Music, Folk

Feist

8 May 2008

One of the founding members of Canadian supergroup Broken Social Scene and former flatmate of Peaches, Leslie Fiest is now best known for that video ‘1234’ as featured so ubiquitously in the iPod advert. However this takes nothing away from the simple…

Vashti Bunyan

Cold comfort

20 Dec 2006

The story behind Vashti Bunyan’s 1970 album Just Another Diamond Day has become legendary. Vashti made her first bid for stardom guided by Rolling Stones manager Andrew Loog Oldham. Her wisp of a voice and tall, elegant beauty suggested she could be an…

Feist

20 Sep 2007

FOLK POP Oran Mor, Glasgow, Wed 26 Oct If Leslie Feist has done one thing in her varied career that deserves to make her a star, it’s the day she spent shooting the video to her recent, mesmerisingly cheerful single ‘1234’. Google it or find it on…

Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan - Sunday at Devil Dirt

24 Apr 2008

COUNTRY/FOLK/BLUES (V2) Campbell and Lanegan’s Mercury-nominated debut was a one-trick pony, but it was a pretty cool trick. Campbell’s wispy whimper and Lanegan’s bourbon-soaked growl blended refreshingly over some old school folk and blues, but it…

Jose Gonzalez

20 Sep 2007

FOLK In Our Nature (Peacefrog) For most people, Swedish-Argentine troubadour Gonzalez will always be known for his song ‘Heartbeats’ soundtracking that Sony Bravia ad with the bouncy balls in San Francisco, and that’s his main problem. What makes…

Tegan and Sara

28 Feb 2008

FOLK QMU, Glasgow, Fri 29 Feb Poor Tegan and Sara. If it’s not their supposedly unfashionable asymmetrical haircuts (it’s the latest in Canadian coiffure), it’s the insipid curiosity with their private lives (they are twins and both lesbians) that…

The Parsonage

Choral folk country blues

29 Nov 2007

Choirs are not cool, right? Wrong. Glasgow 50-strong vocal ensemble The Parsonage have played at festivals including Indian Summer and Connect, contributed to Echo and the Bunnymen’s forthcoming new album and recorded an EP for release on Optimo’s…

Seth Lakeman

15 Jan 2007

Celtic Connections have secured one of the leading lights in the modern English roots scene, Seth Lakeman, as support for Scottish singer/songwriter Karine Polwart. Bringing a new dynamic and rawness to his intimate performances, Lakeman specialises in…

Heidi Talbot - In Love and Light

10 Apr 2008

FOLK (Navigator Records) It seems folk singers just ain’t content with being plain old folk singers these days. Admittedly, the boundaries between folk and the singer-songwriter game have long been fairly blurred anyway, but more and more of the…

Celtic Connections

17 Jan 2008

Music isn’t what it used to be. This is something we have to be thankful for as the constant evolution, recycling and re-fashioning of music means there’s always someone out there trying to do things a bit differently. While there’s been much carping…

Celtic Connections - Mindy Smith

17 Jan 2008

Two albums in, Mindy Smith is solidifying her reputation as one of America’s most affecting songwriters. 2006’s Long Island Shores showed her gentle touch and growing prowess as a writer. Her ethereal vocal style at first brings to mind Joni Mitchell…

Steve Earle

4 Jan 2008

You’ll know where Steve Earle lives if you can picture the famous cover of The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan. Just up that New York street where Dylan huddled against the snow with Suzie Rotolo in 1962 is the apartment Earle shares with his wife, the beautiful…

Hitlist - The best rock, pop, jazz & folk

20 Sep 2007

• Dean Owens and the Whisky Hearts This masterful Edinburgh songwriter kicks of ten days of shows in Darvel with a full-blooded, full-band show of his beguiling Americana. Darvel Music Festival, Darvel Town Hall, near Kilmarnock, Wed 26 Sep. (Folk…

Karine Polwart on Thank You For the Music

6 Sep 2007

When choosing eight Scottish songwriters to profile, the BBC Radio Scotland series Thank You For the Music wisely eschewed yer flashier, more tabloid-friendly Tunstalls and Fratellis, focussing instead on low-profile, home-grown indie and folk heroes…

Karine Polwart

10 Apr 2008

FOLK Eastgate Theatre, Peebles, Fri 11 Apr; Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh, Sun 13 Apr; Carnegie Hall, Dunfermline, Wed 16 Apr; Fruitmarket, Glasgow, Thu 17 Apr; Tollbooth, Stirling, Fri 18 Apr The life of a self-employed musician can be complicated at the…

Various - Rough Trade Counter Culture 07

14 Feb 2008

EVERYTHING (Rough Trade) If anything can be gleaned from these expansive, annual compilations its this: try as you might you can’t keep up with all the fine new music around unless you actually run a record store. And while you might have…

Golden Virginia

31 Jan 2008

Beguiling singer and storyteller Devon Sproule’s songs are so evocative they could be used as adverts for her home town. Rachel Devine gets in a state If the Virginia tourist board ever needs an advertising jingle to sell their leafy state, they…

Exposure - Rachel Unthank & the Winterset

6 Sep 2007

The all-girl folk quartet, famous for singing in their gorgeous Geordie accents, are back with The Bairns, the follow-up to 2005’s Cruel Sister, which received a hearty thumbs up from folk purists and mainstream radio alike. How do you follow up a…

*Hitlist

Hitlist

9 Apr 2007

Mark Eitzel The erstwhile American Music Club lynchpin wears his heart on his sleeve and can write a love song that would break your heart clean open on one listen. Not a dry seat in the house guaranteed. Cabaret Voltaire, Edinburgh, Thu 19 Apr.

Rachel Unthank and the Winterset

8 May 2008

FOLK Voodoo Rooms, Edinburgh, Fri 9 May; ABC, Glasgow, Sat 10 May It’s a decidedly domestic vibe at chateau Unthank when Rachel comes to the phone. ‘I’ve just been doing a bit of gardening and I had to go into town to pick up a new cello case,’ she…

Capercaillie - Roses and Tears

24 Apr 2008

FOLK (Vertical Records) Capercaillie have done very nicely with their particular fusion of traditional music with more contemporary influences, and it is hardly likely that they are going to suddenly throw all that aside in pursuit of some radical new…

Lau and The Ainslie/Henderson Trio: Reinventing the Reel

27 Mar 2008

FOLK Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh, Thu 27 Mar; Tolbooth, Stirling, Fri 28 Mar; CCA, Glasgow, Thu 3 Apr ‘The band started about two-and-a-half years ago,’ says master fiddler Aidan O’Rourke. ‘Martin (Green), Kris (Drever) and I were hanging around…

Laura McGhee

27 Mar 2008

New Scottish singer-songwriter sensation who has already cut her chops providing vocals for Runrig and counts Tom Waits, Jim Lauderdale and Shane McGowan among her fans. Here she performs the Scottish premiere of her own ‘Arbroath Suite’, which traces…

Devendra Banhart becomes virtual clothes horse

27 Feb 2008

Genius American alt-folk troubadour Devendra Banhart has never been backward in coming forward when it comes to parading his musical musings but now he’s showing even more than before by turning himself into a web fashionista with his own personal…

Colin MacIntyre

31 Jan 2008

POP Gone is the Mull Historical Society pseudonym and in its place is Colin MacIntyre, a couple of choirs and a veteran politician. After three critically acclaimed albums, MacIntyre is back with his latest, The Water, and a set at Celtic…