folk music
theartsdesk in Khartoum: English folk songs in SudanSunday, 20 November 2011
I’m stood in the dusk in front of the tomb of Sheikh Hamid al-Nil as the sun sets on Khartoum, reddening in the exhaust-filled air as it deflates over a receding jumble of low-rise blocks spreading down the banks of the Nile and out towards... Read more... |
Imagine: Simon and Garfunkel - The Harmony Game, BBC OneWednesday, 09 November 2011
“It’s very deep, very private and full of love,” said Art Garfunkel of his relationship with Paul Simon. So private that for this examination of their swansong 1970 album Bridge Over Troubled Water the pair were interviewed apart, despite both... Read more... |
Bon Iver, Hammersmith ApolloMonday, 24 October 2011
Not only could Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon not have planned the success of his first album; if he’d known he probably wouldn’t have wanted it. The fragile bucolic sound he produced in his Wisconsin cabin became so iconic it must have been impossible to... Read more... |
CD: Jackie Oates - SaturnineTuesday, 30 August 2011
Saturnine means to be hard, impermeable, gloomy and dull. Thudding, even. The word quite literally means to be like lead. It is an odd choice of album title for a record which is none of those things. Jackie Oates’s fourth studio album is, in fact,... Read more... |
Cambridge Folk Festival, Cherry Hinton HallMonday, 01 August 2011
It was the invasion of the collapsible chairs at this year’s Co-operative Cambridge Folk Festival. From above it appeared that an army of extremely well-equipped picnickers was staking its claim on the quarter of a mile surrounding the main stage... Read more... |
Southern Tenant Folk Union, King and QueenTuesday, 21 June 2011
“If you’ve got the heart,” sang a suave Ewan Macintyre, “then you can be involved, you can be a part”. There was more heart in the room last night than you’d find in a whole tour of Mumford & Sons. And art. Nothing too flashy to begin, just... Read more... |
CD: Bon Iver - Bon IverMonday, 13 June 2011
Well, he’s certainly moved on from his log cabin. It’s three years since Justin Vernon’s group, Bon Iver, released For Emma, Forever Ago, the quietly powerful indie-folk album recorded during a bitter winter in his father’s remote Vermont cabin –... Read more... |
theartsdesk Q&A: Musician Martin CarthyFriday, 06 May 2011
One of Britain’s most esteemed and influential folk artists, Martin Carthy (b 1941) celebrates his 70th birthday on 21 May. The occasion is being marked by the release of a two-disc career overview, Martin Carthy Essential, and next weekend's... Read more... |
BBC Folk Awards: Chris Wood, Bellowhead, Donovan winnersTuesday, 08 February 2011
Mark Radcliffe was on good form, saying how he had seen Donovan at the Whitley Bay Ice Rink (and nipped out to the car park to keep warm) and met Donovan’s manager, who when the singer retired asked if Donovan was going to bed. “Donovan doesn’t go... Read more... |
Bellowhead, Bristol Old VicFriday, 12 November 2010
Bellowhead are 21st-century genre-busters: punk music-hall madness born out of British folk, seasoned with a zeitgeist-friendly dose of multicultural spice. Sounds gimmicky? Well, not at all, as Bellowhead’s greatest quality, apart from being an... Read more... |
The Unthanks, Union ChapelTuesday, 01 June 2010
Geordies love music. From Brian Johnson’s cap to Jimmy Nail’s crocodile shoes, they have melody in their blood. And they love a good story. All of which makes it little wonder that North-Eastern sisters Rachel and Becky Unthank are able to mine such... Read more... |
Fairport Convention, 100 ClubFriday, 21 May 2010
Fairport Convention in the abstract seem romantic and timely. Their Sixties folk-rock is being rediscovered by many of our best emerging songwriters; the late Sandy Denny is still written about; and their most famous graduate, Richard Thompson next... Read more... |
