Looks like those excellent and excitable types at one of our favourite labels – that’s Talking Elephant in case you hadn’t figured it already – are going to be busy in the final weeks of 2025 as well as into 2026. A raft of releases coming your way have amongst them splendid examples of folk and folk rock music which you should sample liberally. So let’s inform you of the delights in store and on line.
First off is the return of the album which laid the foundations for Fairport Convention’s second life, ‘Gladys’ Leap.’ Stacked with great numbers including the evergreen ‘ Hiring Fair,’ – no FC concert is complete without it – Ric Sanders was introduced initially in a guest capacity alongside Richard Thompson and Cathy Le Serf, the band themselves then consisted of Simon Nicol, Dave Pegg and Dave Mattacks. The album comes on CD and vinyl. Keeping the Fairport connection the reappearence of Dave Pegg’s solo album ‘The Cocktail Cowboy Goes It Alone,’ is welcome too as the original can be hard to find. A great mixture of folksy material including cuts from Sandy Denny, Steve Ashley and one Ian Anderson, it came out in 1983 firstly on Woodworm and has now been revived by TE. The cover is a great piece of art with Mr. Pegg in his favourite environment – the title should tell you where that is. The Ric Sanders Jazz Trio has a double CD re-release of two fine albums in one neat package out too ‘Standing On The Corner/Headspace.’
‘Like An Old Fashioned Waltz’ by Sandy Denny gets a makeover and new cover with annotations and notes in a reissued form. Known as maybe her most romantic and poetic album – timeless songs like ‘Solo,’ ‘At The End Of The Day,’ – this could end up as something of a collector’s item. 500 hundred only, so get one now or miss out chum.
Fresh off the production line is a really fascinating offering from United Bible Studies – not a lot to do with religion actually – they’re a collective of morphous shape currently helmed by founder David Colohan, Owl Service leader Steven Collins and former Mellow Candle singer Alison O’Donnell, ‘Strange Is The Coastline,’ is just out. A hypnotic blend of rustic inspiration, harmony and near mysticism the album is by turns charming, even mesmerising evoking legend and lore of the British Isles through a series of contemporary compositions all enlivened with folksy melody and instrumentation. In the pipeline a November release of a rareities/live album from folk legend Dick Gaughan, who as you may be aware is not in the best of health, so it’s timely for an archive release by such a crucial artist. You can preorder copies from the Talking Elephant site, address below.
Finally you should investigate Green Diesel too, a fine young band flying the flag for folk rock in the 2020s, their brand new ‘Onward The Sun,’ proves there is still life in electrifying folk and that they’ve a full battery. Our opinion’s due to be posted anytime, so watch the Spiral review pages for that. Talking Elephant wisely signed them a few years back and their product is consistently impressive.
Remember besides folksy/rootsy material TE also do handy dandy lines in Rock, Blues and Americana. Truly something for everyone except perhaps, grunge metal hip hop rap!
All told happy days. Hold your own conversation with the Elephant at www.talkingelephant.co.uk Tell them Spiral Earth sent you.
