Music and Folk

An interview with Salsa Celtica

22 May 2012

For anyone who’s not seen Salsa Celtica play live before, what can they expect? Great music, a really exciting gig with some amazing musicians from two very strong cultures and maybe a baby. I have forgotten how many times people have come back to us…

Mary Epworth - Dream Life

A lavish and eclectic debut album from the folk-rock singer

22 May 2012

Where shall we begin? With the banjo twang, Black Sabbath fuzz and Goldfrapping blues-stomp of ‘Black Doe’? With the brass-toting folk-rock euphoria of ‘Long Gone’? With the swirling psych-pop of ‘Come Back to the Bough’? Or perhaps we should start…

Dan Mangan – Stereo, Glasgow, Sun 29 Apr

The Canadian folk-pop tunesmith unleashes his experimental side

14 May 2012

Dan Mangan has previously mentioned that his band members ‘come from an experimental and free-jazz background’ – something that might not be immediately apparent on record but is plainly obvious at tonight’s performance. The brief squalls of noise that…

Eye o’ the Dug - St Andrews, Sat 14 & Sun 15 Apr 2012

Fantastic bill featuring Django Django, Malcolm Middleton and more

27 Apr 2012

They may have quadrupled the size of their show, and conscripted beefcakes to man the doors, but the spirit of Fence chiefly prevailed at the inaugural Eye O’ The Dug – a musical hoopla which (kind of) filled a Homegame-shaped hole in the calendar (and…

The Waterboys - Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow, Wed 3 Mar

Three hours of intense, lyrical rock music for grown-ups

26 Apr 2012

Backstage after tonight’s show, Mike Scott, Waterboy-in-chief since the band’s inception in 1983, is disgruntled. His band have put in a considerable shift, knocking out not only a connoisseur’s best-of set but the bulk of its recent and remarkable…

Kim Edgar - The Ornate Lie

Folk rock from The Burns Unit member Kim Edgar

26 Apr 2012

The second album from The Burns Unit member Kim Edgar raises the bar from where her acclaimed debut album left off, mixing delicate folk rock melodies with Kim’s uniquely Scottish and poignant lyrics. Edgar’s harmonious piano playing and a voice full of…

Eat, sleep and breathe: Cate le Bon

Cardiff’s answer to Nico shares her tour habits with us

23 Apr 2012

What time is breakfast? I am yet to find out. Tea or coffee? It’s a delicate mix of coffee in the morning followed by the relentless drinking of tea until bed. Smoking or non-smoking? Non, unless I fancy it. Sweet or savoury snacks? Savoury will…

Two Wings - Love's Spring

A warm-hearted fusion of vintage Americana and English folk-rock

23 Apr 2012

(Tin Angel Records) The strident classicism of Two Wings may come as a surprise to those familiar with the avant-folk of Hanna Tuulikki’s other group Nalle. That project’s eerie soundworld is replaced by a warm-hearted fusion of vintage Americana and…

Star Wheel Press - Life Cycle of a Falling Bird

A timeless album from the Americana heartbreakers

23 Apr 2012

Bonnie Prince Billy is not the only alt-country bard to have dibs on Glen Lyon. Americana heartbreakers Star Wheel Press are based in Aberfeldy (BPB’s erstwhile stomping ground), and have quietly amassed a dedicated following since their lovely debut…

Cate Le Bon - Cyrk

Brilliantly textured slice of Welsh psychedelic folk genius

18 Apr 2012

For her latest outing Cate Le Bon takes her pick of the current crop of Wales’ finest musicians, with H. Hawkline providing hypnotically undulating synth goodness, while Y Niwl’s wünderkind Sion Glynn weaves beautifully meandering melodies, at times…

Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra - Improcherto (for HB)

GIO, Evan Parker and Lol Coxhill pay tribute to trumpeter Harry Beckett

18 Apr 2012

The latest in Iorram’s strictly limited edition series of albums dedicated to the Glasgow free improvisation scene features the excellent GIO with two of the leading names in European improv, saxophonists Evan Parker and Lol Coxhill. They perform GIO…

Feist, Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow, Tue 27 Mar 2012

Stunning concert from the Canadian alt.folkie

11 Apr 2012

‘Wan, two, freee, fourr’, some gentleman gargles towards the end of Feist’s second encore. Without thinking, she laughs it off before ending on a heartbreakingly beautiful solo run of ‘Intuition’ from 2007’s The Reminder. It’s pin-drop silence…

Loch Lomond, Sneaky Pete’s, Edinburgh, Sat 10 Mar 2012

Bewitching chamber folk from Portland

3 Apr 2012

For those of you wondering how the vaguely surreal, harmonic and orchestral notes of Portland’s Loch Lomond might translate to a live setting, the first minutes of their Sneaky Pete’s show would give you a fairly accurate answer: with a bold and…

Hanna Tuulikki talks about Two Wings

The group is a collaboration between the singer and co-songwriter Ben Renolds

28 Mar 2012

Hanna Tuulikki is musing on deficiencies in the human form. ‘I’d much rather have a syrinx [bird’s vocal organ] and wings than a larynx and arms,’ reflects the singer-songwriter, visual artist and multi-instrumentalist. ‘Birds are masters of the two…

Bob Dylan to return to Hop Farm music festival

Peter Gabriel, Suede, Damien Rice and Primal Scream also announced

27 Mar 2012

This year's Hop Farm festival has again attracted huge acts to the fifth annual no branding, no sponsorship festival running from June 29th to July 1st.

Exposure: Hannah Cohen

The NY model/photographer-turned-singer/songwriter is beloved by The National's Thomas Bartlett

27 Mar 2012

Two years ago New York-based model and photographer Hannah Cohen met Antony and the Johnsons and The National pianist Thomas Bartlett, aka Doveman, at a party. She shyly played him some songs she’d been secretly penning, and he immediately offered to…

Counterflows Festival introduces some premier experimental and folk acts

27 Mar 2012

Held across Glasgow, London and Berlin, Counterflows is a glorious stramash of experimental songwriting, clamorous avant-rock, and absurdist improv. In bringing Japan’s great Kazuki Tomokawa to Europe, the organisers have pulled off a real coup. A…

Decembrists singer Colin Meloy writes children's book Wildwood

The novel is the product of collaboration with his wife Carson Ellis

9 Mar 2012

Wildwood is the debut illustrated children's novel from husband-and-wife creative double act Colin Meloy and Carson Ellis. Meloy is probably best known as the lead singer of US indie-folk group The Decembrists (for whom Ellis supplies album artwork).

Rob St John, Banshee Labyrinth, Sat 18 Feb

Intimate gig from a new breed of folk troubadour

8 Mar 2012

The first thing to note about the venue for Rob St John’s sell-out gig is how dark, small and shivery it is – it's basically a subterranean cavern which fits perfectly with the haunted alt-folk to come. Support, marred slightly by sound issues, comes…

RM Hubbert, Stereo, Glasgow, Fri 27 Jan

1 Mar 2012

The launch RM Hubbert's second album, 13 Lost and Found, is both a celebratory and elegiac affair. A punk and post-rock veteran, Hubbert turned to the classical guitar as a way of dealing with bereavement and depression. To perform his latest album with…

Alt folkie Feist to play Glasgow's Royal Concert Hall

The Broken Social Scenester to play tracks from latest album Metals

29 Feb 2012

Leslie Feist isn’t the first artist successfully to balance the welcome commercial exposure a ubiquitous hit song can yield with a desire for continuing creative integrity and freedom. But not many manage it quite as gracefully as the Canadian has with…

Hazy Recollections – O2 ABC2, Glasgow, Sun 22 Jan

Electro-folk and French lullabies bring weepie and comedy moments

3 Feb 2012

Celtic Connections’ Hazy Recollections sessions are great for two main reasons. Firstly, they provide a gathering place for the legion of those with beards and plaid shirts. Secondly, you get to see just how far the festival’s remit of ‘folk, roots and…

The Banana Sessions - Mixtape

Long-awaited debut album from the folksy Edinburgh fivesome

3 Feb 2012

Waiting four years before releasing debut album Mixtape, Edinburgh five-piece The Banana Sessions certainly can't be accused of rushing in to anything. Exhibiting an eclectic combination of styles Mixtape opens with 'Two Seasons' a well crafted folk…

Five picks from Celtic Connections 2012

Featuring Zoe Muth, Jack Bruce, King Creosote and Jon Hopkins and Vieux Farka Touré

6 Jan 2012

Zoe Muth & The Lost High Rollers The year in Americana 2011 belongs to Gillian Welch and the release of her album The Harrow & the Harvest, but amongst a promising field of young female country singers, Zoe Muth stands out. With her ear for an instant…

Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy to play Celtic Connections set

Some facts you may not know about Will Oldham's alterego

6 Jan 2012

1. This will be first Scottish performance in over five years The music of Will Oldham (aka Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy) has haunted independent music for over two decades now, through various monikers (Palace Music, Palace Brothers, Palace Songs to name a…

Eat, sleep and breathe: Nuala Kennedy

The flautist and singer takes to the stage with Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billie this month

6 Jan 2012

What time is breakfast? Whenever hunger strikes. Tea or coffee? Always tea! Smoking or non-smoking? Non-smoking. Sweet or savoury snacks? Savoury van-snacks: I have a minor addiction to those cheese puffs crisps. Wotsits or Cheetos…

Kid Canaveral’s Christmas Baubles II - Summerhall, Edinburgh, Sat 17 Dec 2011

Josie Long, eagleowl and more join in Kid Canaveral's annual shindig

6 Jan 2012

The combination of cheap tins and 12 hours of live entertainment could be an endurance test in the wrong hands, but the second annual Fence Records/Kid Canaveral Chirstmas Baubles all-dayer doesn’t exactly feel like a chore. A joyous turn by Fence…

Boy & Bear - Moonfire

Mumford-esque mimsy-folk from down under

6 Jan 2012

(V2) If you’ve considered moving to the opposite side of the world to escape Mumford & Sons, think again – their Australian kindred spirits and touring partners Boy & Bear await you, ready to close the jaws of a vice-like international folk-pop mimsy…

Music-themed Christmas parties round-up

Festive shindigs on offer from Song, By Toad, Phantom Band, James Yorkston, Fence and more

13 Dec 2011

Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas in Scotland’s indie village without a bunch of our favourite bands getting together to chip in for mince pies and mulled wine and treat us to / inflict upon us some of their most diligently practiced seasonal covers. Yes…

Tunng - This is Tunng: Live from the BBC

Warped magic of eccentric east London glitch folk collective

7 Dec 2011

(Full Time Hobby) With a line-up alteration or two, eccentric east London collective Tunng have gone from glitchy cut and pasters to singalong folksters. Their This is Tunng compilation features bouncy numbers (‘Jenny Again’, ‘Bullets’) from 2010’s…

Bon Iver - Usher Hall, Edinburgh, Sat 22 Oct 2011

Justin Vernon's large ensemble fails to capture the albums' spare beauty

16 Nov 2011

To a long since sold-out crowd of ardent devotees, Justin Vernon takes the stage – after the audience impatiently chats through support act Kathleen Edwards’ countrified indie folk. (Vernon helped out with production and instrumental duties on Edwards…

The Last September - As the Crow Flies

The Edinburgh indie-folk outfit return with well-written, academia-provoked album

16 Nov 2011

(self released) After a five year hiatus, these Edinburgh gentle indie rockers return with a second album, following their well-received début, Vagrant Song. As the Crow Flies features guests Poppy Ackroyd (Hidden Orchestra and Aberfeldy) and Ali…

The Very Best of Muzsikás featuring Márta Sebestyén - Fly Bird, Fly

Fantastic retrospective of the Hungarian folk group's career

16 Nov 2011

(Nascente) Early on, Hungarian musicians Muzsikás, with singer Márta Sebestyén, were at the forefront of the European folk scene. Forty years after they pushed forward traditions championed by ethnomusicologists Bartok and Kodaly, they sound as fiery…

Fence’s Flamin’ Hott Loggz Anstruther Town Hall, Anstruther, Sat 5 Nov

The Shivers, Withered Hand and Serafina Steer join Bonfire Night party

15 Nov 2011

There were no fireworks at Fence’s Flamin’ Hott Loggz pop ‘n’ Guy Fawkes hoopla. There was no need for pyrotechnics when there were songs that soared like gold dust – King Creosote’s rare variation of Dexy’s ‘Come on Eileen’ around a bonfire; Serafina…

Blochestra, Bar Bloc, Glasgow, Mon 24 Oct

15 Nov 2011

Bar Bloc has became well known in the Central Belt of late for many music related experiences; they put on free gigs every night, it's a base for the Detour lads (Ally McCrae and David Weaver) and it's home to Bloc Jam, one of Glasgow's best open mic…

Jeffrey Lewis & The Junkyard - The Third Door, Edinburgh, Wed 26 Oct 2011

Near two-hour set pulls disparate parts into satisfying whole

15 Nov 2011

For this, one of the first gigs at the refreshed and renamed Third Door venue (formerly Medina, and now boasting a beefier new sound system), big personalities and hearts on sleeves are very much the order of the day. Opener Viking Moses is one Brendon…

Five reasons to go see Josh T. Pearson

The bearded Lift to Experience singer-songwriter favours good stage chat and sad songs

15 Nov 2011

1. He was in the mighty Lift To Experience Josh laid his heart bare earlier this year with The Last of The Country Gentlemen, his debut solo album. It will no doubt be topping many an end-of-year list – and for good reason too: it’s one of the most…

Experimental folk of Richard Youngs set for Edinburgh date

Prolific collaborator behind myriad works of understated wonder

9 Nov 2011

Next time you’re in a Glasgow library, look out. Is the man who is stamping your books singing quietly? Does he have the air of an underground pop star; the aura of a man with a penchant for rustic minimalism and improvised folk? Then you may be in the…

Carlos Paredes - Guitarra Portuegesa / Movimento Perpetuo

9 Nov 2011

(Drag City) Fêted by Six Organs of Admittance and the Kronos Quartet, Carlos Paredes was a virtuoso of the Portuguese guitar, a small 12-stringed instrument with a crystalline sound. Paredes was known as ‘the man of a thousand fingers’ and these…

Various Artists - Whaur the Pig Gaed On The Spree

Alasdair Roberts-curated comp of Scottish song recordings from 1950s

9 Nov 2011

(Drag City) In the summer of 1951 Alan Lomax made his first song collecting tour of Scotland, aided by the great Scottish poet and folklorist Hamish Henderson. Drawn from those recordings, this Alasdair Roberts-curated compilation does a superb job…

Celtic Connections 2012 line-up announced

Glasgow traditional music festival features 2100 artists and 300 events over 18 days in 20 venues

26 Oct 2011

This year's festival will include 2100 artists, 300 events, 20 venues all over 18 days. Being that winter is in the offing, you now wake up in the morning for work and its dark, you then head home from work and its dark. One thing that will surely…

Bon Iver set for 2011 UK tour

The collaboration-friendly indie-folk icon is still strongest on his own two feet

21 Oct 2011

‘Profit, profit, nigga I got it, everybody know I’m a motherfucking monster.’ Of all that Justin ‘Bon Iver’ Vernon might have done next following the huge critical acclaim and popular devotion for his exquisite 2008 debut album For Emma, Forever Ago…

Slow Club - Cabaret Voltaire, Edinburgh, Mon 19 Sep 2011

Folk rock twosome expand numbers but lose none of their charm

21 Oct 2011

Despite Rebecca Taylor’s protestations, Slow Club looked to be in reasonable shape considering they spent the previous night out with Aidan Moffat in Glasgow. ‘It was like an Indiana Jones film before I went to bed,’ recalled Charles Watson ruefully…

Julaba Kunda - Traders

Scotland’s Griselda Sanderson and Gambia’s Juldeh Camara conjure magical range of timbres and tones

21 Oct 2011

(Waulk Music) ‘Traders’ aptly describes the exchange of tunes and oral tradition between Scotland’s Griselda Sanderson and Gambia’s Juldeh Camara (often seen touring as a duo with Justin Adams and supporting Robert Plant). 2010’s snowy winter saw a…

Javier Limón - Mujeres de Agua

Spanish musician-producer's songs with 12 top female singers from across the Mediterranean

20 Oct 2011

(Wrasse) Spanish musician-producer Javier Limón is a man of tremendous intuition and vision: responsible for watershed discs for artists like Spanish guitarist Paco de Lucía, or the collaboration between Cuban pianist Bebo Valdés and Spanish singer…

Born to Be Wide - The musician's guide to music videos

Music seminar offers advice for making and promoting music videos

18 Oct 2011

Don’t know your PPL from your VPL? Couldn’t tell your ISRC code from your elbow? Born To Be Wide is here to help. For any musician looking to make the leap from local pub gig to, well, basically anything that will make you any money, a little bit of…

Treetop Flyers - Stereo, Glasgow, Sun 25 Sep

West London's new darlings of country-folk

18 Oct 2011

Emerging through a cough worthy amount of dry ice, talented Glaswegian’s Dirty Beggars kick-start a not so typical Sunday at Stereo; their striking country-folk set all plucked cello, banjo and mandolin strings and loveable vocal harmonies.

Archive Trails - Artists making new work from old photos and songs from Scotland's past

Scottish folk ballads reworked via song, video and puppetry

21 Sep 2011

After months of delving through old photos and songs, three performers aim to bring to life Scotland’s long-lost folk ballads through experimental vocals, video and glove puppets. Rachel Devine reports

5 Reasons to go to EH1 LIVE

The capital's new one-dayer features The Dykeenies, Jakil, The 10:04s and more

21 Sep 2011

1. Welcome to Edinburgh It’s that time of year again. Students are back, a new bunch of freshers are unleashed upon the bright lights of the big city, and while this new one-day, one-ticket-accesses-everything festival doesn’t cover all of the city’s…

Three Blind Wolves – O2 ABC2, Glasgow, Wed 14 Sep 2011

Solid line-up of Americana-tinged Scottish bands for No Mean City festival

19 Sep 2011

Even in the context of the No Mean City festival, this gig is more Americana than most. The line-up spans the bluegrass, folk and country genres, with some indie rock and a smidgen of prog thrown in as well. While it’s not a flawless evening, each band…