Author: Ian Parker

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

10 Questions with…Nicole Atkins

1. Hello, please introduce yourself and your music to the uninitiated. Hi, I’m Nicole Atkins. Im from Asbury Park, NJ but I live in Brooklyn. I write, sing and play guitar for my band Nicole Atkins and the Black Sea.…

Album: Ron Sexsmith – Long Player Late Bloomer

From the opening bars of ‘Get In Line’, it’s clear that Ron Sexsmith is in an unusually good mood. A man who has made a long career out of singing songs of loss and dejection has a smile on his…

Album: Lucinda Williams – Blessed

Lucinda Williams is at her best angry, scorned and burning with a fiery passion. But while we were happy for her and everything, her marriage to Tom Overby made 2008 album Little Honey, which he produced, sound like it was…

Album: Jessica Lea Mayfield – Tell Me

Back in 2009, the 20-year-old Jessica Lea Mayfield released her debut album With Blasphemy So Heartfelt. Dan Auerbach – Ohio’s own Jack White (minimalist blues-rock band – check, endless side-projects – check, taste for production – check) had championed her…

Gillian Christie

After playing the best spaces in her home town of Glasgow – King Tut’s, City Halls, Oran Mor – nineteen year old Christie is no longer an Art School secret.  Her self-released debut EP Thinking Space Part One is available…

EP: George Frakes – Ghost of the Girl

I’d never so much as heard of George Frakes until I stuck his CD in the player, but he has my attention now. From this well-dressed chap comes a sound worthy of Nick Drake or John Martyn. He picks beautiful,…

Goodnight Lenin

A gig in a kitchen gave them their breaks – they’ve played alongside Donovan, British Sea Power and, next month, Admiral Fallow – plus the radio likes them too.  The panel stepped in to check out the hype… Tom White: Fleeing…

Album: The Secret Sisters – The Secret Sisters

The Secret Sisters album is like a time capsule. Open it up and you’re taken back to the 1950s. The only thing missing is the crackle of the needle hitting the record, though I suspect my copy will acquire that…

Album: Malcolm Holcombe – To Drink The Rain

For those that don’t know Malcolm Holcombe, he’s an old-fashioned southern American troubadour – the way you’d draw one up in a film (actually, he’s probably not far off Bad Blake from Crazy Heart). His rugged, weathered face is complimented…

The Shee

With a self-titled debut and new album Decadence under their belts the individually musically accomplished, largely Scottish, all-woman six-piece seemed worth a listen… Chris Belson: It is said that whenever a group of the beautiful and otherworldly Shee appear to…