It’s that time of year again – when many of the farm fields of Cropredy in Oxfordshire get transformed in to a festival city!.. and many things start arriving….The catering stalls, the gift stalls the brilliant Cropredy Bar, the toilets, the showers, the magical stage, the lighting, the fences, the roadways, the walkway path lights, the generators, and most importantly the love .. and the huge family that are Fairport Conventions loyal fans – generations of them… all convening for what is for most, a yearly pilgrimage to the legendary Fairport Conventions Cropredy Festival. This years Cropredy ..read more

We last encountered Annie Dressner via her 2020 album, Coffee At The Corner Bar. Now we have I Thought It Would Be Easier – great title by the way – her just released new record. Annie is a New Yorker who relocated to England several years ago and has become a permanent fixture on the European scene. The cover pictures reflect the theme of the record. As children we are protected from the difficulties that life can present but as those protections are stripped away we realise that life can be a minefield of problems. Annie’s music is rooted in Americana but seems to be in the vanguard of a sty ..read more

For those who need bringing up to speed, Si Kahn is an American singer-songwriter, civil rights activist and founder of Grassroots Leadership while Rees is a multi-instrumentalist (primarily fiddler) and singer from Oswestry. Bring In The Light, her first full-length album, was recorded in the Netherlands with Dutch musicians on double bass, banjo, and guitar, arising from her recording of ‘Mississippi Summer’ on her Roe Deer EP having so impressed Kahn he invited her to make a whole album of his songs to celebrate his eightieth birthday. Chiming with Rees’s enthusiasm for Appalachian music, i ..read more

Here at folking we’ve followed Navaro’s career since Beth Navaro’s 2007 solo album. I even ventured into the wilds of St Albans to hear them – a memorable gig featuring a guest appearance by the late and much lamented Gareth Turner. Steve Austin tells me that nowadays Navaro are playing and recording informally and the current economic climate means that their latest album, Songs From The Darkwood, is released digitally. That informality means that the band sound very relaxed and the music is more in line with their early work although Songs From The Darkwood does break out here and there. All ..read more

One of the UK’s most successful female rock, blues and jazz singers leads the list of final artists just announced for this year’s Shrewsbury Folk Festival Elkie Brooks, whose Pearls album became the most successful chart album by a British female when it was released, will headline the closing day (Monday August 26th) of the August Bank Holiday festival. American bluegrass hip hop band Gangstagrass will close out the festival’s Severn stage on Friday August 23rd  with Scotland’s Peatbog Faeries doing the honours on Saturday August 24th. The Celtic ..read more

This the first in a series of podcast reviews presented by Paul Johnson from his studio. He begins with the debut album from The Rolling Folk – East Of Elsewhere. https://folking.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/audio-review-rolling-folk-boosted.mp3 Artists’ website: https://therollingfolk.bandcamp.com/album/east-of-elsewhere     The post THE ROLLING FOLK – East Of Elsewhere (Drop In The Drink) appeared first on Folking.com. THE ROLLING FOLK – East Of Elsewhere (Drop In The Drink) was first posted on April 10, 2024 at 5:31 pm. ©2020 "Folking.com". Use of this feed is for personal non ..read more

The brainchild of Ian Churchward, a Torquay-based musician whose fairly prolific output revolves around songs with a historical basis, encompassing ones about Devon and Cornwall, the Wars of the Roses and, in particular, Richard III, not to mention, for the niche market, Mer de Mort, commissioned by the Mortimer History Society to commemorate the Society’s tenth anniversary and telling the story of the Mortimer medieval family from their roots in Normandy prior to the battle of Hastings and into the 15th century. Variously accompanied by Jules Jones and Elaine Churchward on vocals and one Lord ..read more

Dave Lowry’s Songs Of A Devon Man is a CD project that has taken several years to come to fruition, a delay partly due to Covid and the sad death of one of the people behind it. For more than five decades, Dave Lowry has built his reputation as a singer, both as a soloist and as a member of a capella harmony groups including The Oakleaves, The Journeymen (briefly), Isca Fayre and The Claque. However, he has also built a major repertoire of songs from the West Country, especially Devon, and notably from Sabine Baring-Gould’s collection Songs Of The West. Dave was diagnosed with Parkinson’s dise ..read more

Today, Oysterband extend their A Long Long Goodbye tour with the announcement of a further series of headline shows this November. While recognised as one of the UK’s foremost folk-rock bands and an unparalleled live proposition, the band confirm the decision they made recently to call time on their touring career. Intending to bow out on a high, Oysterband will serve up a resolute reminder of their captivating live performances and immortal songbook as they chart a special Autumn tour around some of their favourite UK towns and venues that have supported them all these years. Kicking off in S ..read more

Good Habits’ new album, Quarter-Life, dances like a melodic scarecrow, amid a fresh field of ancient autumnal wheat. The first song, ‘All That She Wanted’, zigs and zags with Bonnie Schwarz’s joyous (double-tracked!) voice which is like the see to her cello’s saw. And there’s slight cajon percussion to accent the tune. Then, the second song is ‘Baba O’Riley’. Yes! That Baba O’ Riley! And it’s always nice to say, “No synthesizers were injured in the song’s recording”. Rather, fellow Good Habits guy Pete Shaw squeeze boxes the tune with his accordion. It’s pretty cool, and yeah, that’s another n ..read more