Should you care to look back over the past two decades of British folk music, one musician in particular stands out for having a singular, idiosyncratic vision that has rarely wavered in style and substance.
Jim Moray may have garnered initial attention for his digitally-driven approach to traditional music, but reflecting on his seven albums and numerous production credits it’s clear that imagination and invention are the real cornerstones of his work.
The cinematic vision of albums such as Skulk (2012), Upcetera (2016), and his game-changing debut Sweet England (2003) show just how far the old songs can be taken.
His arrangements of traditional songs such as ‘Gilderoy’, ‘Horkstow Grange’ and ‘Fair Margaret and Sweet William’ are regarded as amongst the classics of the folk genre, while his treatment of the ballad ‘Lord Douglas’ has become a must-learn for fingerstyle guitarists.
As Moray embarks on his third decade as a professional musician, he can count career-defining performances at Glastonbury, The Royal Albert Hall, and WOMAD, and has caught the attention of those in the know along the way. “I love this singer of old ballads”, enthused none other than Iggy Pop, no stranger to songs of love, life and loss. 20 years in the business also means that his influence is being felt among a younger generation of folk musicians, especially those who explore the wider canon and ways in which traditional music can be stretched. Frankie Archer recently spoke about how Moray’s work on Low Culture (2008) blew her mind. “It showed me for the first time what UK folk music could be”
He has today released a new video to accompany the single release of Spencer The Rover (a traditional song from the repertoire of the Copper Family of Rottingdean, Sussex). It is his first new music for five years, following the retrospective album (Beflean : An Alternative History 2002-2023) which came out last year. Jim Says:
“I’ve been singing Spencer The Rover on and off since the mid 2000s but it has never felt like time to put it on an album until now. It’ll be a familiar song to lots of people and is usually associated with the Copper Family of Rottingdean. It’s also connected with John Martyn, who learned it from Robin Dransfield of the Dransfields. The brass on the track was played by Steve Pretty of Hackney Colliery Band, who I’ve worked with before in his capacity as musical director for Robin Ince’s Christmas shows, and the drums were played by the jazz drummer Matt Stockham-Brown, who I’ve admired for a really long time.
Frankie Archer and I filmed the video at Langsett Reservoir on the edge of the peak district, in ‘Yorkshire, near Rotherham’. I largely managed to edit around the friendly dogs wandering into shot, and the people having a picnic at the summit of the hill.”
Never satisfied with staying still, Jim Moray is still moving after shaking the folk world to its foundations twenty years ago. And in a genre where musicians reach their peak the older they get, there’s a sense that he has only just begun.
See for yourself … live tour dates as follows:
Tour Dates 2025
January
17th Liverpool The Music Room
18th Manchester Gullivers
22nd Brighton Komedia
23rd Cambridge Storey’s Field
24th Corsham The Pound
25th Winchester The Arc
26th London Walthamstow Folk Club
30th Sheffield The Greystones
31st Birmingham The Mac
February
1st Exeter The Phoenix
For further details please visit: jimmoray.bandzoogle.com
