Folk
Live Review: Richard Thompson / Josienne Clarke & Ben Walker Sheffield City Hall, 25.10.2017
Opening for an act like Richard Thompson, a man who has been at the forefront of the folk rock movement for five decades now, could easily overwhelm the unprepared. Luckily, with five albums already under their belt, and a wealth of good (and bad!) touring experience, Josienne Clarke & Ben Walker know what they are …
News: Celtic Connections Launch 25th Festival Programme
The Celtic Connections festival celebrates its 25th anniversary in 2018 with a line-up that links the past, present and future of Scotland’s music scene with musicians from all over the world. The festival will run from Thursday 18 January to Sunday 4 February 2018 in venues across Glasgow and will feature a mixture of intimate …
Album Review: Richard Thompson – Acoustic Rarities
The new Richard Thompson album, Acoustic Rarities, arrives barely two short months after the release of its sibling, Acoustic Classics Vol II, and is released both separately, and as a bonus disc to its predecessor. Where Acoustic Classics Vol II revisited well loved numbers from Thompson’s songbook, Acoustic Rarities takes the opportunity to compliment and …
Album Review: Deer Tick – Volume 1 and Volume 2
Acclaimed roots-rock-americana-country-folk-acoustic-boundary-breakers Deer Tick have released their first new material in four years via Partisan Records. The good news for fans is that they have released not just one, but two new records. This is not a double album either, these are two separate collections of original material (Volume 1 and Volume 2), both recorded …
Not Forgotten: Jethro Tull – Crest of a Knave
Like many acts from the 60s and &0s, when the 80s rolled around Jethro Tull struggled with something of an identity crisis, desperately trying to blend the traditional core values of their sound with new and exciting possibilities that the latest technology offered. The result was a genuine mixed bag of albums, from the synthetic …
Bright Phoebus – Lal and Mike Waterson
Bright Phoebus had become something of a ‘lost album’ cause celebre, with a growing campaign for this proper re-release over the last few years. Of course it’s difficult for a record to be truly lost these days. What with original copies, a few dodgy CD-R reissues and the access afforded by youtube, it was already …
News: Cambridge and Newport Folk festivals to merge
From next year, two of the powerhouses of folk are joining forces, Newport and Cambridge folk festivals will be a partnership to bring folk music across the Atlantic. Further details will be revealed in the run up to next year, but it’s certainly an intriguing move. Hopefully it will lead to a number of artists …
Album Review: Richard Thompson – Acoustic Classics II
Richard Thompson has been performing his particular brand of folk rock for the best part of five decades now, and his career has seen him regularly release critically acclaimed albums. Initially a founder member of Fairport Convention, he recorded a string of much celebrated albums with his then wife Linda throughout the 70s, and he …
Album Review: Siobhan Wilson – There Are No Saints
Siobhan Wilson provides the heavenly soundtrack to heartbreak and healing with her second album ‘There Are No Saints’. After returning to Scotland from Paris five years ago, Siobhan Wilson moved from Elgin to Glasgow and used her background in classical music and French jazz to stunning effect. Her second album ‘There Are No Saints’ (out …
Album Review: tunnel traffic – MEESH
Adam Hachey writes under the name tunnel traffic but we’ve met him before playing as part of a band called Meesh – enthusiastically reviewed by Backseat Mafia a few years back (sadly unavailable on the site at the moment). tunnel traffic have now released an album entitled MEESH just to confuse things, but one thing …