’s just that when they come to cover the material of that influence – which is often a classic- well, let’s be honest, the results can fall somewhat short. Question then, how do you cover a musician so idiosyncratic...
Born out of circumstances – a self-determined recording hiatus prior to the pandemic and a rush of inspiration once the pandemic set in, Jason Ringenberg’s “Rhinestoned” has now entered the world. Laced with different topics, covers and originals, the themes of “old...
This latest release from Austin-based out of Toronto punk blues duo Black Pistol Fire is largely a collection of singles that they’ve recently released. As such, questions might be raised as to whether they stand as a whole, but the collection does indeed present a...
Unlike a lot of people Nancy Kerr has been just as active during the pandemic as she was before it shook everything up. Not only has she been busy helping launch/maintain the profile of roots rockers Magpie Arc but here she’s dipped into Britain’s engineering, past,...
As the history of music shows, from The Everly Brothers to The Bee Gees, there's nothing quite like siblings harmonising. Identical twins, David and Adam Moss have added to this long line of close harmony vocalising as The Brother Brothers with their album 'Calla...
