Folk
Track: Jenny Hval releases That Battle Is Over, ahead of her new album Apocalypse, Girl
Already the veteran of albums under her own name and her guise of Rockettothesky, as well as being the singer of gothic metal band Shellyz Raven in her younger days, Norwegian singer songwriter is preparing to release her third studio album ‘Apocalypse, Girl’ on June 8th via Sacred Bones. Ahead of it, she’s released a …
Live: The Unthanks at Leeds Irish Centre
It seems unfair these days to label The Unthanks a folk band when they have clearly moved way past the restrictive traditions of that genre which all too often puts people off engaging with our nation’s indigenous music. They are on the road touring their new album Mount The Air and the dynamic live version …
Track: Folk troubadour Sam Lee releases new song, Blackbird.
Travelling the UK, Sam Lee has collected and reinvented folk song and story. His creations are inspiring a new generation of folk musicians to explore, adapt and experiment with folk and sound. Blackbird is Romany in origin and was imparted by May Bradley of Shropshire, passing on her cultural roots. The tale told in Blackbird has not lost its …
Not Forgotten – The Music Career of Leonard Nimoy
The sad passing of Leonard Simon Nimoy will inevitably result in many obituaries re-analysing his film career both in front and behind the career. Quite how many of those same obituaries will go into any depth about his five album music career which stretched from 1967 to 1970 remains to be seen. Much like his …
Live review: King Charles, Hebden Bridge Trades Club. 13/2/15
It might have been Friday the 13th, but for King Charles’ hardcore band of fans it wasn’t unlucky as he turned in a powerful greatest hits set with some new tracks thrown in. There’s some serious money behind Charles Costa – who has one minor hit behind him – as there is a double decker …
Not Forgotten: Elliott Smith – either/or
It was a movie that first brought my attention to Elliott Smith. On watching Good Will Hunting in 1998 I heard some remarkable songs on the soundtrack that I didn’t know. It was Miss Misery playing over the end credits that particularly caught my attention. I loved it so much that I stayed to the …
Album review: Justin Townes Earle – Absent Fathers
‘Wish I could say I know you/’cause lord, I Wanna Understand/Need you to now there’s nothing I want more in this world as a man.’ If you kick off you latest album with those words, and then call it Absent Fathers, then you are pretty clearly laying out your agenda. Justin Townes Earle is the …
New music: First Aid Kit “Master Pretender”
First Aid Kit make music which sounds like it belongs in the latest cool indie film of the moment. All bouncy backing, soaring strings and vocals which are both endearingly plaintive and beautifully whimsical. Against the somewhat overpopulated marketplace of pop folk, First Aid Kit manage to stand out for a number of reasons: firstly, they …
Track: C Duncan – Say
Last time we heard from C Duncan, it was when our interest was peeked when we heard his track ‘For’. Now the Glasgow song-songwriter is back with a new single, ‘Say’ taken from his forthcoming debut album, due out this Summer. As with its predecessor, it was lovingly recorded at home by C Duncan, who …
Track: Stornaway – The Road You Didn’t Take
Oxford indie folk band Stornoway are back with a third, as yet untitled album, due out on April 13th. Searching for new ideas and with the lyrical cupboard (that is, his notebook) bare, songwriter and frontman Dr. Brian Briggsford took his family and upped sticks for the Gower Pennisula in Wales, perhaps (and I’m relying …