David Mitchell is a Somerset-based classical and folk guitarist whose debut album, Contours, came out in October. He describes his guitar playing as “Folk-Classical fingerstyle” and combines elements of both genres to create his own unique interpretations of well-known classical pieces and traditional folk tunes, as well performing his own original compositions.
Besides his solo work he has been involved in various collaborations with other musicians, including performing in a duo with multi-instrumentalist, Rupert Kirby, and being part of the Monkey See Monkey Do Ceilidh Band.
In addition to being a talented musician, Mitchell trained as a luthier (the traditional name for a craftsperson who makes stringed instruments) at Newark and Sherwood College. On the album he plays a classical guitar that he crafted himself.
Contours is an instrumental album made up of tunes from the folk and classical world alongside original compositions.
David Mitchell:“A lot of the tunes and sets relate to the landscape and natural world, particularly the high and the low places, so ‘Contours’ seemed appropriate as a title to bring this collection altogether.”
A beautiful album of incredible virtuoso playing, David Mitchell brings together his love and knowledge of both folk and classical to create something truly special with Contours.
Suthering are the Devon-based folk duo of Julu Irvine and Heg Brignall.If We Turn Away, their 2022 debut album, was co-produced by folk luminary Lukas Drinkwater and picked up many enthusiastic views for its exquisite vocal harmonies and thought-provoking lyrical themes.
Now Suthering are back with a follow-up. Leave A Light On was released in the latter part of 2024 (and available on streaming services from January of this year). Again, it showcases the pair’s gorgeous vocal harmonies, alongside Brignall’s piano and Irvine’s guitar and flute, and is even more sumptuously produced than the last.
While Drinkwater guests on the album once again, Leave A Light On sees Sean Lakeman in the producer’s chair this time. The brother of Seth (and husband and musical partner of Kathryn Roberts), he does a seriously impressive job. This is no real surprise, given Lakeman’s impressive track record as producer for the likes of The Levellers and Seth Lakeman. However, as was evident from their debut album, Suthering is a creative endeavour built on very solid foundations, with powerful songwriting at its core.
Heg Brignall:“These songs have a rawness and an honesty about them. There is a vulnerability in the songwriting and it’s also an album full of strength catharsis. Sean’s influence has helped push our sound in a new and exciting direction.”
The duo’s name, a word which means “the sound of the wind through the trees”, comes from a poem by John Clare. It nicely captures the duo’s love of nature which is a recurring theme in the duo’s music.
Whether they are singing about the power and the beauty of the natural world, inspiring female figures from history, or latter-day threats to women’s reproductive rights, Suthering consistently deliver that trademark blend of poignant lyrics and irresistible harmonies. Leave a Light On is a stunning second album.
Prior to 2020, the sum total of Martin Flett’s songwriting was a solitary song. That’s not to say he’s ever been idle. He’d been a local government officer, gym owner, housing manager, TV quiz show champion and a successful powerlifter, with numerous championship titles under his belt as well as being the main commentator for the World and European Powerlifting Championships. However, as many of us discovered, the Covid lockdown period provided an ideal opportunity for nurturing latent talents and exploring new-found interests. Flett renewed his acquaintance with the guitar and soon turned his hand to crafting his own songs.
Martin Flett: “Sitting indoors day after day, apart from venturing out to exercise my dogs, I picked up a long neglected guitar and started getting to know it again. After a few weeks, song ideas started forming in my head. I likened it to muses planting seeds, and it was my job to grow them.”
He has since written over a hundred songs, eleven of which feature on this debut album, When The Introverts Come Out, recorded at the age of 68.
Flett: “I never intended or wanted to be a performer but I soon realised that if I didn’t ‘take my songs to market’ then no one else was going to and they would wither on the vine. My dream is still that one or more of the songs are taken forward by an established artist, but in the meantime it would be great to bring the songs to a wider audience and use the proceeds from CD sales and downloads to fund a follow up album. The next set of songs is ready and waiting…”
Based in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland where he was born and brought up and returned to more recently, Flett recorded the album at Wee Studio in Ness, at the northern tip of the Isle of Lewis. A talented bunch of local musicians joined him in the studio, adding piano, accordion, fiddle, mandolin, electric guitar and percussion where it was required.
Combining folk, country and classic-era singer-songwriter influences, the result is this highly-impressive debut. Showcasing poignant, often highly-personal, lyrics and instantly-appealing melodies, When The Introverts Come Out is a thoughtful album with bags of charm and well worth exploring.
Cool Waters is the debut solo album from singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, Mark Neal. While he’s been playing and recording as part of the Scottish traditional music scene for many years, this is the first time he’s worked solo.
Based in Helensburgh in the west of Scotland, Neal is mainly a guitarist and singer but ever since he started playing music as a young child he’s enjoyed the challenge of picking up and learning new instruments and different musical styles. Having a keen interest in science and technology (having studied a degree in Physics and a PhD in musical acoustics) he has always enjoyed the technical side of music. He’s been heavily involved in sound engineering and recording since his university days and is co-owner of the Edinburgh recording studio ‘The Sonic Lodge’ with fellow musician and producer Phil McBride.
Mark Neal:“I have been writing songs for many years and over 2023 I decided to take a bit more time to do more writing and ended up completing this collection of songs. This album started as a solo songwriting project but as it developed it seemed like a nice idea to make the whole album completely solo with me playing all the instruments, producing, recording and mixing.”
“The songs are mostly all based around my acoustic guitar playing but move away from the trad/folk style that has been a feature of most of my recording and performing and pulling in influences from jazz, pop, rock and classical music which I also love. Much of the songwriting has been inspired by nature and many of these songs come from thoughts that have popped into my head when wandering around the land and seascapes in the West of Scotland.”
Cool Waters is a highly enjoyable album with some lovely guitar, both acoustic and electric. Although Mark Neal’s musical background is very much in Scottish traditional music, this album is much more in the gentle, laid-back singer-songwriter vibe. Think of a Scottish James Taylor and you won’t go far wrong. Beautifully written and performed and well worth checking out.
Photo credits: Gordon Russell
Cool Waters available on CD via Bandcamp and released on all major platforms from 1st November 2024
A contemporary Scottish fiddle and guitar duo featuring fiddle player, Neil Ewart, and guitarist, Ali MacQuarrie, the pair came into one another’s orbit through the bustling live music scene in Inverness and the band’s name pays homage to that, where it’s not unknown for in-demand musicians to play up to three venues in one night, shuffling up and down the city’s Church Street as they do so.
Church Street Shuffle:“Recognizing a shared vision, they embarked on a collaborative effort to blend Neil’s multilayered fiddle loops and chops with Ali’s intricate guitar work, bass lines, and beats. Despite their modern approach, they remained steadfast in honouring the timeless traditions of Scottish music, infusing each track with authenticity and reverence.”
The inspiration for the album’s name, meanwhile, harks back to an old expression about a musician’s typical lifestyle during the winter months, where the weekends would extend beyond the conventional working week.
Neil Ewart’s musical journey began at the National Centre for Excellence in Plockton, where he honed his skills before pursuing a degree in Applied Music at Strathclyde University. His innovative and daring compositions are deeply entrenched in the rich heritage of Scotland’s west coast. Echoing the creative spirit of pipers from centuries past who improvised variations on Gaelic airs, Neil breathes new life into the genre by infusing it with contemporary harmonic structures and rhythmic complexities.
Ali MacQuarrie’s masterful guitar playing and infectious grooves, meanwhile, are also a key feature of each track. He continues to refine his craft at the Royal Conservatoire in Glasgow, enriching his musical repertoire with classical training. His reputation as a sought-after guitarist in the Highlands continues to soar, which has seen him share stages with acts such as Calum MacPhail and Cala.
Recording the album, the pair joined up with established recording engineer and producer, Barry Reid, who also plays synths and percussion.
A contemporary and fresh-sounding take on Scottish traditional music, the duo have created an instrumental album that’s both fizzing with innovation yet also feels like the warm embrace a familiar old friend. The Five Day Weekend is an impressive debut.
In 2023 Phil Beer and Steve Knightley announced a final tour before putting Show of Hands on indefinite hiatus, pledging to “prioritise their well-being, creativity, and longevity above the demands of the road.” There was no suggestion, thankfully, that either of them would be giving up performing altogether and for those feeling a Show-of-Hands-sized gap in their lives the good news is that Steve Knightley is back with a brand-new solo album – his first in seventeen years.
Steve Knightley:“I’ve spent much of my career weaving the West Country and English landscapes into my music, seeking to capture the essence of rural life and the stories that define it. But with Show of hands now on sabbatical, I’ve found myself at a crossroads – a moment to pause, reflect and consider new directions.”
“This album marks a significant departure for me, both musically and personally. Inspired more by the likes of Bruce Springsteen and Peter Gabriel, The Winter yards reflects a fresh journey, venturing more into urban and transatlantic landscapes. But while it explores unchartered territory I believe it stays true to the voice I’ve always had, finding new ways to tell stories that matter.”
The Winter Yards is not simply Show of Hands in exile but without the fiddle and the mandolin. Clearly, however, Knightley’s unmistakeable voice, both as a singer and a lyricist, is very much at the heart of the album and there’s plenty here to appeal to long-term fans of the duo.
Lyrically, the album tackles themes as diverse as the Post Office scandal, immigration, the emotional toil when friendships breakdown and youthful, sun-kissed, summer romance. Knightley also revisits a handful of Show of Hands songs, including ‘Requiem’ and ‘Exile’ but one of the few ‘everyday story of country life’ songs that Show of Hands were best known for is one inspired, not by the tribulations of rural life in Devon or Somerset, but rather an anthemic celebration of the village of Wickham in Hampshire, the county Knightley was born in.
Musically, there’s a lush palette of sounds, incorporating keyboards, guitar, drums, dobro, violin and more, and Knightley has pulled in a wealth of talent to perform alongside him on the album. Phil Beer even gets to guest on a couple of tracks.
Poignant, tender, thought-provoking and rousing, in turn, The Winter Yards marks a triumphant return for Steve Knightley as a solo artist.
Born and raised in Leigh in Lancashire and now living in Otley, Yorkshire, Jon Budworth started playing guitar at the age of 11 and has been honing his skills, diversifying his repertoire and experimenting with various genres ever since, with rock, blues, folk, and jazz all featuring on his musical horizons.
Budworth’s debut EP as a singer-songwriter, Time Machine, was released back in 2013 which was followed up by a second EP, Trees Turn To Fire, in 2014 which I was asked to review for the Bright Young Folk website. I remember being impressed by the release, writing at the time:
“Budworth’s bright, fresh sounding vocals and lovely melancholic guitar work extremely well. Budworth’s music definitely deserves a wider audience.”
What I wrote must have struck a chord because, ten years later, reading the publicity blurb for his latest album, I find that sentence staring back at me. In the intervening years, Budworth released his well-received debut full-length album, We all Share the Same Sky, back in 2020, with the excellent follow-up, In Sight of Home, coming out in June this year.
Jon Budworth:“The seed for In Sight of Home was sewn in 2019 after watching an incredibly moving BBC documentary commemorating the one hundredth anniversary of the Iolaire Disaster. I was immediately inspired to write a song and decided there and then it would become the title track on a new album.”
“It wasn’t until a certain pandemic hit that I had the time and space to continue writing. Shadow of the Chevin is a love song to my wonderful home-town of Otley. I’m originally from Leigh in Lancashire, but in 2017 I traded in my Lancashire passport, moved over the border, and became an honorary Yorkshireman! All is Quiet was written after taking a stroll around Otley on a beautiful April evening during the first lockdown – the normally bustling market town was eerily quiet and still. I wrote December on a dark and misty winter’s night as I found myself contemplating growing older and how quickly life passes by.”
“After covid, my normally hectic existence resumed and I wrote several songs dealing with the everyday stresses and strains of real life. In This Moment is about finding those rare moments of peace and tranquillity, a situation very often aided by a glass or two of wine! I Don’t Need Tomorrow is a song dedicated to anyone, who for whatever reason, is not looking forward to what tomorrow might bring. 1000 Faces is a song about fate and not taking anything for granted. Never deals with the thought of being forced to move away from a place you love.”
“Two of the songs are observations on modern life. Flatlining addresses first world problems and many peoples need to live their lives through social media. I wrote Holyhead after visiting the town and seeing a homeless girl set against a backdrop of opulent cruise ships in the harbour. Ghost of a Girl was written after discovering a ghostly statue of Alice in Wonderland in a garden behind York Minster. She looked lost, alone and frozen in time on that grey and damp February afternoon.”
Most of the instruments on the album are played by Budworth himself, including drums, bass and guitar, but he’s also enlisted the assistance of several highly talented local musicians, as well as the as well as the highly acclaimed singer-songwriter, Edwina Hayes, who shares lead vocals on the title track.
With thought-provoking yet easily relatable lyrics, appealing melodies, impressive guitar-work and vocals that are still as fresh-sounding as ever, Budworth has come up with an extremely likeable album here which is well worth checking out, as is the rest of his back catalogue.
In Sight of Home was released by Flying Folkie Recording Co. on 7th June 2024
It was almost exactly ten years ago when I last saw June Tabor and Oysterbandat the De La Warr Pavilion, my first time visiting this stunning piece of 1930s architecture. I wasn’t even living down here yet but a friend had a spare ticket going and I came down for the weekend. So, when Oysterband announced their ‘Long Long Goodbye’ farewell tour with June Tabor, once again, as their very special guest I booked a ticket straight away.
For a band that’s been going almost five decades, it would be unthinkable for them not to include June Tabor as they begin playing their final gigs. From the moment they made their first album together it was a match made in heaven. When Freedom and Rain came out in 1990 Oysterband’s rebooting of the folk-rock genre for the ‘80s and ‘90s combined with Tabor’s darkly elegant vocals to create an unforgettable slice of pseudo-gothic cool. Two more hugely popular collaboration albums have followed.
With two hour-long sets and a short interval, I wasn’t completely clear how they were going to approach things and hadn’t read any other reviews. Would they play the first set as Oysterband and the second with June Tabor? Or would they mix and match? To warm applause Oysterband sans Tabor took to the stage for the first song, then Tabor joined them to launch into their unforgettable cover of Velvet Underground’s ‘All Tomorrow’s Parties’, a shared love of Velvet Underground as well as traditional songs being something that helped cement the foundations for the two joining forces, recalled Tabor.
The remainder of the evening proceeds in that same vein with a superb mix of songs that Tabor and Oysterband had collaborated on for their previous albums (including an utterly spellbinding ‘Bonny Bunch of Roses’ and their unique interpretation of Joy Division’s ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart which is just perfection) alongside regular Oysterband classics, like ‘A River Runs’ and ‘Dancing As Fast As I Can’. For a couple of songs the rest of the band vacate the stage and Tabor sings alone with acoustic accompaniment from Oysterband guitarist, Alan Prosser, including a cover of Les Barker’s humorous rewrite of Roseville Fair, as her warmly-felt tribute to the comic poet who died last year.
At one point Tabor tells us how much she loves what she calls ‘cinematic songs’, songs where the lyrics are so vivid in painting a picture and telling a story. There are few singers, however, who make an audience hang on to every word in the way that Tabor does. I’m so glad I got to see this most perfect of musical collaborations one final time. And an encore of Jefferson Airplane’s ‘White Rabbit’ and an emotional crowd sing-along of Oysterband’s ‘Put Out The Lights’ made the evening even more special. An unforgettable evening – catch them while you can!
Following a hugely-impressive debut album released in 2022, Norwich based indie-folk outfit Eliza Delf and The Wilderness will be unveiling their latest single at the end of this month.
‘Look At Me’ will be released across all digital platforms on 31 October 2024, and is the first taste of a brand-new album scheduled for release in Spring 2025
Reviewing thedebut album at the time I wrote: “The term folk barely covers what Into The Wilderness is about. This boundary-defying debut album spans indie, folk, prog, singer-songwriter and much more besides.” That impressive debut album brought forth comparisons with everyone from Kate Bush to Sandy Denny to PJ Harvey.
Now with this new single Delf and the band establish an even more vivid direction for their music revealing, as they explain: “…the darkly poetic lyricism of Eliza’s extraordinary vocal performance. All set against the lush percussive rhythms of drummer Tim Skinner, and the rich textures of cellist Eva Wright and guitarist Jacob Browne.”
For a sneak preview of the song, prior to its formal release on October 31st, the band uploaded a live version to YouTube. This is from a performance at The Bear Club in Luton on 15 June 2024.
Delf sums it up deftly, by adding: “This is the sort of song you don’t just sing…you howl!”
I reviewed Joe Danks’ last full album, the maritime-themedSeaspeak, when it came out in 2021. Gosh, was that three years ago already? How time flies. Anyway, he’s followed that up with a four-track EP of original material that’s already been out some four months. I’m rather later to the party with this one but never mind. This is a release that’s certainly still worth writing about.
Take Courage marks the first time Danks has released original music under his own name in a decade. I remember seeing that slogan everywhere when I was younger. In particular, it was a familiar sight whenever I passed the Amersham Arms as a student at Goldsmiths in southeast London and later when I was as a local councillor for the area. Artist, Henry Fothergill has come up with some suitably irreverent pub-themed cover art which gives me quite a nostalgic glow. And it’s only when I research a little further that I release the pub on the cover is actually the Amersham Arms and did, indeed, inspire the title track, Danks, like myself, being a former resident of the area.
So what of the music? “Old-fashioned, melodramatic and beautifully recorded,” Danks promises in the accompanying blurb, which turns out to be a perfectly apt description.
The four songs range from the highly personal (‘Take Courage’ where Danks draws lessons from passing that familiar pub sign and ‘Bluster’ reflecting on that return to everyday life after the untrammelled joy of a summer festival that many of us have experienced); to classic story songs (‘Mr McDonald’ about undercover policing and fraudulent identities); to the charmingly eccentric (‘Station Jim’ a tribute to the Victorian-era stuffed dog on display at Slough railway station).
As promised, the EP is exquisitely produced, with collaborating musicians (Danny Pedler, Lukas Drinkwater, Beth Noble and Ben Davies providing additional depth to Danks’ warm, sincere vocals, charming storytelling and appealing melodies. Namechecking Scott Walker, The Divine Comedy, Villagers and Nick Drake as influences, that’s not merely hyperbole but points to the singular but eclectic display of talent that’s on offer here.
Joe Danks – Vocals, Acoustic Guitar, Electric Guitar, Bouzouki, 5 String Banjo, Drums, Percussion, Programming
Darren's music blog 