Americana, or, to be more precise, the folk-roots of American music, has seen a resurgence over the past two or three years, and the Lone Bellow are the musical embodiment of everything that has made the genre fashionable. Big, sing-a-long…
Frontman with Joyce The Librarian, Martin Callingham steps out with a debut solo album of understated loveliness. Recorded at Bristol’s Toy Box Studios and released by Folkwit Records – and really, given our website’s name, how could we not have…
Kristin McClement arrives as a fully-formed artist with a debut album to prove it. The Wild Grips is elegant, spacious and beautifully presented. From the first notes, McClement spins the web of an expert storyteller and songwriter. And that is…
Jose Gonzalez is one of those artists you have heard before, whether you know it or not. His songs work their way into daily life and are beautiful little creatures that seem to live and breathe and take on a…
Inuit throat-singer Tanya Tagaq surprised many pundits by winning Canada’s Polaris Prize in 2014 ahead of a number of more established names, not least the Arcade Fire. The prize is awarded for ‘artistic integrity’ and, listening to Animism, Tagaq comes…
In the six years since Idlewild released Post Electric Blues, they’ve had a lengthy hiatus, put out a handful of solo projects, and ultimately realised that Idlewild was something worth holding on to. They’ve returned with a clear sense of…
Within folk, there’s a constant and essential need to remain within the acoustic, the wooden, the real. Crossing into unfamiliar instrumental territory can often fragment a delicately antiquated and almost traditional approach to the genre. Familiar up and down the…
It’s with pleasure that I greet the return of Swedish quintet The Amazing. Their 2011 album Gentle Stream was one of my favourite albums of that year, becoming something of an emotional touchstone thereafter. Its dynamic mix of minor key…
Gretchen Peters’ Blackbirds is bookended by two songs of the same name. The opener is electric and confrontational, the closer a milder and softer reprise. Powered by Peters’ voice – lived-in, loaded, tainted with regret – the chorus of the…
The Unthanks’ latest album is filled to the brim with the epic, the grandiose, and the fairytale-esque. The finest moments of Mount The Air are perfect slices of modern folk, always with a nod to some of the genre’s greatest…