Lisa Hannigan's Sea Sew shortlisted for Mercury Prize

Florence Welch, she of early co-favourites for this year's Mercury Prize Florence and the Machine, has 'never heard of' fellow nominee Lisa Hannigan. This is disappointing, particularly after the latter's mainstream exposure on Later with Jools Holland, the Radio 2 playlist and (of course) RaW Folk...

Hannigan, with a critically acclaimed history as the female vocalist for Damien Rice, refers to her music as plinky plonk rock, perhaps in an attempt to dodge the singer-songwriter and nu-folk labels. This is probably a good idea - generally such labels are as unhelpful as they are unsound and Hannigan's music should be heard without prejudice. Her nomination is well-deserved.

Nevertheless, since the Mercurys started in 1992 the prize has earned a reputation for its left-field nominees and, to a lesser extent, winners (Antony & the Johnsons spring to mind). It has an equally rich history of promoting folk artists, with Eliza Carthy, Kate Rusby, Seth Lakeman, Laura Marling and Rachel Unthank and the Winterset (now the Unthanks) among those gracing previous shortlists.

None have gone on to win, unfortunately, meaning Lisa Hannigan's chances on form are not that great. Last year something of a headwind built up behind the Unthanks, seemingly sweeping them from token folkies to serious contenders, though no-one could quibble with Elbow's eventual win (in the process joining Klaxons, Arctic Monkeys and Franz Ferdinand as all-male band winners of the last five years). The Mercury Prize has a habit of springing surprises, however, so maybe Hannigan, with her unassuming, engaging and well-executed debut album Sea Sew, could pull off a shock come September.

Warwick Arts Centre's Autumn Music Programme Released

After an incredibly disappointing year marred by extensive construction work, the release of Warwick Arts Centre's live music listings for Autumn 2009 has me very excited and necessitates an increased intensity of job hunting.

Folkie highlights include:
- Kings of Convenience on October 15
- The Unthanks on October 29
- The Saw Doctors on December 02
- Kate Rusby on December 19
- Steeleye Span (Maddy Prior, Peter Knight, Liam Genockey, Ken Nicol, Pete Zorn) on December 20

Paul Weller, Newton Faulkner and Alsion Moyet are also playing the Butterworth Hall. Limited £5 tickets are available for students - head over to www.warwickartscentre.co.uk/events/music/ for more information.

In addition, Seth Lakeman will be playing the Copper Rooms (Warwick SU) on November 10 - always a superb live spectacle, though I suspect the excessive £16 price tag will keep many away.

RaW Folk's Vital Statistics

During the final show I received an email enquiry about the most-played song on RaW Folk - a title won by Fleet Foxes for Mykonos, which, with four plays, works out as almost 0.8% of RaW Folk's musical output. In actuality that is likely to be wildly untrue, as I have not been so anal in my bookkeeping as to record individual track lengths - but I have pressed play 513 times.

Listed below for the quantitatively-tuned are RaW Folk's vital statistics.

Total shows: 32
Total songs played: 513
Average show duration: 74.5 minutes
Average songs per show: 16.03
Most songs played: 30 (18/10/2008)
Fewest songs played: 9 (07/02/2009 - though this special show included snippets from 35 other tracks, as part of RaW Folk's BBC Folk Awards coverage).

Most Played Artist: Bob Dylan (18)
Most Played Female Artist: Eliza Carthy (11) and Kate Rusby (11)
Most Played Band: Chumbawamba (13)
Most Played Duo: Simon & Garfunkel (8)

Most Played Songs: "Mykonos" by Fleet Foxes (4) and "All You Pretty Girls" by Jim Moray (3) and XTC (1).
Songs with three plays:
- "Come Down Jehovah" (Chris Wood)
- "Fakenham Fair" (Bellowhead)
- "Gone Gone Gone (Done Moved On)" (Robert Plant & Alison Krauss)
- "Lon Dubh / Blackbird" (Julie Fowlis)
- "Mary Margaret" (Mr Plow)
- "New Columbus" (The Queensbury Rules)
- "Old Virginia Block" (Devon Sproule)
- "When I Get Back To Shore" (Thea Gilmore)
- "White Winter Hymnal" (Fleet Foxes)
"Dirty Old Town" has also been heard three times - Ewan MacColl's original, Rod Stewart's cover and the Pogues' Irishised version from Rum, Sodomy & the Lash. In addition, the Dylan classic "I Shall Be Released" received three plays - versions by the Tom Robinson Band and the Band having been featured in Folk On or Folk Off but the original never making the airwaves (tut).

Most Featured Albums: "The Boy Bands Have Won" by Chumbawamba (ten different tracks played, twelve plays total); "Low Culture" by Jim Moray (six, nine) and "Burlesque" by Bellowhead (eight, eight).

Thanks again to everyone who listened to the programme during its four term run. The current intention is to continue the show with a series of specials next year.