10 from '10

This is most definitely not an albums-of-the-year thing, as no-one's asked and I'm not quite so self-important! Plus, given that it seems to be illegal not to rate The National's grandiose and shimmering High Violet top, there wouldn't be much point. Nevertheless here are ten records not reviewed on this blog that I'd suggest seeking out - if not before midnight then ASAP next year.

Chumbawamba - ABCDEFG (No Masters)
With trademark wit and harmonies, the mighty Chumbawamba's "meta-album" on the subject of music is another treasury of engrossing titbits and stories. Singing about George Melly, James Hetfield and Richard Wagner, the band (now on sabbatical until the summer) are unafraid to cast a wide net. ABCDEFG delivers catchy and captivating songs.

Beach House - Teen Dream (Bella Union)
Victoria Legrand's sultry vocals hold the interest over wintry, minimalist melodies, as the Baltimore dream-pop duo generate light-touch gravitas that is coldly sober and prettily heady. The nuanced Teen Dream has not been overhyped.

Ruarri Joseph - Shoulder to the Wheel (Pip Productions)
For someone so obviously influenced by Bob Dylan, Ruarri Joseph carries the tag with ease. Vocals, guitar and harmonica craft mature, thoughtful, maybe even commercial songs - and Shoulder to the Wheel contains just enough gems to be a thoroughly rewarding listen. One to watch, and support.

Band of Horses - Infinite Arms (Columbia)
Factory was an early shout for single of the year; and though unsurpassed by the remainder of the record, is by no means out of place on the Horses' slickest set yet. Balancing the anthemic with the intimate, delivering winning harmonies and hummable melodies this is inspired summer alt. rock.

Musée Mécanique - Hold This Ghost (Souterrain Transmissions)
Named for a penny arcade museum in San Fransisco, Musée Mécanique produce meditative music on their refined debut: sorrowful, otherworldly, delicate and introspective. It is also comforting and calming - gentle hope brightening the haze with flecks of cheer. Their lilting laments form an impressive and promising first album.

Laura Veirs - July Flame (Bella Union)
July Flame is a simple but glittering record, capable of exquisite beauty. Veirs is accumulating quite a catalogue of impressively consistent records - and this is as fine and worthy an introduction as anything before.

Laura Marling - I Speak Because I Can (Virgin)
Rambling Man earned Marling a first Folk Award nomination and is the stand-out song from the Berkshire-based singer-songwriter's stronger second release. Spirited, literate and determined, this is a stoical, steely and very accomplished album.

Jenny & Johnny - I'm Having Fun Now (Warner Bros.)
I should declare that Rabbit Fur Coat was one of my albums of the last decade, so it is hardly unexpected that Jenny Lewis's latest venture, with boyfriend Johnathan Rice, so delights. Equally, there should be no surprise at her proficiency in making music with a partner, remembering Rilo Kiley. Whatever, this is a collaboration of rock n roll sensibility, indie tinge and pop delivery. Infectious, engaging, just lovely.

The Burns Unit - Side Show (Proper)
An eight-piece Scots-Canadian collaboration between luminaries including Karine Polwart, King Creosote and ex-Delgado Emma Pollock might have struggled to total anything approaching the sum of its parts. Fortunately and skilfully, despite disparate backgrounds and a diverse set of songs, the textures are so well woven that the album is surprisingly seamless. "Supergroup" billing is as unavoidable as it is unenviable but creditably, Burns Unit never threaten to disappoint - and Side Show should have been centre of attention.

Robert Plant & Band of Joy - Band of Joy (Decca)
Backed by a line-up including Buddy Miller and Patty Griffin, Plant's latest release means he has contributed to albums charting across six different decades - but what's more impressive is his enduring credibility through more phases than the moon. His Led Zep past is brilliantly irrelevant to Band of Joy, (in one sense because the original incarnation of the group formed before his collaboration with Page) but mainly because this album, like Grammy-guzzling Raising Sand before it, is bigger than albatrosses and pedestals. The Alison Krauss duets were exquisite and Band of Joy echoes the spirit and the sound - but Plant is master of dodging his own shadow. Band of Joy is a great album all in its own right.

Festive Folk

This week's blog post was intended to carry details of the latest Magpie Lane Christmas gig in Oxford last weekend but, although the performance went ahead, roads were snowed on and buses snowed off. Tales of wassails will thus have to wait for another time but in lieu of a review I thought we could rely on the web to provide a little festive goodwill.

Anyone searching for a last minute present - or just relief from the standard Christmas soundtrack (turkeys and crackers alike) - could do much worse than picking up both For Folk's Sake it's Christmas (for £1+ here) and The Line of Best Fit's second Ho! Ho! Ho! Canada album (a double album in fact, available for free download here). Both are hoping to raise money for good causes - for more details click on the links.

A few artists are playing Santa this year, starting with former RaW Folk interviewee Tamara Schlesinger & her band 6 Day Riot who offer, gratis, a faithful interpretation of The Pretenders' 2000 Miles - download now from their website. A wintry cover of The Coldest Night of the Year, originally recorded by 1960s duo Twice as Much with Vashti Bunyan, is available from Mary Epworth & Adapter Adapter via Epworth's Soundcloud page, while a reduced three-track version of KT Tunstall's 2007 Christmas covers EP is being offered on the house at the Amazon UK MP3 store. Baltimore's Beach House are also spreading seasonal cheer (sort of) - new song I Do Not Care for the Winter Sun can be downloaded free of charge here.

Karine Polwart's charmingly mellow and rather unlikely version of Slade's Merry Xmas Everybody, recorded for a BBC Radio 2 programme being broadcast tonight, meets with Noddy Holder's approval and is well worth a listen, although you do have to shell out 79p for this one. Humbug! Lastly, a word for Mark Lamarr's final God's Jukebox show, following the alternative carols on Radio 2: listen.

Merry Christmas - and check back soon for an arbitrary year-ending list. Hooray!

Review: Kate Rusby - Make the Light

It seems churlish, not to say a touch presumptuous, to criticise an artist for loitering in their comfort zone. Kate Rusby has made consistently lovely albums during a decade of personal ups and downs, establishing herself as a herald of folk tradition's transition back into national (sub)consciousness. She might be best known for covering the Kinks on an axed sitcom's titles - but who else has sung Elfin Knight on prime time BBC1?

This reservation notwithstanding, Make the Light is a little bit frustrating. For the first time, the album omits to include any traditional material, crediting Jam & Jerusalem scribe Jennifer Saunders for this 'good plan!' in the liner notes. So far, so fair enough, because Rusby adjusts to a full singer/songwriter role without breaking stride. Her albums have always contained original compositions so the shift itself is unremarkable and while adding charming material to a goodly repertoire, nothing new is achieved. Her flirtations with imitative faux-tradition are as pretty as hilltop follies - and perhaps as inessential as they are impressive.

However, chirpy first track The Wishing Wife - a case in point, and cousin to Awkward Annie's eponymous opener - is one of the highlights, alongside Walk the Road (a bucolic duet with spouse and strummer Damien O'Kane) and the cello-embellished Shout to the Devil, which leave lasting impressions. Unfortunately, there is something self-derivative about some of the songs that saps from Rusby's vocal purity and the proficiency of an all-new supporting cast. That this album is somehow less diverting than its predecessors means the desire for further variation is never sated.

What does differ is the tone of contentment overcoming the mournful - but this does little to shake things up, as a series of sedate songs ease unhurriedly to the album's close. Early on, Let Them Fly finds Rusby unusually political (or at least venting anger towards an anonymous politician) and her cutting gibes sting despite their unknown focus, if only for the ease of the target and her mildness elsewhere. Only Hope and Green Fields might be lullabies, intimate and soothing, while Four Stars is an elegant love song. Yet despite a subtle tension between snug security and struggle, Make the Light is ultimately just a nice record, ingrained with both the amiability and slight triteness that implies. If Rusby has plateaued, at least she's picked a beauty spot.

Review: The Bad Shepherds - By Hook or By Crook

Second time around, Ade Edmondson and his fellow herdsmen are just as sure and fleet of foot as before, exuding a quiet confidence and sophistication as they reconstruct another set of punk and new wave classics interwoven with traditional tunes. As has been noted, the presence of Troy Donockley and Andy Dinan is pivotal and demands the band serious attention - but Edmondson is no mere flashy figurehead, adding able mandolin as well as measured vocals. The Bad Shepherds are not interested in parody, nor an aging actor's vanity project - he again delivers a thought-provoking, not provocative, performance throughout.

By Hook or By Crook starts in much the same vane as Yan, Tyan, Tethera Methera! with a lone, low, buzzing note heralding an oblique approach to choice slices of rock rebellion and social commentary. Among the finest moments from the first album were those that brought out aching, heart-melting pathos - like a harrowing Down in the Tube Station at Midnight or the quiet nostalgia of Squeeze's Up the Junction - but they were complemented by the apocalyptic London Calling, sardonically rebellious God Save the Queen and joyous escapades like Teenage Kicks morphing into Whiskey in the Jar. Here, the Sound of the Suburbs is pared back to its central parochial poignancy, with lovely vulnerable fades; Anarchy in the UK is melancholy, a post-traumatic pipe mewling desolately over building urgency and all the more threatening for Edmondson's portrayal of mellow, checked psychosis. Others, however, just sound emasculated, like a tenderly plodding cover of Ever Fallen in Love. A similar impression is attained with Motorhead's Ace of Spades, which, shorn of a brash, bragging attitude, exposes the hollowness of swagger. It isn't fatalistic or urgent enough though, so the lyrics become rambling; their wistful take on Buzzcocks' best known hit loses the raw passive-aggression, impulsiveness and epiphany. Then again, whether teenage edge would seem convincing from a fifty-something ex-Young One is debatable, so perhaps the wisest course was chosen.

The splendid stand-out is White Riot, displaying zeal, flair and delicious instrumentation that really lifts the tempo. Our familiarity with the much covered track listing adds to the anticipation and indeed delight but is impressively little encumbrance, particularly skillful where other reinterpretations vie to be most inventive. In particular, several of the Bad Shepherds' selections have been previously restyled (and splendidly so) by Nouvelle Vague - but these incarnations are sufficiently dissimilar to avoid distraction or detraction. Resisting a hell-for-leather approach ensures Edmondson, Donockley and Dinan cannot be pigeonholed as a frivolous novelty folk trio (succeeding in showing sophistication beyond, for example, the Hayseed Dixie approach) and if, settled in style, they fall into their own novel niche, it matters not. The album is a great listen and improving with every airing.

Review: 3 Daft Monkeys - The Antiquated & The Arcane

Proudly independent, sporting a mean fiddler and exuding world influences inflected with glee, 3 Daft Monkeys are an attractive proposition. Likewise, new album The Antiquated & The Arcane, title inspired by a Cornish historical society, offers appetising fare, a medley of the raw and the ornate, the pacy and the idling, the obvious and the obscure.

Yet despite insistent, infectious vivacity from the title track that opens the album to the swelling closing chorus of platitudinous swan song Love Life, it is enjoyable without being instantly enchanting. Perhaps because of the showiness and self-referencing, their insistence sometimes seems insincere but this would be an unfair impression. Nevertheless, like a bumptious buffet host whose tries at conviviality become trying, 3DM offer a feast but fail to nourish. What's particularly peculiar about this is that they serve up proper nosh, not hauteur haute cuisine.

Under One Sun is a great folk-pop song, full of stabs and swells and la-las. Doors of Perception takes on a medieval minstrel mood between drowsy, lilting choruses and Love (sic) Fool is a fun percussive binge, replete with dub beat, a xylophone line and echoey, explosive bangs. What should sound messy produces a melting pot as endearing as it can be clamorous, divergence typified by the polished She Said that treads a tightrope between zeal and superficiality, too repetitive to build true atmospheric tension. It is the subtler touches, like the deadened, melancholy piano coda concluding Days of the Dance that provide the real depth.

The album is swept along by the trio's evident musicality, mastery of the catchy chorus and flaunting of joyous flourishes. Although 3 Daft Monkeys don't do the carnival underworld theatrics as well as Bellowhead, for example, their combination of mythologised autobiography, pervasively entertaining arrangements and gleeful playing pulls off songs like Civilised Debauchery and Perfect Stranger with dash and deftness. The Antiquated & The Arcane is delightfully played, well-produced and cleverly varnished but though buffed and boisterous, needs bolstering by something stouter. The inclusion of a couple of traditional folk tales would add another dimension to the thrust.

Gig Review: Show of Hands - Spires & Beams Tour, Oxford 12/11/2010

Steve Knightley and Phil Beer have amassed quite a catalogue of signature songs among their considerable canon after almost twenty years together as Show of Hands. Greeting the audience for the penultimate gig of their second 'Spires & Beams' tour around English churches and cathedrals, Knightley explained that lightweight numbers had been edited from the set list in favour of the more thoughtful. Ably assisted by Miranda Sykes, the duo duly delivered slower, contemplative pieces such as Sydney Carter song The Crow on the Cradle and the moving Santiago, interspersed with genial patter and the occasional singalong. In fact, there was some conservatism in the selections - ducking Evolution was understandable but a lost opportunity for a little harmless subversiveness. During the acerbic Arrogance Ignorance and Greed, Knightley altered a lyric: 'Dear God I hope you choke', presumably deemed an unbecoming wish in His house, became 'So friend...'. Atmospherically, however, the ecclesiastical setting seemed something of a red herring. St Aldates has a very modern feel (it was remodeled in the 1990s) and is not much bigger than your average school hall; the acoustics were excellent but not remarkable and it was quite possible to forget where you were.

One-time Wintersetter and now BBC Folk Award-winning solo artist Jackie Oates opened proceedings with an eclectic assortment of material including a tune composed at Wigan Parish Church a week before. Billed as a special guest, she seemed to enjoy the freedom to experiment afforded by a solo support slot, playing kantele and shruti and shunning some of the songs with which she is most associated. Oates plays and sings with a delicacy that offsets a fascination with blackness and bleakness exemplified by Past Caring, introduced as 'the most miserable song in the world', where the desolation was most human and raw. Mournfulness morphed to menace elsewhere and the set twisted to a sinister finish in the obsessional form of reworked nursery rhyme Lavenders Blue. It was a subtly clever but slightly underwhelming end to a splendid set that showcased Oates' obvious eminence on fiddle and vocals, most enjoyably on an accomplished rendition of Fourpence a Day.

After an interval Steve Knightley heralded the main event with The Preacher, performed from the floor and embellished by the distant echoing of a tolling bell, a masterful touch in an instantly captivating rendition. Phil Beer followed with the equally powerful and lonesome The Blind Fiddler, both adept adverts for respective solo tours scheduled for February. The duo have been accompanied by Sykes on bass and backing vocals since 2004 and the familiarity showed as they broke straight into the main set with accomplished ease and expertise.

Show of Hands are holistic showmen and made great use of the space in marrying grandness with intimacy. Simple lighting added to their stagecraft, with darkness drowning whispered outro to The Dive and the platform flushing red for the bass and bale of Innocents' Song. Beer's foreboding depiction of Herod 'walking out of the Christmas flame' followed a duet between Knightley and a returning Jackie Oates, on The Keys of Canterbury. Her vocals adorn the album version, sung as a straighter duet but here it was an ethereal call-and-response courtship, Knightley singing unaccompanied at the front with Oates, fiddle in hand, treading the aisle towards him, all silhouetted before a deep blue uplit arch. If this was the finest moment of the evening (and it certainly achieved the largest applause, save for a prolonged and slightly awkward semi-standing ovation before the encore) - it would be unfair on the faultless Beer and Sykes - but nothing else was quite as hypnotic.

Importantly, the evening was split between the spiritual and temporal, Knightley musing on the Chilean miners' rescue adding new poignancy to Santiago and The Dive and adding a line about the coming cuts and redundancies to AIG. Their unlikely cover of Don Henley's Boys of Summer, suiting an out-of-season autumnal malaise, was also special and highlighted their effortless musicianship. Given only two tracks were taken from the last album, it was a shame that staple favourites Roots and Country Life were both omitted (even from the encore) but that back catalogue offers such fine pickings it was terrific to hear something different.

Set Lists

Jackie Oates
Brigg Fair
Smugglers Bay
Goodbye To Beesands and To Magic / Wigan Parish Church / Tansys Golowan
Fourpence a Day
[Icelandic Sea Hymn]
Past Caring
Lavenders Blue

Show of Hands with Miranda Sykes
The Preacher [Steve Knightley]
The Blind Fiddler [Phil Beer]
The Train / Blackwaterside
The Crow on the Cradle
Cousin Jack
Arrogance Ignorance and Greed
The Dive
The Blue Cockade
Keys of Canterbury [Steve Knightley and Jackie Oates]
Innocents' Song [Phil Beer and Miranda Sykes]
Boys of Summer
Now You Know
Santiago
Encore: Pleasant and Delightful (The larks they sang melodious)

Review: Martyn Joseph - Under Lemonade Skies

'Martyn wants to move heaven and earth', declares the biography on martynjoseph.com, before noting such critical acclaim as to 'make any publicist purr with pleasure'. Fortunate then that Martyn considers such praise only in an 'almost incidental kind of way', because, almost incidentally, I'm about to add to it.

In fact, such hyperbole should be forgiven about an artist who is so unfairly unfamiliar to many. Now 50, Penarth-born Joseph's first records were released in the mid-1980s; since then his career has taken in a major label contract, a collaboration with Tom Robinson and Steve Knightley and an anthem for last month's Ryder Cup, the first to be played in Wales. His latest accomplishment is Under Lemonade Skies, an accessible album with an unstuffy sound that delivers customary conviction, adorned by skillfully textured acoustic guitar that elevates this effort. Where previous releases have tended towards earnest tenacity and weighty angst, here a nuanced Joseph blends passion and compassion on an album of gentle profundity that is given room to breathe.

Indeed, the album launches in upbeat style on shimmering first song Always Will Be, ascending to open skies that cloud over a touch in the balmy melancholy of So Many Lies, before Joseph heads heavenward on track three. Faith is the staple subject of Joseph's work and threads through the album, his depth of conviction complemented by a lightness of touch. Joseph's expression and spirituality are subtly eloquent, elegant and never glib. His affirmations are intimate, mesmerising and laudably unhampered by clumsy evangelism.

The album's centrepiece - and what was its working title track - is Lonely Like America, a sprawling modern folk song of 'pioneers and racketeers', contrast and contradiction, an ode to a failed promised land. What follows is less distinct, including the overlong On My Way, saved by a vocal performance evoking Knopfler and Springsteen. By the end, some of the fizz has escaped but this is for the most part a sparkling record.

Review: Belshazzar's Feast - Find the Lady

It's a busy few months for instrumentalist and singer Paul Sartin of Bellowhead and Belshazzar's Feast - the duo's latest release follows hard upon Hedonism and two tours follow. Find the Lady is an intriguing album, produced by Jim Moray who belies his own albums' avant-gardism with a broadly conservative production here. Deprived of dancers and audience interplay, Sartin and Paul Hutchinson (who has his own side project in three-piece Hoover the Dog) exhibit their eminence sincerely on an accomplished album of (mostly) traditional music.

Sartin's ancestors' sang for the Hammond Brothers, song-collecting contacts of Cecil Sharp. One of these ballads - the stately Turtle Dove - is performed with particular gravity to an engaging arrangement, while the instrumental tunes are as absorbingly delivered (try the splendid Bloomsbury Market/Hypermarket). Moray and additional guests Jackie Oates and Pete Flood add subtle contributions to the well-orchestrated set, with Sartin alternating on fiddle and oboe to accompany Hutchinson's ever-present accordion.

There is thus much to muse about even before the interruption of knowingly silly Primus Hornpipe, featuring a succession of "guest" cloggers, à la The Intro and the Outro. Breaking the reverie for revelry is not a bad idea and I smiled in spite of myself at wryly wrought references (My Old Man, anyone?); such whimsy is later lacking from the promisingly titled Circle of Biscuits that alas proves rather more dull. Courtly Royal Flush / Elephant Stairs injects late élan ahead of the atmospheric, ambitious final track, a rendition of the evocative poem Home Lad, Home. Find the Lady perhaps wants for a bit of gristle - and I'm not sure the two Pauls quite manage to stamp their personality right through the record - but this is a well-balanced and affecting album of craftsmanship and enthusiasm.

Review: The Bees - Every Step's A Yes

OK, not folk. I know. Forgive me, for I cannot resist this band. Every Step's a Yes, the Isle of Wight based Bees' first release since early 2007, doesn't put a foot wrong. Produced by front man and multi-instrumentalist Paul Butler, this is an understated, mature, intimate album, more considered than predecessor Octopus with more saunter than swagger.

Immaculate opener I Really Need Love does hint at the Bees of old, sashaying jauntily beneath Butler's fervently yearning vocals, and the ambience is again suffused with a soulful, psychedelic sixties sound. However, this record is a mellow affair, more experimental in instrumentation than composition. The aim, says bassist Aaron Fletcher, was to create 'universal songs', but the result is nothing so bland. Effortlessly fluent throughout, a sophisticated succession of introspective, delicately written, brightly tranquil tracks is broken only by samba-infused, spirited rollick that closes the album and comes closest to emulating anarchic back catalogue cousins.

On Every Step's a Yes the band immediately find their groove and, being The Bees, are far too classy to let that groove become a rut. Winter Rose's riff and percussion are fabulously atmospheric, the emotional No More Excuses understatedly stirring and Pressure Makes me Lazy shimmers to a railway rhythm. It's a moreish medley that skips between styles and, although lacking instant infectiousness, offers unhurried, fuzzy warmth. Unpretentious and intrinsically cheering, no Bees album ever outstays its welcome: the latest effort is ephemeral bliss.

Review: Bellowhead - Hedonism

Hedonism is bombastic, brash and very definitely Bellowhead, as bold as the brass that blusters throughout. The main danger for the big band, who first formed to headline the inaugural Oxford Folk Festival in 2004 and have gained an unparalleled live reputation, has always been that studio recordings cannot contain or convey that stage presence. Fortunately producer John Leckie captures their riotous ebullience, as he did for Rodrigo y Gabriela: Hedonism delivers trademark theatrics and sense of circus, at times gloriously unchecked but always tightly performed. Spiers, Boden and co. are an ensemble of talent, well ensconced in their respective roles and playing with a zing in their step.

Unsurprisingly the eleven-piece outfit incorporates a range of influences, from the traditional storytelling of Killen and Carthy to the exuberant funk of Kool and the Gang via vaudeville and jazz, offering a satisfying set of stylistically shifting songs. To the casual listener, however, more subtle variations are swallowed by swelling big band sound. Aside from the punkish Little Sally Racket, which swaps between frantic, Pogues-esque self-destructing revelry and barbershop lullaby, Hedonism is a honed record that, for the most part, doesn't depart from tested Bellowhead formulae. There are changes of texture and tempo, especially as the album kicks on through the second side - but with a troupe of masterful musicians producing rich, inventive arrangements I wish Hedonism could conjure another trick or two.

There are more sober recordings in amongst the romps and rumpuses, most notably a cover of Jacques Brel's Amsterdam, a brave rendition emphasising the decay and debauchery that infests Hedonism. Themed around lechery and conquest, ringmaster Boden's lusty lead vocals are central, though it is a pity not to hear more from Rachael McShane. Nevertheless this record packs a punch and Bellowhead in full swing are still an unbounded delight.

Review: Richard Thompson - Dream Attic

Richard Thompson's latest release finds its prolific creator reveling in fresh artistic abundance three years on from 2007's Sweet Warrior. The album is a patchwork of performances pieced together from a few US dates, ordinarily an unlikely recipe for consistency but given the quality of the musicianship (Dream Attic once again features long-term collaborator Pete Zorn, returning to Thompson after a sojourn with Steeleye Span on tour last year) it is hard to believe the absent takes could be any less immaculate. This collection again showcases Thompson's peerless prowess on guitar and combative, uncompromising songwriting, typified by biting, banker-baiting opener The Money Shuffle (think Show of Hands meets 10cc) and modern murder ballad Sidney Wells. However, Thompson is most affecting when more personal and A Brother Slips Away, referring to the death of Davy Graham, proves the master guitarist doesn't need to be playing at full pelt to impress. His bleakest poetry is reserved for mortality-cursing Crimescene: 'You plan and he plans / You sleep while he steals / Your wheel can only spin / Inside of other wheels'.

Thompson's women are 'Jezebel', 'a piece of work', 'bugging me' - but his men are murderers, bankers and Sting (Here Comes Geordie). As unfazed as he sounds aggrieved, as sensitive as he sounds vindictive, he despairs of human frailties and failings. Albeit without the same majesty, Among the Gorse, Among the Grey evokes 1974's dystopian, world-weary End of the Rainbow but imbued with the energy of the stage, he rages, rails and rallies. At times, he might even be jolly, the prevailing lyrical bleakness not precluding Thompson from singing with tongue sometimes in cheek. Not all songs quite find their mark; a couple drag and at seventy-two minutes this is almost an exhausting listen in a single sitting, despite romping home with Bad Again and epic closer If Love Whispers Your Name.

Dream Attic finds Thompson in rude form, more than forty years into a recording career of such consistency and craft that comparisons cannot flatter. Is he Britain's Bob Dylan? No-one really comes closer but Richard Thompson remains resolutely his own man.

Welcome back to the RaW Folk blog

So, it's been a busy summer. Jon Boden has kicked off his Folk Song a Day project and has two splendid albums, featuring July and August's tracks, to show for it so far; today's song is available to hear, here. Bob Dylan didn't disappoint headlining Hop Farm festival at his only UK date this year, Eliza Carthy & Norma Waterson released their debut as a duo and Marling and Mumford missed out on the Mercury prize. Back in July I jollied down to the Eden Sessions to catch Ruarri Joseph, Martha Wainwright and Paolo Nutini playing between the biomes, watched by Steve Knightley and Seth Lakeman. More of the latter later.

Of course, the elephant in this particularly blog post is the cavernous abyss between me and retirement, my lack of progress in navigating a way across, and the more modest cleft left by RaW Folk now that I have graduated. I found student radio to be a wonderfully creative environment and wish everyone well at RaW, which will continue to broadcast unflinching, entertaining and absorbing student radio from its new home next term. I'm looking forward to popping back from time to time - the station is forty this year. The graduate turnover is an unfortunate necessity; many programmes never have the opportunity to bed down, form roots and mix metaphors. Thanks again to you all for helping RaW Folk to last as long as it could.

As I mentioned last time around, I intend to keep this blog going for a while. I'll be posting reviews of the new albums I hear coming through, maybe the odd spotify playlist too and occasionally something I do might seem relevant enough to write about without being self-indulgent. Hopefully I'll be back on air somewhere at some point!

When Seth Lakeman played The Copper Rooms at Warwick Uni last November, he opened with a foreboding, stirring, stomping song, The Hurlers, from Poor Man's Heaven, based on the legend of the ancient Cornish who failed to choose church over a Sunday game of hurling and were turned to stone to make them think about what they'd done.



Welcome to Bodmin Moor, where the Hurlers Stone Circle - in fact three near-concentric rings - stands tallish to this day. It's a bracing, barren landscape (too boggy for much of a game now - stout shoes recommended) but worth a visit if you're round about, knowing if you see any non-mineralised people, they're quite probably Lakeman fans too.

Final Show

RaW Folk's last programme was broadcast on Saturday June 26th. As I said on the show, I'm so grateful for all your texts, emails, requests, Folk On or Folk Off votes and just for listening, over the last seven terms. Your sustained support made it possible to build up the programme from humble beginnings, which I've enjoyed immensely - and I hope that you have shared at least some of that pleasure.

Should you find the absence of RaW Folk in the forthcoming eternity too chasmic to endure, you can listen again to some of our live sessions and interviews, available here on More RaW.

Music Played
Artist - Song (Album)

Kate Rusby - Village Green Preservation Society (Awkward Annie)

Train Track
Roseanne Cash - My Baby Thinks He's A Train (Seven Year Ache)

Megson - Take Yourself a Wife (Take Yourself a Wife)
Calan - Calan (Bling)
Sufjan Stevens - To Be Alone With You (Seven Swans)
The Unthanks - Betsy Bell (Here's the Tender Coming)

Folk On or Folk Off
Pink Martini - City of Night (Hey Eugene!)

Thea Gilmore - When I Get Back to Shore (Liejacker)

The Legend of Stuff
Pentangle - Willy O' Winsbury (Solomon's Seal)

Richard & Linda Thompson - The End of the Rainbow (I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight)


This blog will remain semi-operational for a while so please keep checking back here for occasional updates.

RaW Folk 19/06/2010

This week the show featured music from Circus Envy as drummer and vocalist Mick Harding joined me on the phone to talk about the band's new EP, A New Dawn. To listen again to the interview, featuring clips from the record, head over to RaW Folk's podcast page on MoreRaW here.

Music Played
Artist - Song (Album)

The Queensberry Rules - Molly Leigh (Landlocked)
Alela Diane - The Pirate's Gospel (The Pirate's Gospel)
Joel Plaskett - Deny, Deny, Deny (Three)
Circus Envy - Going Nowhere (A New Dawn [EP])
Circus Envy - Three Score and Ten (A New Dawn [EP])

Folk On or Folk Off
Led Zeppelin - The Battle of Evermore (Led Zeppelin IV)

Chumbawamba - Torturing James Hetfield (ABCDEFG)

The Legend of Stuff
Joan Baez - Henry Martin (Joan Baez)

12/06/2010

Music Played
Artist - Song (Album)

I Am Kloot - Northern Skies (The Sky at Night)
Lisa Hannigan - Venn Diagram (Sea Sew)
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young - Deja Vu (Deja Vu)
Chumbawamba - Her Majesty
Jon Boden - Going Down to the Wasteland (Songs from the Floodplain)
Howlin' Wolf - Evil (Is Going On) (Moanin' in the Moonlight)
Parton, Ronstadt & Harris - My Dear Companion (Trio)
Coope, Boyes & Simpson - Now is the Cool of the Day (as if...)

Paul Curreri - California [Recorded Live on RaW Folk]
Paul Curreri - Once Upon a Rooftop [Recorded Live on RaW Folk]
Paul Curreri - Down By The Water [Recorded Live on RaW Folk]

Peggy Sue - Lover Gone [single]

RaW Folk 29/05/2010

Music Played
Artist - Song (Album)

Bob Dylan - Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts (Blood on the Tracks)
Laura Veirs - Life is Good Blues (July Flame)
Avi Buffalo - What's in it For? [single]
Stornoway - Zorbing (Beachcomber's Windowsill)
Katriona Gilmore - Travelling in Time (BBC Folk Awards 2010)
Lead Belly - Boll Weevil Song

Folk On or Folk Off
Animals - House of the Rising Sun (The Animals)

Jim Eanes & His Shenandoah Valley Boys - Blue Yodel No. 1 ('t for Texas) (Essential Bluegrass [various artists])
Billy Bragg - This Land is Your Land (The Internationale [reissue])

RaW Folk 15/05/2010

Music Played
Artist - Song (Album)

Nick Drake - Hazey Jane II (Bryter Later)
Caitlin Cary - The Battle (Feat. Ryan Adams)
Teenage Fanclub - Baby Lee
Lau - The Burrian (Arc Light)
Louis Killen - The Blackleg Miner (The Iron Muse)
Emiliana Torrini - Sunny Road (Fisherman's Woman)
The Malingerers - House of Mine (The Early Tapes)

Folk On or Folk Off
Nashville Teens - Tobacco Road

Chris Wood - The Cottager's Reply (Trespasser)
Antony & the Johnsons - Knocking on Heaven's Door (I'm Not There [soundtrack])


Remember, there's no show next week due to exam hellishness - but if you would like to request a song for a future programme, just post a comment here or after any of the recent entries and I'll do my best to play the track on air.

RaW Folk 08/05/2010

As promised on the show, here are a couple of links that might be of interest:
First, the testimony of mine hurrier Patience Kirshaw, which inspired the Frank Higgins song, can be found here, along with several other workers' accounts of life in the Victorian mines.

Secondly, the Folk Against Fascism website: http://www.folkagainstfascism.com/.

Music Played
Artist - Song (Album)

Laura Marling - Devil's Spoke (I Speak Because I Can)
The Shee - Tom Paine's Bones (A Different Season)
Eliza Carthy & Nancy Kerr - Port 'N' Brandy (On Reflection)

Train Track
Tarheel Slim - Number Nine Train

John Kirkpatrick - The Dance of the Demon Daffodils
Unthanks - Testimony of Patience Kershaw (Here's the Tender Coming)

Folk On or Folk Off
Teenage Fanclub - Baby Lee

Show of Hands ft Jackie Oates - The Keys of Canterbury (Arrogance, Ignorance and Greed)
Chumbawamba - Dance, Idiot, Dance (ABCDEFG)

The Legend of Stuff
Steeleye Span - Gamble Gold (All Around My Hat)

Tunng - Hustle [single]
Billy Bragg & the Blokes - All You Fascists Bound To Lose (Must I Paint You A Picture? The Essential Billy Bragg)

May Day 2010

Music Played
Artist - Song (Album)

Simon & Garfunkel - Mrs Robinson (Bookends)

Eva Cassidy - Kathy's Song (Time after Time)

Creedence Clearwater Revival - Green River (Green River)

Train Track
Grateful Dead - Casey Jones (Workingman's Dead)

Tim Hardin - How Can We Hang On to a Dream? (Tim Hardin 1)
Emmylou Harris - Too Far Gone (Pieces of the Sky)
Jethro Tull - Jack in the Green (Songs from the Wood)

Bob Dylan - Idiot Wind (Blood on the Tracks)

Folk On or Folk Off
Regina Spektor - Another Town (Begin to Hope [Bonus Issue])

Bad Shepherds - Down in the Tube Station at Midnight (Yan, Tyan, Tethera, Methera!)
Mary Humphreys & Anahata - May Day Carol (Song Links 2)

RaW Folk 21/03/2010

Music Played
Artist - Song (Album)

Little Feat - Rocket in My Pocket (Hoy-Hoy!)
The Imagined Village - Space Girl (Empire and Love)
Seth Lakeman - Lady of the Sea (Freedom Fields)

Train Track
Seasick Steve - Prospect Lane (I Started Out with Nothing and I've Still Got Most of It Left)

Fleet Foxes - He Doesn't Know Why (Fleet Foxes)
Laura Veirs - July Flame (July Flame)
Chumbawamba - Wagner at the Opera (ABCDEFG)

Folk On or Folk Off
The Levellers - English Civil War (Levellers [Reissue])

Midlake - Acts of Man (The Courage of Others)
Pentangle - Light Flight (Basket of Light)
The Queensberry Rules - I Still Believe in England [Recorded live on RaW Folk]
Martha Wainwright - G.P.T. (Martha Wainwright)
Kate & Anna McGarrigle - Swimming Song (Kate & Anna McGarrigle)
Richard & Linda Thompson - Mole in a Hole (Hokey Pokey)

RaW Folk 14/03/2010

Music Played
Artist - Song (Album)

Ewan MacColl - Fourpence a Day (Shuttle & Cage)
Band of Horses - No One's Gonna Love You (Cease to Begin)
Johnny Flynn - Leftovers (A Larum)
Bon Iver - Blood Bank (Blood Bank EP)
Laura Veirs - Wide-Eyed, Legless (July Flame)
Jose Gonzalez - Down the Line (In Our Nature)
Kate Walsh - A Little Respect (1000 Bees [single])

Folk On or Folk Off
Au Revoir Simone - Through the Backyards (Verses of Comfort, Assurance & Salvation)

Paolo Nutini - Worried Man (Sunny Side Up)
Great Lake Swimmers - Palmistry (Lost Channels)

The Legend of Stuff
Waterson:Carthy - The Outlandish Knight (A Dark Light)

Billy Bragg & Wilco - Way Over Yonder in the Minor Key (Mermaid Avenue)

RaW Folk 07/03/2010

Music Played
Artist - Song (Album)

John Martyn - Singing in the Rain (Bless the Weather)
Midlake - Acts of Man (The Courage of Others)

Train Track
Jimmie Rodgers - Waitin' for a Train (The Best of Jimmie Rodgers)

Neil Young - Heart of Gold (Harvest)
Joseph, Robinson & Knightley - Cold Heart of England (Faith, Folk and Anarchy)
Drever, McCusker, Woomble - The Poorest Company (Before the Ruin)
Musee Mecanique - Fits and Starts (Hold This Ghost)

Folk On or Folk Off
Tunng - Hustle [single]

Kate Rusby - Awkward Annie (Awkward Annie)
Flatt & Scruggs - Get in Line Brother (Foggy Mountain Gospel)

The Legend of Stuff
Steeleye Span - Thomas the Rhymer (Now We Are Six)

RaW Folk 28/02/2010

RaW Folk's only outing on FM happened to fall on the final day of the Vancouver Olympics, with the hosts winning a record medal haul - and no further excuse was required to dig out some great Canadian records of our own. Cue Buffy, Joni et al.

Music Played

Unthanks - Where've yer Been Dick (Here's the Tender Coming)
Buffy St Marie - The Big Ones Get Away (Coincidence and Likely Stories)
Joni Mitchell - You Turn Me On I'm a Radio (For the Roses)
The Chair - The Folky Gibbon (Huinka)

Train Track
Gordon Lightfoot - Steel Rail Blues (The United Artists Collection)

Megson - Fourpence a Day (Take Yourself a Wife)

Hannah James & Sam Sweeney - The Ploughboy's Dream (Catches and Glees)

Folk On or Folk Off
Crash Test Dummies - Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm (God Shuffled His Feet)

Luke Doucet - It's Not the Liquor I miss (Broken (and other States))
Fairport Convention - Si Tu Dois Partir (Unhalfbricking)

The Legend of Stuff
The Incredible String Band - Black Jack Davy (On Air)

Chumbawamba - Her Majesty
The Band - King Harvest (The Band)

RaW Folk 21/02/2010

Music Played

Laura Marling - Crawled Out of the Sea (Alas I Cannot Swim)
Beach Boys - Sloop John B (Pet Sounds)
Cat Stevens - Lady D'Arbanville (Mona Bone Jakon)

Train Track
Little Junior Parker - Mystery Train (The Best of Bob Dylan's Theme Time Radio Hour [various])

Cara Dillon - Johnny, Lovely Johnny (Hill of Thieves)
Darwin Song Project - Turtle Soup (Darwin Song Project)
Mumford & Sons - The Cave (Sigh No More)

Folk On or Folk Off
Crowded House - Four Seasons in One Day (Woodface)

Peggy Sue - Lover Gone [single]
First Aid Kit - Hard Believer (The Big Black and the Blue)

The Legend of Stuff
Dick Gaughan - The Recruited Collier (Gaughan)

King Creosote - Nooks (Bombshell)
The Byrds - My Back Pages (Younger Than Yesterday)

RaW Folk 14/02/2010

Sunday's show focused on the results from the recent BBC Folk Awards held at the Brewery in London, playing music from five of the category award winners plus Nanci Griffith, who picked up one of two Lifetime Achievement awards (the other going to Dick Gaughan, a track from whom I'll be playing on next week's show). In addition the Legend of Stuff served up star-cross'd lovers for February 14th, courtesy of a splendid recording by The Unthanks of Child ballad 'Annachie Gordon' .

Video highlights from the Folk Awards are available for a limited time on the BBC website.

Music Played
Artist - Song (Album)

Waterboys - This Land is Your Land (Fisherman's Blues)
Kate Walsh - 1000 Bees (Light and Dark)

Train Track
Fairground Attraction - Mystery Train (Ay Fond Kiss)

Show of Hands - Arrogance, Ignorance and Greed (Arrogance, Ignorance and Greed)
Lau - Banks of Marble (Arc Light)
Nancy Wallace - I Live Not Where I Love (Old Stories)
Sam Carter - Yellow Sign (Keepsakes)
Martin Simpson - Sir Patrick Spens (True Stories)

Folk On or Folk Off?
Richard Hawley - Just Like the Rain (Coles Corner)

Nanci Griffith - Outbound Plane (Little Love Affairs)

The Legend of Stuff
The Unthanks - Annachie Gordon (Here's the Tender Coming)

Spiers & Boden - Rambling Robin (Vagabond)

Arrogance, Ignorance, Greed & RaW Folk

After a fortnight's hiatus RaW Folk returns on Valentine's Day with all the news from last week's BBC Folk Awards, including music from Sam Carter, Nanci Griffith and double award winners Show of Hands. To whet your appetite, below is the recently finished video for SoH's 'Arrogance, Ignorance and Greed', which picked up the gong for Best Original Song.



The programme will also play host to regular features The Legend of Stuff and another Folk On or Folk Off - so, er, make a date with RaW Folk on Sunday. Sorry...

RaW Folk 24/01/2010

Last week's show featured a review of 'Way to Blue: The Songs of Nick Drake', the fourth and final night of which was performed at Warwick Arts Centre on Saturday 23rd.

RaW Folk will return to the airwaves on Sunday February 14th. In the meantime, don't forget to keep an ear out for the BBC Folk Awards 2010, which take place on Monday night in London. A full list of nominees is available here.

Music Played

Artist - Song (Album)

Chumbawamba - We Know What We Want (The Boy Bands Have Won)

The Bad Shepherds - London Calling (Yan, Tyan, Tethera, Methera!)

Train Track

Michelle Shocked - If Love was a Train (Short Sharp Shocked)

Krystle Warren - My Third Love (Circle)

John Martyn - I'd Rather Be the Devil (Solid Air)

The Imagined Village - My Son John (Empire and Love)

Kate & Anna McGarrigle - Love Over and Over (Love Over and Over)

Nick Drake - Black Eyed Dog (Made to Love Magic)

Folk On or Folk Off

Scritti Politti - The Road to No Regret (White Bread Black Beer)

Kate & Anna McGarrigle - Talk to Me of Mendocino (Kate & Anna McGarrigle)

RaW Folk 17/01/2009

RaW Folk's first show back from the break featured an exciting competition to win a ticket to review 'Way to Blue: the Songs of Nick Drake', the forthcoming celebration of Drake's music curated by his producer Joe Boyd and featuring Lisa Hannigan, Scott Matthews and original bass player Danny Thompson among many others. The prize was won by listener Julie Ann, whose thoughts you'll be able to hear on next week's show. The programme also included a tribute to guitarist and singer Tim Hart, who passed away on December 24th 2009.

Music Played
Artist - Song (Album)

The Beatles - Maggie Mae (Let It Be)
The Imagined Village - Cum on Feel the Noize (Empire and Love)
Lisa Hannigan - Lille (Sea Sew)

Train Track
Jim Lauderdale - Where They Turn Around (Bluegrass)

Devon Sproule - Good to Get Out (Don't Hurry for Heaven)
Sam Carter - Oh Dear, Rue The Day (Keepsakes)
Scott Matthews - Elusive (Passing Stranger)
Nick Drake - Way to Blue (Five Leaves Left)
Vashti Bunyan - Diamond Day (Just Another Diamond Day)
Maddy Prior & Tim Hart - The Ploughboy and the Cockney (Summer Solstice)
Steeleye Span - Sheepcrook and Black Dog (Below the Salt)
The Unthanks - Lucky Gilchrist (Here's the Tender Coming)
The Leisure Society - The Last of the Melting Snow (The Sleeper)