Category Archives: Folk music

folk performers and music

This week’s featured artists: The Metagama Ensemble – new album ‘Metagama: An Atlantic Odyssey’

Album reviews, Folk music, , , , , , ,

The exotically-titled Metagama Ensemble take their name from the SS Metagama, a ship whose voyage across the Atlantic in the 1920s, marked the beginning of a mass emigration scheme from the Hebrides to Canada.

The Metagama Ensemble explain the aim of Metagama: An Atlantic Odyssey as follows:

“Movingly commemorating and celebrating the lives of the young emigrants, from the heartache of homesickness and separation, the emotional poignancy of tragedy and loss, to the lively fun of cèilidh tunes on the dance floors of North America, this album gives voice to the experiences of those who left and those who were left behind, telling the story of an important but little-known period in Hebridean history, the devastating impact of which is still felt in the islands today.”

Originally conceived as a live show, Atlantic Odyssey began life as a Creative Scotland-supported tour of the Highlands and Islands in 2023. Since then, the Metagama Ensemble project has grown exponentially. Interest in the project and the stories around the mass emigration, has been widespread, with capacity audiences throughout the tour, followed by a sell-out show at Celtic Connections in 2024.

Countless requests for a recording of the concert prompted the Ensemble to release an album. It was recorded in Black Bay Studio on Great Bernera and in The Wee Studio on the Isle of Lewis, while also including several live tracks from Celtic Connections and Eden Court Theatre.

Across thirty-six tracks, a mixture of traditional Gaelic songs, brand-new songs performed by the ensemble in English, original instrumental pieces and spoken-word segments, the album features writer and poet, Donald S Murray; pianist/singer-songwriter, Liza Mulholland; Gaelic actor and 7:84 Theatre Company co-founding performer, Dolina MacLennan; Gaelic singer and piper, Calum Alex Macmillan; fiddler, Charlie Mackerron; singer-songwriter, Willie Campbell; and cellist Christine Hanson.

Poignantly commemorating the lives of the Hebridean migrants and of those left behind, Metagama: An Atlantic Odyssey is a gripping collection of beautifully-performed music and compelling storytelling.

Released: 19th July 2025

https://metagamaensemble.bandcamp.com/album/metagama-an-atlantic-odyssey

Folk/bluegrass: album review – Damien O’Kane & Ron Block ‘Banjovial’

Album reviews, Folk music, , , , , ,

Dubbed a ‘banjo bromance’ following two highly successful albums, Damien O’Kane and Ron Block are now back with a third.

The pair’s USP is all about fusing the equally distinctive sounds of the five-string banjo (that highly rhythmic sound prominent in American bluegrass) and the tenor banjo (heard in countless renditions of traditional Irish jigs and reels).

Northern-Ireland born Damien O’Kane (with an enviable CV as a musician working in the traditional sphere and husband of folk singer Kate Rusby) plays the latter; while California-born Ron Block (with a slew of Grammy awards and best known for his work with Alison Kraus & Union Station) plays the former.

As with the previous Banjophonics album released in 2022 (reviewed here), Banjovial is a mainly instrumental album that showcases their unique and highly infectious style across an array of equally inventive tunes.

The duo don’t write together. Each of the tunes on the album are written by one or the other but the individual labours of each are often paired together in some imaginative tune-sets. Block’s beautifully mellow ‘Shabby and Cookie’, for example, (inspired by a couple of easy-going black cats who showed up when his children were young) is coupled with O’Kane’s much more frenetic ‘St. Patrick’s Day’ (so titled because he wrote it on St. Patrick’s Day).

Both Block and O’Kane also contribute a song a piece, with Block taking lead vocal on the genuinely lovely ‘Love Is Like That’ – written as a tribute to his mother; and O’Kane taking the lead on ‘The Loudest Word’ – a charming paean to the power of music and kindness.

As with its two predecessors, Banjovial showcases stunningly adept musicianship, both from the two main protagonists with their respective banjos, and from the talented cast of long-time collaborators and special guests. Yet again, they take us on a captivating journey across a range of musical styles, moods and tempos, proving once more that the humble banjo continues to attain new heights of cool in the hands of these two.  

Released: 3rd October 2025 https://damienokane.co.uk/band/

Related posts:

Folk/bluegrass: album review – Damien O’Kane & Ron Block ‘Banjophonics’

Eagles / Robert Plant & Alison Krauss at Hyde Park 2022

This week’s featured artist: Scottish folk musician and singer-songwriter Donald WG Lindsay

Album reviews, Folk music, , , , ,

Two Boats Under the Moon is the solo song debut of Scottish musician and musical instrument inventor and builder, Donald WG Lindsay.

Writing in the accompanying album notes, the Scottish folk musician Alasdair Roberts observes:

“Donald WG Lindsay is rightly renowned as a piper of considerable skill, and many will be aware of his innovative work as the inventor of the novel extended-range chanter system which bears his name. However what many piping aficionados (as well as more general listeners) might not know is that he is also a very fine singer, guitarist and writer of songs.”

“It might seem confounding that it’s taken Donald until now, in his late forties, to release his first full-length album of songs (following the 2003 Album of pipe tunes To the Drum of the Sea). But he’s a careful, patient man; one surmises that he’s been quietly and diligently serving out a very thorough apprenticeship, emerging when he feels the time is right as a fully-formed master craftsman. And, as if making up for lost time, he’s generously bestowed upon the world a long-awaited double album, spanning some ninety-one minutes over fourteen tracks.”

Two Boats Under the Moon is a two-disc collection of 14 live-in-the-studio recordings, made during December 2024 at Watercolour Music in Ardgour, in the Scottish Highlands.Lindsay sings, plays guitar, and plays on his own Lindsay System Scottish smallpipes. Roo Geddes plays fiddle, and on three numbers, piano.

The first disc is themed as a disc of original songs, including ‘Casuarina’ inspired by the casuarina trees Lindsay encountered during his three-year stay on Ascension Island in the South Atlantic. They are also known as the whistling tree, after the distinctive shushing or whispering sound made by its pines when even a light breeze blows through them. The title track ‘Two Boats Under the Moon‘ is another song Lindsay wrote during his stay on Ascension Island. This first disc also includes a setting of a Scots poem by Vale of Leven poet Hugh Caldwell to an original tune he wrote a few years ago, and a rendition of a little-sung number by Allan Ramsay ‘An Thou Were My Ain Thing’.

The second disc is themed as a disc of traditional, mainly Scots, songs from a variety of sources and directions. These are songs that have held their seat in Lindsay’s repertoire for many years – in most cases for many decades. This second disc also includes two instrumental sets, pairing Roo’s fiddle with Donald’s Bb Lindsay System Scottish smallpipes.

Released back in May, the album has received numerous plaudits from reviewers as well as attracting warm reactions from fellow musicians as diverse as singer-songwriter, Tom Brosseau; piper and composer, Matthew Welch; and rock and roll legend, Iggy Pop.

With a voice rich in character, poignant songwriting and inspired interpretations of traditional material, Donald WG Lindsay’s Two Boats Under The Moon is a delightful album with beautifully-evocative musical accompaniment.

Released: 2 May 2025 https://www.donaldwglindsay.com/

Folk: album review – Ninebarrow ‘The Hour of the Blackbird’

Album reviews, Folk music, , , , , , ,

After twelve years performing together and five extremely well-received studio albums, the folk duo Ninebarrow revisit some favourite songs with reworkings of material from their back catalogue. All of the key components you would expect from a Ninebarrow release are present and correct here: the lovely vocal harmonies of Jon Whitley and Jay LaBouchardiere, the intuitive connection to the natural world around us and the innovative adaptation of traditional material combined with compelling original songwriting.

However, the extra magical ingredient that is sprinkled throughout this collection are the stunning choral accompaniments, with Whitley’s and LaBouchardiere’s own harmony vocals joined by over forty others, courtesy of two locally-based choirs: Hart Voices from Hampshire and Chantry Singers from Surrey.

The genesis of the project can be traced back to the Covid lockdown, when the moratorium on live performances gave rise to a plethora of online concerts, Zoom choirs and sundry charity fundraising singles, the latter ranging in quality from the genuinely breath-taking to the frankly bizarre. But while we can safely assume that few people now sit at home listening to Captain Tom’s rendition of ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’, Ninebarrow’s own charity single for MIND, ‘The Hour of the Blackbird’, certainly does stand  up artistically. What’s more, it convinced the duo that there was further mileage yet in such an approach.

Jay LaBouchardiere: “The response to that blew us away with people making donations from all over the world and we thought if one song can sound this good recorded through phones and laptops imagine what a studio collaboration could sound like.”

The result is simply stunning, with the thirteen tracks on The Hour of the Blackbird showcasing some truly spellbinding choral arrangements which take Ninebarrow’s elegant, understated, trademark magic to new heights. From the ethereal qualities of ‘Names In The Sky’ to the heart-warming optimism of the title track to the jaunty defiance of live favourite ‘The Weeds’, to the fresh take on folk perennial ‘John Barleycorn’, there’s plenty to marvel at here. A wonderfully uplifting album.

Released: 3 October 2025 https://www.ninebarrow.co.uk/

Related posts:

Album review: Ninebarrow – The Colour of Night

Album review – Ninebarrow ‘A Pocket Full of Acorns’

This week’s featured artist: singer-songwriter Jim Borrows – debut album ‘Carry Me Back to My Old Front Door’

Album reviews, Folk music, Rock music, , , , , , , , , ,

Jim Borrows will not be a name many people will have heard of but back in July, after a lifetime of playing piano primarily for his own amusement, he fulfilled a long-held ambition of releasing his debut album. Of course, many musicians have trodden a similar path and while many aspects of the modern-day music industry may be broken, technology has made it easier than ever for emerging artists to record and release new music these days.

What immediately marks Borrows’ venture out from many others, however, is the friends he’s been able to call upon to bring his dream to fruition. Firstly, it’s produced by experienced multi-instrumentalist and highly talented producer, James Wood, who also contributes guitars, keyboards, percussion and backing vocals to the album.

James wood, Jim Borrows and Dave Pegg

Moreover, and of particular interest to any fans of folk rock legends Fairport Convention, it features the band’s veteran bass-player, Dave Pegg, who contributes bass, mandolin and electric guitar. And just to underline the Fairport connections even further, the album also features an additional guest appearance from the band’s fiddle supremo, Ric Sanders, who contributes electric violin on one track, a cover of Dylan’s ‘Seven Days’.

As Sanders recollects in this summer’s Cropredy festival programme, Borrows’ and Fairport’s paths first crossed when the band were doing some of their European riverboat cruises and they performed various themed karaoke nights together. “Jim was without doubt the star performer,” noted Sanders. “Not only a great singer but also a fine pianist.”

Anyone who has seen Fairport on stage with guest artists will know that Peggy and co. can turn their hand to a whole panoply of musical styles, far beyond the folk rock canon with which they are most closely associated. Carry Me Back To My Old Front Door is no exception.

Featuring seven of Borrows’ own compositions and alongside six Bob Dylan covers and a couple of further covers of Neil Young and Sandy Denny songs, it’s an entertaining album. Borrows own compositions are highly personal chronicles of a range of his experiences and thoughts on themes including time, life and love; and they reflect his multiple influences, including The Beatles and Bob Dylan. Sleeve notes and lyrics for the self-penned compositions are contained in the detailed twelve-page CD liner notes.

With Borrows’ piano and vocals front and centre, ably assisted by the hugely talented Pegg and Wood, Carry Me Back To My Old Front Door creates a jazzy, bluesy singer-song-writer vibe with some compelling rock elements. It’s well worth checking out.

As Fairport Convention’s own Chris Leslie sums it up: “A lovely album with some fab song writing from Jim.”

Released: 18 July 2025 – Available to stream and download from all major platforms. For CDs, contact jimborrows@yahoo.co.uk

Related posts:

Interview with Fairport Convention’s Dave Pegg

Interview with Fairport Convention’s Ric Sanders

Live review: Fairport’s Cropredy Convention August 2025

Folk: Album review – Amelia Hogan ‘Burnished’

Album reviews, Folk music, , , , , , ,

I really enjoyed Taking Flight, the 2023 album by San Francisco-based folk singer, Amelia Hogan, praising her distinctive vocal style and the album’s beautiful musical accompaniment when I reviewed it two years ago. It wasn’t just me who thought that either. The album picked up many favourable reviews and made the top ten of the Folk Alliance International chart in the month it was released. Now Hogan is back with a brand-new album, Burnished.

Like Taking Flight there’s one song that’s a self-composed original which is written in a traditional style, with the remaining thirteen tracks being a mixture of traditional numbers and Hogan’s own interpretations of songs by more contemporary songwriters.

Amelia Hogan: “The album highlights familiar, often overlooked folklore about real places, sharing the hidden magic found in connecting with the natural world and its spirits of place, or Genius Loci. It also reflects on the emotional impact of remembering an animist perspective (what happens when we act as if everything around us is conscious?), where we share our space with everything around us-both seen and unseen. Through this, I encourage us to approach our relationships mindfully – with people, nature, and the world we co-inhabit.”

Highlights include the self-composed opening track, ‘Rolling in the Gold’ – a lovely song with both Americana and Celtic influences and described as ‘a love-song to California’. The traditional material includes a poignant version of ‘Wayfaring Stranger’ a seventeenth century American spiritual with roots back in England; as well as a lively, uplifting version of ‘Dh’eirich Mi Moch Madainn Chetein’ – a traditional Gaelic song originally sung by textile workers in the Scottish highlands as they treated wool in the process of making tweed.

Other material on the album includes a heartfelt rendition of the Irish singer, Dominic Behan’s ‘Patriot Game’. Originally written in the 1950s reflecting on the Troubles in Ireland, Hogan gives it renewed potency as a warning of the dangers of blind patriotism and manipulation by unscrupulous political leaders.

With Hogan’s characteristically distinctive vocals, intuitive feel for emotive story-telling and gorgeous instrumentation, Burnished is a worthy follow-up to Taking Flight.

Released: 1 April 2025 https://ameliahogan.com/

Related post:

Latest folk reviews: Amelia Hogan, RURA, Milton Hide, Joy Dunlop and Megson

This week’s featured artists: folk trio Curmudgeon – new album Travelling North

Album reviews, Folk music, Uncategorized, , , , , , ,

Travelling North is the debut album from this Edinburgh-based folk trio. Curmudgeon is made up of Donald Gorman, Laurie Brett, Donald Gorman and Andrew Macintyre

Donald Gorman is a highly rated Edinburgh-based fiddle player specialising in traditional Scottish music. He also plays mandola and adds accompanying vocals on the album.

Laurie Brett, meanwhile, is the band’s lead singer and guitarist and although originally from Essex, he’s spent the last four decades based in Scotland.

The third member of the trio, Andrew Macintyre, is a familiar figure on the Edinburgh folk session scene and a teacher of small pipes and highland pipes. In the band he plays Scottish small pipes and various whistles as well as providing vocals.

Photo: Caitlynn Neil

The ten-track album features five songs interspersed with five tune-sets. The songs are drawn from the trad. arr. canon with a couple of contemporary folk-scene favourites thrown in, including a reworking of the Richard Thompson classic ‘Beeswing’. Meanwhile the tune-sets feature a charming array of traditional  jigs, airs, reels and hornpipes originating from Scotland and the north of England.

There’s a quiet, gentle dignity about the trio’s music but no shortage of creativity. The arrangements are built around the wonderful musical interplay between the three musicians. The warm, engaging vocals of  both Brett and Macintyre bring empathy and sincerity to the storytelling in each of the songs and informative liner-notes provide insightful background information on the origins of each of the compositions.

Regardless of the name, it’s clear the trio have been anything but curmudgeonly in the way they’ve approached the making of Travelling North. A lovely debut.  

Released: 1 June 2025 https://www.curmudgeonfolk.co.uk/

Folk rock legends Fairport Convention embark on Autumn 2025 UK Tour

Folk music, Music news, Rock music, , , , ,

Following a triumphant sold-out Cropredy festival this summer (see my review here), folk rock legends Fairport Convention embark on an Autumn 2025 UK tour.

Playing as a stripped back four-piece, Simon Nicol, Dave Pegg, Ric Sanders and Chris Leslie will take to the road in October with 23 dates across England, Scotland and Wales, rounding things off in Liverpool on November 2nd.

Interviewing Dave Pegg earlier in the year, he emphasised how important playing live still was to the band:

“We still enjoy touring enormously and treading the boards has always been what Fairport is good at. We’ve had more success playing live than we’ve had making albums.”

You can read my full interview with Dave Pegg here.

Dave Pegg at Cropredy- Photo: Simon Putman

2025 marks 40 years since the Gladys’ Leap album – the first of the reunited Fairport Convention, featuring Simon Nicol, Dave Pegg and the first contributions from Ric Sanders.

Interviewing Ric Sanders ahead of this summer’s Cropredy, we discussed the Gladys’ Leap album, and how Sanders thought he was merely being asked to contribute to a Dave Pegg side project when he first got the call:

“Peggy had this offshoot group – a fun outfit it was – and they were called Dave Pegg’s Cocktail Cowboys, of which Chris was a member as well. At this time, around about ‘85, I was just doing jazz gigs around the Midlands. Just going out, playing with different rhythm sections, like jazz musicians used to. And it wasn’t hugely lucrative, but I got by. Peggy sent me this tape and I thought he was asking me to play on a Cocktail Cowboys record because I had no idea that Swarb had decided that he didn’t want to carry on with Fairport. And so when the tape arrived and I listened to it, I thought, hello? Well, that’s Peggy playing the bass, obviously. That’s Dave Mattacks on drums. And that guitar I could tell straight away. And yeah, it turned out to be Gladys’ Leap. And I went along and my first day was just recording those three tracks that I did on the album. The standout track for me, and the one that stayed in the repertoire, is ‘The Hiring Fair’.”

You can read my full interview with Ric Sanders here.

Ric Sanders – Photo Kevin Smith

Fairport Convention’s Autumn Tour runs from 8th October to 2nd November, with some shows already sold out. Tickets are available to purchase now on the links below.

Fairport Convention – Autumn 2025 UK Tour

Wed, 8th Oct 2025
The Green Hotel, Kinross – TICKETS

Thu, 9th Oct 2025
The Green Hotel, Kinross – TICKETS

Fri, 10th Oct 2025
Byre Theatre, St Andrews – SOLD OUT

Sat, 11th Oct 2025
Lemon Tree, Aberdeen – TICKETS

Sun, 12th Oct 2025
St Lukes Church, Glasgow – TICKETS

Tue, 14th Oct 2025
Crookes Social Club, Sheffield – TICKETS

Wed, 15th Oct 2025
The Witham, Barnard Castle  – TICKETS

Thu, 16th Oct 2025
Victoria Hall, Settle – TICKETS

Fri, 17th Oct 2025
Town Hall, Masham – SOLD OUT

Sat, 18th Oct 2025
The Met, Bury – SOLD OUT

Sun, 19th Oct 2025
The Mill, Banbury – TICKETS

Tue, 21st Oct 2025
The Exchange, Twickenham – TICKETS

Wed, 22nd Oct 2025
St Mary’s Arts Centre, Sandwich – TICKETS

Thu, 23rd Oct 2025
Theatre Royal, Winchester – TICKETS

Fri, 24th Oct 2025
St James’ Church, Emsworth – TICKETS

Sat, 25th Oct 2025
Medina Theatre, Isle of Wight – TICKETS

Sun, 26th Oct 2025
The Cutty Sark, London – TICKETS

Tue, 28th Oct 2025
Acapela Studios, Pentyrch – SOLD OUT

Wed, 29th Oct 2025
The Sub Rooms, Stroud – TICKETS

Thu, 30th Oct 2025
Assembly Rooms, Ludlow – TICKETS

Fri, 31st Oct 2025
Norden Farm, Maidenhead – TICKETS

Sat, 1st Nov 2025
Village Hall, Lowdham – SOLD OUT

Sun, 2nd Nov 2025
The Tung Auditorium, Liverpool – TICKETS

Related posts:

Live review: Fairport’s Cropredy Convention August 2025

Interview with Fairport Convention’s Ric Sanders 2025

Interview with Dave Pegg 2025

Interview with Simon Nicol 2024

Live review: Fairport’s Cropredy Convention August 2024

Live review: Fairport’s Cropredy Convention August 2023

Live review: Fairport’s Cropredy Convention August 2022

Book review: ‘On Track: Fairport Convention – every album, every song’ by Kevan Furbank

Fairport Convention at Bexhill 2020

Live review: Fairport’s Cropredy Convention August 2018

Fairport Convention at Cropredy 2017

Album review – Fairport Convention ‘Come All Ye: The First Ten Years’

Fairport Convention – 50th anniversary gig at Union Chapel 2017

Fairport Convention at Cropredy 2014

Fairport Convention at Union Chapel 2014

This week’s featured artist: traditional flute player, Frances Morton – new album ‘Sliocht’

Album reviews, Folk music, , , , , , , , ,

Growing up in Glasgow, Frances Morton is a much celebrated flute-player with familial roots in both Scotland and Ireland. Learning piano at a young age, she later took up whistle and flute, winning several All-Ireland medals and becoming immersed in the session scenes in both Scotland and Ireland.

Since then, Morton has performed at festivals and concerts across Europe and the USA and has appeared in programmes for the BBC and TG4. Now living in Ireland, she has been active in the session scenes in Belfast, Galway and Donegal, playing alongside local musicians.​

Sliocht is Morton’s debut solo album. Meaning ‘trace’ or ‘lineage’, it celebrates Morton’s Scottish and Irish musical heritage where, from her extensive repertoire, she has curated a selection of jigs, reels, strathspeys and marches that have held a particular meaning for her throughout her life, all accompanied by an extensive set of liner notes, tracing the origins of the traditional tunes and explaining where she first learned them.

https://francesmorton.bandcamp.com/track/the-mayo-set-seit-mhaigh-eo

Produced by guitarist, Eamon McElholm, the album features a number of the top-flight traditional musicians Morton has collaborated with over the years, including fiddle-player, Ciarán Tourish; singer, Doimnic Mac Giolla Bhríde, on the one vocal track; Mark Maguire and Seamus O’Kane playing bodhrán on several tracks; and Ryan O’Donnell and Malcolm Stitt on bouzouki. Julie Langan, fiddle player from Mayo, also plays on one track.

From lively jigs to mighty reels to graceful airs, this album is packed full of majestic tunes and equally majestic playing, immediately transporting the listener from wherever they may be to the bars, community halls and timeless rugged landscapes of Scotland and Ireland. Dedicated to the memory of her late father, Sliocht celebrates Frances Morton’s musical heritage in style and does her forebears proud.

Released: 15 March 2025  www.francesmorton.com

Live review: Fairport’s Cropredy Convention August 2025

Folk music, Live reviews, Rock music, , , , , , , , , , ,

When tickets for Cropredy 2025 went on sale, it was announced that there would be some changes to the festival this year, with far fewer tickets available. Interviewing Fairport’s Dave Pegg back in January, he explained the thinking behind the new approach as follows:

“Gareth Williams our CEO came up with several formulas for trying to make it pay. It’s always been such a gamble, the last couple of years especially. Because when you don’t know how many tickets you are going to sell, you can’t budget. You’re guessing about the number of people who are going to turn up. Gareth’s idea – we’re only going to sell 6,500 tickets and we’re only selling three-day tickets. Because we know we’ve got that lump of income and we can budget accordingly without the risk of going bankrupt.“

As well as fewer tickets, the festival line-up was to look somewhat different, too. The era of big-name headline acts like Chic and Madness and Alice Cooper,  who had previously graced the Cropredy stage in a bid to widen the festival’s appeal and get more bums on (folding) seats, was over. Instead, there would be far more focus on acts that the festival organisers knew and had worked alongside.

The big question, therefore, is did this new formula work? Clearly, there was no problem shifting tickets, with the vast majority being snapped up by February and with the festival selling out well in advance.  Arriving at the campsite on the Thursday afternoon, it didn’t feel much different, although a couple of fields previously used for camping had apparently been taken out of use.

The Cropredy crowd (Photo: Simon Putman)

I was also wondering whether the slimmed-down attendance would leave us all rattling around in the main arena field but it didn’t feel like that at all.  Walkways had been rejigged, the big screens at either side of the stage had been replaced by a single screen at the back of the stage but overall it very much felt like the same old Cropredy I’d been going to for the past fifteen years.

Richard Digance up on the big screen (Photo: Simon Putman)

So, enough of the festival arrangements, what of the music? I must admit that one of the real attractions for me when I first started going to Cropredy in 2010 was the mix of folk, acoustic and classic rock acts. I loved having Status Quo and Rick Wakeman and Little Feat alongside Thea Gilmore and Breabach and Bellowhead. Unlike some of the diehard Cropredy goers, I was perhaps more worried about the potential for the new ‘Friends of Fairport’ formula to squeeze out some of the rockier elements. That didn’t happen at all though. I got my fix of both folk and classic rock, in some respects more than I could possibly have hoped for.

Joe Broughton’s Conservatoire Folk Ensemble join Fairport Acoustic on stage (Photo: Simon Putman)

On the folky side, obvious highlights for me included Joe Broughton’s Conservatoire Folk Ensemble, whose massed ranks begun their set by joining Fairport Acoustic on stage, for an epic rendition of ‘The Lark In The Morning’ instrumental medley from the Liege & Lief album. Scottish folk band Skipinnish were another highlight for me, with a thrillingly energetic set, my second time seeing them this summer as they also performed at the New Forest Folk Festival. A special mention, too, should go to the kids of Cropredy Primary School Folk Class who kicked things off at the festival. We only made it in time to hear their last couple of songs but what a wonderful idea to link the village and the festival this way and how lovely it was seeing the huge cheer for them as they made their way from the backstage area afterwards to a waiting gaggle of proud parents.

The traditional hanky waving during Richard Digance’s set (Photo: Simon Putman)

On the rock side, the festival organisers demonstrated that you didn’t need to be in the megabucks league to attract some decent classic rock acts. My many years of going to music weekends at Butlins showed me that it’s perfectly possible to line up some talented rock names without bankrupting yourself.

Trevor Horn (Photo: Simon Putman)

The Trevor Horn Band, making their third appearance at Cropredy, were hugely entertaining as ever, blasting out a deluge of hits that Horn had had a hand in, from Frankie Goes To Hollywood, to Buggles to Yes – with the added bonus of Lol Creme of 10CC on guitar and some Godley & Crème/10CC hits thrown in, too! They were originally booked under the old formula for the previous year, however, and had to reschedule because of illness so the situation was slightly different.

Martin Barre (Photo: Simon Pitman)

The same cannot be said for Martin Barre (ex-Jethro Tull) and Deborah Bonham (sister of Led Zep drummer, John) whose sets were clear highlights of the weekend, none more so than the latter whose special guest almost certainly provided the highlight of the weekend for many, with none other than Robert Plant stepping on to the stage to perform sizzling versions of ‘Ramble On’ and ‘Thank You’ from Led Zeppelin’s second album. It doesn’t get much better than that at Cropredy.

Robert Plant joins the Deborah Bonham Band on stage (Photo: Darren Johnson)

I didn’t get to see everyone who performed and there were acts (like Bob Fox & Billy Mitchell) I would have liked to have seen but didn’t. However, I’ve never spent the entire day in the field from mid-day to midnight. For me, time spent at the campsite, catching up with friends early in the evening and relaxing ahead of a late night finish, is as much part of the Cropredy experience for me as the music. Plus, in the last few years, our camping group has also chosen to spend a little bit of time at the Cream of the Crop festival in the adjoining field and this time we got there just in time for an explosive set by the excellent Burnt Out Wreck, the band fronted by former Heavy Pettin’ drummer, Gary Moat. No-one can say I didn’t get my fill of hard rock at Cropredy this year!

Burnt Out Wreck at Cream of the Crop next door (Photo: Simon Putman)

Fairport Convention, of course, rounded things off on the Saturday night with their usual mammoth set featuring a mix of familiar old favourites, revisited deep cuts, covers with guest artists (this time Ralph McTell and Danny Bradley) and more recent material penned by the band’s own Chris Leslie. While a couple of our camping group head back to the campsite before the end, missing ‘Matty Groves’ and ‘Meet On The Ledge’ is not something I could ever contemplate so we make our way to the front in time for a rousing ‘Matty’ (with accompanying animated video hilariously interpreting the storyline through the medium of Lego) and an always emotional ‘Meet on the Ledge’.

Ralph McTell is a guest during Fairport’s set (Photo: Simon Putman)

While it was the end of Cropredy for another year, it wasn’t quite the end of our camping trip as we had booked for several days at a lovely campsite ten miles away, just outside Barford St. Michael. The spirit of Cropredy was never far away though. The village of Barford St Michael, itself, was once home to Dave Pegg and the studio he established, Woodworm Studios, where Fairport recorded numerous albums. The studio is still in operation, although no longer owned by Peggy these days.

The Hook Norton Brewery (Photo: Simon Putman)

While camping, we also took a trip to the village of Hook Norton for a tour of the Hook Norton Brewery, who in recent years became the official suppliers for the Cropredy festival bar, taking over from Wadworth. It’s an absolutely fascinating tour of this historic nineteenth century site and our engaging tour-guide was himself a Cropredy regular who had spent many years working at the festival. If you are extending your stay in the Oxfordshire countryside and want to find out how the beer at the Cropredy bar is brewed and learn more about the history of the brewery, it’s well worth a visit!

Related posts:

Interview with Fairport Convention’s Ric Sanders 2025

Interview with Dave Pegg 2025

Interview with Simon Nicol 2024

Live review: Fairport’s Cropredy Convention August 2024

Live review: Fairport’s Cropredy Convention August 2023

Live review: Fairport’s Cropredy Convention August 2022

Book review: ‘On Track: Fairport Convention – every album, every song’ by Kevan Furbank

Fairport Convention at Bexhill 2020

Live review: Fairport’s Cropredy Convention August 2018

Fairport Convention at Cropredy 2017

Album review – Fairport Convention ‘Come All Ye: The First Ten Years’

Fairport Convention – 50th anniversary gig at Union Chapel 2017

Fairport Convention at Cropredy 2014

Fairport Convention at Union Chapel 2014