Author: Lynn Roberts

Lynn founded For Folk's Sake in 2008. Her favourite artists are Joni Mitchell, The Leisure Society and The Mountain Goats. She plays keyboards in Joe Innes & the Cavalcade.

Blissfields announces folktastic line-up

The people at Blissfields have announced the first few acts for the Hampshire festival. And it’s good news for folk fans. Confirmed artists include lovely Laura Marling, marvellous Mumford and Sons, charming Cherbourg, really-very-good Ryan O’Reilly and the brilliant beat-boxing hip-hop folk-funkster Gideon Conn.

Album Review: Noble Beast – Andrew Bird

It’s a sweet start for Andrew Bird’s new offering, Nobel Beast – a collection of soothing and winding indie folk tunes sure to be a hit among his loyal fans and new ones alike. The sweeping strings and twee whistle of Oh No (apparently influenced by a crying child on a flight) sets the scene for an album of enchanting and catchy songs, many with darker undertones, but always a sunny melody.

Laura Marling covers Mumford and Sons on American radio

An interview with Laura Marling was broadcast on America’s NPR radio this week. Laura performs a cover of Mumford and Sons’ Roll Away Your Stone, as well as her own songs Rambling Man, My Manic and I and Your Only Doll (Dora).

Album | Darren Hayman – Pram Town

Pram Town is a ‘folk opera’ from former Hefner frontman Darren Hayman. The story follows a unmotivated guy stuck in the town where he grew up, Harlow (nicknamed Pram Town in the 50s because of the sudden influx of young families when the town was built in the aftermath of WWII). He meets an ‘out of his league’ London woman while fare-evading in a first class train carriage.

I Said Yes

They say: ‘i said yes’ are a group of friends who started out recording low budget covers of contemporary ‘pop’ tunes back in 2006. They’ve come a long way since then, playing their first gig at the Wee Red Bar…

Album Review: Eugene McGuinness

Eugene McGuinness certainly turned a few heads with his mini-album “The Early Learnings of Eugene McGuinness” in 2007, and with this – his first album proper – he will no doubt turn a few more.

For Folk’s Sake Interview: An evening ale with Junkboy

It’s been a happy new year in more ways than one for Junkboy. The three-piece, who meld a strong folk influence onto lush, whimsical songs that take in everything from post-rock to relaxed electronica, are currently celebrating their 10th anniversary, in typically modest style. “Mik posted an update on Facebook which simply said ‘Ten glorious years’,” says Rich. “It’s been ten years since the first single came out. Ten strange years…”

EP Review: Jennifer Concannon- Freedom

Jennifer Concannon describes her music as sounding “like tin cans rolling down a hill” and, on listening, it’s hard not to wish it was you on that hill instead. Tin cans get all the fun. The Freedom EP has a refreshing sense of space that spurs the listener to get out of the front door and into the world, that is until they realise that it’ll be dark in half an hour and it’s pouring with rain.

EP Review: Ivan Campo – Super 7

Sharing a name with an overweight, curly haired, Spanish footballer might not be the first thing most musicians aim for when putting together a band. Indeed, the music created could not be further than the image of the former Bolton Wanderers midfielder huffing and puffing his way around a football pitch. In fact, Ivan Campo in the musical sense are a three piece folk tinged trio based in Manchester and this EP is their fifth release to date.