I first came across David and Clare Rozzell as two-thirds of the bluegrass/folk trio, Wood Wire & Words. The trio saw David (guitar/vocals) and Clare (double bass/vocals) joined by Clare’s father, Pat Francis (dobro/mandolin), with the trio chalking up a plethora of gigs and festival appearances across the UK and Europe and releasing several albums – one of which I reviewed here. The constraints of lockdown restrictions, however, meant that the established trio reformulated themselves into a duo and for two years , every Friday evening, the pair would stage their online Folkgrass Lockdown ..read more

Like many regional theatres in the UK, the events programme for the White Rock In Hastings has been the typical mix of touring tribute shows, musicals and panto with the odd stand-out musical gem thrown. Recently, the theatre saw a change in operator with Trafalgar Theatres (who run many similar venues across the UK), giving way to the Guildhall Trust. The latter are a charity that operate the Portsmouth Guildhall and they came in promising “exciting times ahead” and a “broader programme of entertainment” for the White Rock. Certainly, having Robert Plant on stage sets high bar and is hopefull ..read more

“You should start writing a blog,” my brother Sam mentioned to me while we were sitting at a festival one afternoon in the Summer of 2013 discussing the various bands we’d each seen recently. Darren and Sam (right) at Fairport’s Cropredy Convention I told him the thought had vaguely crossed my mind but it was something I could give more thought to the following Spring once my lengthy stint as a local councillor was coming to an end. My evenings would then be freed up, giving me time to start seeing more gigs and, crucially, sharing my thoughts online about what I’d just seen. I’d always writte ..read more

New album: A Drop Of The Morning Dew: Live At Bacca Pipes Folk Club released 1 March 2024 Distilling both folk and country influences and performing a heartfelt mixture of self-penned and traditional songs on 12-string guitar and banjo, Serious Sam Barrett was raised in the Dales village of Addingham and began performing in and around Leeds in 2004. With the release of his debut album Close To Home in 2009, word began spreading further afield and Sam was soon grabbing the attention of audiences both around the UK and in the US. Having performed at SXSW in Austin, Texas in 2010, he has toured t ..read more

Ahead of Fairport Convention’s 2024 Winter Tour, starting in February, I catch up with Simon Nicol. We discuss Dave Mattacks’ return to the Fairport fold, the forthcoming tour, this Summer’s Cropredy and why he won’t be retiring any time soon. So you’re obviously looking forward to the Winter Tour then which starts early next month. What can fans expect this time? Well, for those who didn’t catch DM (Dave Mattacks) with us last year, you’re in for a different kind of musical experience than the last twenty-five years with Gerry. That’s one thing. But the other thing that’s happened with DM, it ..read more

Honey & The Bear – Away Beyond The Fret Away Beyond The Fret is the third album from husband-and-wife folk duo, Lucy and Jon Hart, and the follow-up to the highly-enjoyable Journey Through The Roke, which I reviewed back in 2021. Lucy Hart: “Many of the songs on this album focus on our Suffolk home and the close bonds of family, friendship and community.” Fresh-sounding, slightly genre-hopping and once again deeply rooted in the history, culture and landscape of their Suffolk homeland, Away Beyond The Fret is delivered with the duo’s characteristic elegance and beauty. The highly-talented ..read more

A Happy New Year to one and all. My thanks to everyone who has visited Darren’s music blog during 2023. As usual an eclectic mix of musical genres feature in this year’s top ten most viewed posts of the year – from blues to classic rock, to prog, to goth, to punk, to new wave, to folk – and much more in between! Here’s to 2024 which will mark ten years since I first started this blog back in March 2014. 1. So farewell to Butlin’s Rock & Blues weekends, Skegness 13-15 January 2023 For more than a decade an out-of-season trip to Butlins has been a fixture in my diary at least once each ..read more

Hot on the heels of his stunning 2023 studio album, Glass Knight, released back in August, genre-fluid glam-prog-folk singer-songwriter, Joshua Burnell, follows it up with a new live album in time for Christmas. Glass Knight, which Burnell launched when he performed on the main stage at Fairport’s Cropredy festival, picked up tons of good reviews – including from Darren’s Music Blog where I described it as “Hunky Dory-era Bowie meets folk rock meets prog” and hailed it as a bona fide twenty-first century masterpiece. Rather than giving us ‘stadium-ready’ renditions of the songs from Glass Knig ..read more

One of the really nice things about seeing Steeleye Span live (and there are many) is that on each new tour there are always a few surprises to look forward to. It’s never just a ‘greatest hits’ set of the most obvious crowd-pleasers plus a few songs thrown in to plug whatever happens to be the latest album. Obscure songs from the band’s bulging back catalogue are dusted down and given a new lease of life. New arrangements are tried out by what is often a very different line-up from the one that originally recorded it. Or sometimes an entire album is revisited and performed in full. Meanwhile ..read more

Jack Rutter – This Is Something Constant I first came across Jack Rutter when three precociously-talented but slightly nervous teenagers took the stage at Fairport’s Cropredy festival back in 2011 as that year’s BBC Young Folk Awards winners as the trio Moore Moss Rutter. Since that time, Rutter has made a major mark on the UK folk scene. As well as periodic albums with Moore Moss Rutter, there have been collaborations with the likes of Sam Sweeney, Seth Lakeman and Molly Evans, plus his own solo career. Jack Rutter: “Folk songs and music captivate me and make me happy. This album is a love le ..read more