Author: Ian Parker

Ian is For Folk's Sake's reviews editor. Find him on Twitter @iparky.

Premiere | Songs For Walter – Family Hold Back

Manchester’s family man Laurie Hulme, aka Songs For Walter, is off to a fine start in 2013. Already longlisted for Glastonbury’s Emerging Talent competition, he’s now releasing a single every month until the summer, when he plans to compile them…

#8 Valerie June – You Can’t Be Told

Valerie June’s second single off upcoming album ‘Pushin’ Against A Stone’ is a considerably more feisty affair than the first taste she offered us – the delightfully old school ‘Workin’ Woman Blues‘ (we’ve already noticed a clear aversion to g’s).…

EP | Joe Banfi – Nomads

Where Joe Banfi’s last EP Iron felt like a conscious effort to show off the Northwich man’s full range in four short songs, there is no such pressure affecting the follow-up Nomads. Instead, Communion’s next big thing seems to be…

#4 My Morning Jacket – Leaving On A Jet Plane

Jim James’ workaholism is not yet on the scale of Jack White or a Dan Auerbach but he’s moving towards their little circle, a man for whom the daily life of leading My Morning Jacket, recording side projects and becoming…

#2 Ellen & The Escapades – This Ace I’ve Burned

for folk's sake ellen and the escapades in the countryside

One of the ways you knew Ellen & The Escapades’ debut album All The Crooked Scenes was so strong is that they could have released virtually any of its 12 songs as singles. Instead they’ve restricted themselves to the more…

EP | Worry Dolls – Worry Dolls

Like fish without chips or Wallace without Gromit, when listening to Worry Dolls its hard to imagine what Rosie or Zoe might have sounded like as the two solo artists who met at the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts and…

Album | Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – Push The Sky Away

After two albums of letting it all hang out with Grinderman, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds have produced an album of subtle beauty, a soothing antidote to the garage noise of a mid-life crisis put to music. Returning to…

Album | Richard Thompson – Electric

Richard Thompson’s latest album does what it says on the tin. Electric sees him put the acoustic guitar which starred on his last several records to one side and plug in a Stratocaster. Recorded in Nashville in Buddy Miller’s studio,…

Album | The Revival Hour – Scorpio Little Devil

The Old Fashioned Revival Hour, an evangelical radio show broadcast in the United States for more than 30 years until 1968, produced a string of popular records through its in-house choir. But while John-Mark Lapham and DM Stith have named…