“‘Time isn’t kind or unkind,’ you like to say, but I wonder to whom, and what it is, you’re saying today” sings Sam Beam in ‘Tree By The River’, another gleaming example of his storytelling prowess to add to his…
Author: For Folk's Sake
Live | Gruff Rhys & Y Niwl @ Shepherds Bush Empire, London
Amongst the potted palms of the mobile lobby of Gruff Rhys’s Hotel Shampoo, support band Y Niwl emit wave after wave of their own brand of crystalline surf rock. The Peter Gunn-esque ‘Pedwar’ opens the show, followed by the standout Chwech,…
Album | Jonny Kearney & Lucy Farrell – Kite
More than most kinds of music, folk is good at doing a genre piece. I like Jonny Kearney and Lucy Farrell’s Kite in the same way many people like a good murder mystery novel or a solid romantic comedy film…
Album | Flashguns – Passions of a Different Kind
Wandering around the Underage Festival in 2009, I came across many bands that have since faded from memory. My search for the ‘next big thing’ seemed hopeless; that is, until I saw Flashguns. Their urgency as a live act left…
Album | Ryan Adams – Ashes & Fire
Great news for Ryan Adams fans who have grown tired of his attempts to become a) a rapper b) a metal-head or, more recently, c) invisible. The news is Ryan is back, acoustic guitar in hand and singing actual songs…
Album | Darren Hayman – The Ship’s Piano
“On March the twenty-third, she said something so absurd, she said: you love to be in love but you never really love.” So Darren Hayman sang as lead singer of Hefner a little over ten years ago on their seminal…
Album | Thea Gilmore & Sandy Denny – Don’t Stop Singing
In 2007, while compiling Sandy Denny’s unrecorded material for what would become last year’s monumental eponymous 19CD box set, the late Fairport Convention singer’s estate uncovered several sets of lyrics unused and unscored before her untimely passing in 1978, aged…
Album | Greg Hall – Run Barefoot Holler
An American-sounding Londoner, Greg Hall has built up an impressive list of film and theatre collaboration credits and now emerges blinking into the spotlight with a debut album in his own right. ‘This Ain’t Love’ and ‘Falling Rain’ – both…
EP | Michael Kiwanuka – I’m Getting Ready
Comparisons have been made between Michael Kiwanuka’s music and that of soul legends like Bill Withers. These comparisons are surely merited, as Kiwanuka constructs simple, steady, and heartfelt songs. He prefers to ensure that he has an earnest voice to…
EP | Jens Lekman – An Argument With Myself
Jens Lekman’s new EP, An Argument With Myself, is his first release for four years, something that fans of his are possibly not used to given his usually impressive work rate. His thirteenth EP is a very relaxed affair but…