folk video
Premiere: Watch the video for Sasha & The Shades’ theatrical folk-blues, ‘Smile’; the magician’s assistant finally has her say
SOUTH-EAST London vaudeville blues-folk quintet Sasha & The Shades have a new EP, Grin & Bare It, lined up for release not just digitally, but on that sexiest and scarcest-used of formats, the 12″, too, and that’ll be with us next Friday; but they want you to draw close, so today here at Backseat Mafia …
See: Sarah McQuaid – ‘The Day Of Wrath, That Day (The St Buryan Sessions)’: six strings resonate from the Penwith granite
AFTER a life’s journey so far that’s taken her from her birthplace, Madrid, over to the States and on to Ireland, folk singer-songwriter Sarah McQuaid has put down roots in the vibey, windswept, granite-hard Penwith peninsula at the end of Cornwall. With all the constraints of the lockdown purdah, she’s been busy recording a series …
See: the video for the supernatural psych-folk of Nainnoh’s ‘Colors’
NEW YORK-based Nainnoh has a particularly supernatural way with psychedelic folk, perhaps casting herself in a lineage that casts back to Dr. John, Buffy Saint-Marie, Espers and others. There’s something about her vocals, precise, husky, but somwhow shadowy and speaking of other worlds, cast against a landscape of dramatic Americana; Nancy Sinatra gone fully darkside. …
See the lyric video for Polly Paulusma’s ‘Jack Munro’ – an album of songs that influenced Angela Carter’s on the way
YOU WANT intelligent folk songcraft? Look no further than Polly Paulusma. Fresh from teaching English to undergraduates at Cambridge, and having recently been awarded a PhD, English folkie Polly Paulusma is set to returned with an album of songs which inspired Angela Carter’s dark retakes on the traditional folk tale paradigms, to be entitled Invisible …
Track: John Smith – ‘Hold On’: a plea to stay hoping with The Staves’ Jessica
AT LEAST once in recent times, Essex-born, Devon-raised folk troubadour John Smith has received the epithet “the guitarists’ guitarist”. And with a CV like his, you couldn’t argue; as a session musician he’s has played with Joan Baez, David Gray, Joe Henry, Lianne La Havas and Tom Jones. He’s also in possession of a voice …
See: Sarah McQuaid – ‘Charlie’s Gone Home’ (The St Buryan Sessions)@ folk excellence from the far west
FOLK singer-songwriter Sarah McQuaid undertook a perigrination from Madrid to the States to Ireland before arriving in mainland Britain’s ultima thule, the deep Penwith peninsula. She’s releasing a series of intimate single videos under the banner the St Buryan Sessions, which will ultimately lead to a full album later in the summer; but for today, …
News: Folk legend Peggy Seeger announces new album, tour and single
‘Legend’ is a term often bandied about a little too loosely, but in the case of Peggy Seeger, it is a justified and well-earned description. Seeger has been a pivotal figure in the UK and US folk movements, in her own right, and with her late husband Ewan MacColl, and comes from a musical family …
SEE: Raine Hamilton – ‘Brave Land’: gorgeous chamber bluegrass tune launches new album; live-streamed show tonight
RAINE HAMILTON, the chamber-folk artist from Winnipeg, Manitoba, grew up in musical family and learned her chops early; in fact, her parents met in a rock band in the 1970s – music runs that deep for her. Her particular brand of folk pushes the boundaries of the trad form, borrowing from the counterpoint principles of …
NEWS: Dark Tea announce new album, out April 30th on Fire Talk
FOR THOSE who don’t know the project, Dark Tea is Gary Canino’s solo project, taking advantage of a large group of collaborators in the New York scene. Spanning across mostly 80s-inspired songwriting styles, the project is quite characteristic but also classic-sounding, in its own way. Gary is now announcing a new record, out April 30th …
PREMIERE: Fish and Scale – ‘You Can Call Me LOVE’: swoon for a folk troubadour’s embrace
HAILING from Franconia, in southern Germany, Roland Wälzlein is on a mission to bring us glowing, stirring folk as Fish and Scales – and we’re premiering his first, rather groovy and lovely, single of the year, “You Can Call Me LOVE” here today at Backseat Mafia. As a child of 6, he underwent – and …