by Ian Parker • • Comments Off on Album | Laura Marling – Short Movie
You wonder if Laura Marling has ever stood still. From the moment she released her first EP at the somewhat impatient age of 17 everything she has done has been a progression, a departure, a new set of ideas. With…
by For Folk's Sake • • Comments Off on Album | Seth Avett & Jessica Lea Mayfield – Sing Elliott Smith
Covers albums are notoriously difficult to pull off effectively. Mixing the necessary reverence to the artist whose tunes are being re-rendered with trying to tease out additional nuances is fiendishly challenging. For those that pull off the trick like David…
by Dominic J Stevenson • • Comments Off on Album | Brandi Carlile – The Firewatcher’s Daughter
Brandi Carlile has a firebrand of a voice. It has shades of country, pop and blues in its powerful range, a little like a female version of Ryan Adams. Her music is cut from the same cloth, a commercial take…
Mr Knopfler needs little introduction. Dire Straits were one of the biggest and best bands of the 80s, while his solo career has been far more than just a vanity project. He is of course one of the most gifted,…
by For Folk's Sake • • Comments Off on Album | Houndmouth Little Neon Limelight
Little Neon Limelight is the exuberant, boisterous and utterly American second album by Houndmouth, from New lbany, Indiana. It swaggers along, with its repeated theme of restless travel from State to State, during which we meet along the way jailbirds,…
by Dominic J Stevenson • • Comments Off on Album | Matthew E. White – Fresh Blood
Matthew E. White’s 2013 debut Big Inner was a cracker – a sublime work that appeared from nowhere. It encapsulated both old and new – Motown soul and pop, a touch of country, and lullaby vocals combined to produce one…
by For Folk's Sake • • Comments Off on Album | Steve Earle & The Dukes– Terraplane
Steve Earle has covered much ground during an almost 30-year recording career and very little of it covered lightly, but this may be his first record that could genuinely be considered “fun”. That is not to say that any of…
by Joe Sweeting • • Comments Off on Album | The Lone Bellow – Then Came the Morning
Americana, or, to be more precise, the folk-roots of American music, has seen a resurgence over the past two or three years, and the Lone Bellow are the musical embodiment of everything that has made the genre fashionable. Big, sing-a-long…
by For Folk's Sake • • Comments Off on Album | Martin Callingham – Tonight, We All Swim Free
Frontman with Joyce The Librarian, Martin Callingham steps out with a debut solo album of understated loveliness. Recorded at Bristol’s Toy Box Studios and released by Folkwit Records – and really, given our website’s name, how could we not have…
by Dominic J Stevenson • • Comments Off on Album | Kristin McClement – The Wild Grips
Kristin McClement arrives as a fully-formed artist with a debut album to prove it. The Wild Grips is elegant, spacious and beautifully presented. From the first notes, McClement spins the web of an expert storyteller and songwriter. And that is…