Play list 7/16/14: Bellowhead - Fine Sally - Revival - Island Records bellowhead.co.uk/ Lucy Ward - Icarus - Single Flame - Navigator Records lucywardsings/ Greg Russell & Ciaran Algar - A Season In Your Arms - The Call - Fellside Recordings russellalgar.co.uk/ Kris Drever - Mark The Hard Earth - Mark The Hard Earth (Remastered) - Reveal Records krisdrever/ Sara Grey w. Kieron Means - Bright Sunny South - Down In Old Dolores - Fellside Recordings saragrey/ Joe Kemp - Twilight - Kaleidoscope - joekempmusic.bandcamp Bellowhead - Let Union Be - Revival - Island Records bellowhead.co.uk/ Lucy Ward - For The Dead Men - Single Flame - Navigator Records lucywardsings/ Greg Russell & Ciaran Algar - The Workhouse - The Call - Fellside Recordings russellalgar.co.uk/ Kris Drever - Allegory - Mark The Hard Earth (Remastered) - Reveal Records krisdrever/ Sara Grey w. Kieron Means - Merry Willow Tree - Down In Old Dolores - Fellside Recordings saragrey/ Joe Kemp - Oh How My Heart Aches - Kaleidoscope - joekempmusic.bandcamp Bellowhead - marking their 10th year as one of the best live bands in the UK (BBC Radio 2 Best Live Folk Act Award winners a record 5 times!) with a couple of hugely successful major concerts in substantial venues (Manchesters Bridgewater Hall and Londons Royal Albert Hall) in April and now a new 5th CD, on a new label even, the juggernaut rolls on taking on board 10 traditional songs, plus Richard Thompsons I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight, and bellowheading them with big band brass and flying fiddles - a sonic feast; Lucy Ward - a superb 2nd release from this 24 year old BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards award-winning singer, songwriter, guitarist, ukeleleist and concertina player from Derby who imbues her songs with the craftsmanship that is the traditional process whilst dealing with contemporary matters such as governmental incompetence and honour killings, and employing a broad array of styles from a cappella to tender traditional ballads to full on folk-rock and all featuring her wondrously powerful and rich Derbyshire accented voice - so, theres the oft-difficult second album all sorted, and what a gem it is!; Greg Russell & Ciaran Algar: yet another superb second release, this time from this individually multi-instrumentalist duo, formed in 2011, who in addition to being 2014 BBC Radio 2 Horizon Award winners and 2013 BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Award winners, also have All-Ireland and All-Britain fiddle championships wins on several occasions by Algar in their resume. With a mix of traditional and contemporary songs, including writers such as James Keelaghan, Mick Ryan and Phil Colclough and a lovely Swedish song adapted into English by Jonny Dyer, plus a couple of excellent songs from Algar, and tune sets including pieces from such composers as Phil Cunningham, Joanie Madden and Kevin Crawford, the periodically expressed pessimistic outlook for folk music appears to be rather happily mistaken whilst albums such as this are being released; Kris Drever - Orkney born singer, songwriter and fabulous guitarist, formerly with Fine Friday for 3 albums, and currently a member of Lau with whom he has released 3 albums, and a duo release with Eamonn Coyne, this marks his 2nd solo release since his 2006 debut Black Water and in this instance it is a remastered 2009 Celtic Connections album featuring an all-star cast including John McCusker, Ian Carr, Tim OBrien, Phil Cunningham, Karine Polwart, Heidi Talbot and more. Comprising contemporary fare from writers such as Caleb Klauder, Sandy Wright, the previously mentioned Phil Colclough (for the same song!) and Duncan Drever, and traditional songs including The Banks Of The Nile and O A the Airts, this marks a fabulous addition to his repertoire; Sara Grey w. Kieron Means: mother and son duo featuring well regarded longtime UK-domiciled US traditional and singer banjoist Grey and superb guitarist and singer Means, abetted on this release by fellow American Ben Paley, also a longtime UK resident I believe. With good liner notes to accompany each song this is an album to be savoured with repeated listenings. Having performed for Little Rock Folk Club on a couple of occasions, their time in the state was well spent as evidenced by Merry Willow Tree, a version of the Golden Vanity learned from the singing of Arkansas folk icon Almeda Riddle, from Timbo, AR and housed in the Quincy Wolf Folklore Collection, Lyon College, in Batesville, AR. Joe Kemp - clearly talented young Leeds,UK-based singer-songwriter mining the blue-eyed Northern Soul seam with forays into nimbly picked acoustic guitar-powered folk-jazz, somewhat reminiscent of a young John Martin though without his tortured artiste angst, rather than say Clive Gregsons Any Trouble era. The 8 song album was recorded at his home over a 12 month period using fairly primitive recording equipment and his learn-as-you-go technical recording and mastering skills and is a testament to his creativity and technical come with a ringing endorsement from my Bradford UK correspondent
Posted on: Wed, 16 Jul 2014 05:41:35 +0000