Let me get the negative out of the way right off the bat: this was a gig to forget. And I think no-one would like to forget it more than Lissie. It was unprofessional and downright disappointing. If that’s enough…
Author: For Folk's Sake
Album | Thea Gilmore – Regardless
Thea Gilmore’s return, following the birth of her second child, brings with it a 14th studio album in as many years which finds her on top of her game. Gilmore herself admits the time she took away from music helped…
Album | Valerie June – Pushin’ Against A Stone
The town of Jackson, Tennessee sits just a little west of the midway point on a long stretch of Interstate 40 which goes by the name of the Music Highway. It is where Carl Perkins came of age, and it…
Album | Iron & Wine – Ghost on Ghost
The sixth album of Iron & Wine, the pseudonym of all American Samuel Beam, opens with the industrial sounds of a construction works, only then to jump into a gorgeous guitar intro reminiscent of previous albums. Ghost on Ghost, though…
Album | Noah & The Whale – Heart of Nowhere
Fade in. Exterior shot. Non-descript North American suburbs. A long street, lined with pristine houses and sedans, filled with people in suits and ties climbing into their cars and driving off for work. Straight cut to a train station. A…
Album | Tom McRae – From The Lowlands
Tom McRae’s fifth album, The Alphabet Of Hurricanes, received a decidedly lukewarm critical response upon its release in 2010, making the decision to release a follow-up billed as a second part of the project, and containing a song of that…
Album | William Tyler – Impossible Truth
William Tyler will be familiar to fans of Lambchop and Silver Jews, having toured with both of those bands as a guitarist. He’s also a well-respected solo artist in his own right, creating soothing instrumental music with his guitars. His…
Interview | Alasdair Roberts on foundlings, the carnivalesque and becoming more Scottish
London’s Foundling Museum is full of intriguing artefacts. “Some of these things you’d think only existed in folk songs. But here they are in real, palpable things,” we are told before the first of the museum’s new, monthly folk nights.…
Live | The Leisure Society @ Queen Elizabeth Hall, London
“I think we must be the most English band of all time,” says the Leisure Society’s Christian Hardy as he politely suggests some audience participation towards the end of their set at Queen Elizabeth Hall. Profusely thanking everybody for coming,…
Album | Paper Aeroplanes – Little Letters
There’s a great moment in the tenth episode of 30 Rock in which someone asks Alec Baldwin’s character if he likes Phil Collins. Baldwin’s response is a droll and perfectly timed “I have two ears and a heart, don’t I?”…