The Bonnie Earl O'Moray - Said The Maiden

From Said the Maiden's forthcoming album 'Here's a Health' 01/11/17

Our next LCM featured artists the multi-award winning folk trio Said The Maiden are launching their new album 'Here's A Health' at the Water Rats in London tonight. They are a few tickets left, so please come along if you are free. Special guests include Supermoon and Chris Cleverly. As a taster our LCM #TrackOfTheDay is the wonderful 'The Bonnie Earl O'Moray'.

Said The Maiden are Jess Distill, Hannah Elizabeth and Kathy Pilkinton, three friends who discovered a mutual love of folk music when they reunited several years after spending their school years together in Hertfordshire.  After tentatively performing a few songs at their local Redbourn Folk Club, the group soon gained a great deal of interest on the local and national folk circuit, securing major support and headline slots at folk clubs and festivals around the country.

The trio has also opened for many great artists including The Full English, The Fisherman's Friends, Jim Moray, Megson, Martin Carthy, Clannad, Cara Dillon, False Lights and Fairport Convention.  They were also honoured to join legendary fiddler the late Dave Swarbrick on a successful UK solo tour in the spring of 2014, and released their debut album 'A Curious Tale' in June of the same year.  The group went on to release their EP, ‘Of Maids And Mariners’ in 2016 which was met with critical acclaim across the folk community.

Said The Maiden was awarded Bristol Folk Festival’s prestigious Isambard Folk Award in 2015 and were also voted ‘Best Act’ by the public at the 2015 Great British Folk Festival’s Introducing Stage, consequently returning in 2016 for an appearance on the festival’s main stage.  2017 has seen further recognition for Said The Maiden including winning the 2017 Folking Awards ‘Rising Star’ prize, and an NMG Award nomination for best Acoustic, Country & Folk act.

2017 has been an exciting and prosperous year for Said The Maiden thus far.  This summer they made their first international appearance at the Jazz and Joy Festival in Worms, Germany, and will also be appearing at Costa del Folk in Portugal later this year.  In the meantime they are gearing up to release their eagerly anticipated second studio album, ‘Here’s A Health’ in November 2017, to coincide with a national headline tour, with dates throughout October and November spanning the length and breadth of the country.

Ding Dong Dollar - Shake The Chains

Our LCM featured artists today are the great 'Shake The Chains' Folk project whose self titled debut album was our 'album of the month' in August. It was organised by the multi-award winning Greg Russell and features a host of excellent UK folk musicians including Nancy Kerr, Hannah Martin, Findlay Napier and Tim Yates. To give you a flavour our LCM #TrackOfTheDay is a live cover of a protest song called 'Ding Dong Dollar' led by the always excellent Findlay Napier. Feel free to join in on the chorus :)

The famous Glasgow Song Guild protest song 'Ding Dong Dollar' first released in 1962 still resonates today over 50 years later. Originally written In protest to an American nuclear submarine that sailed into the Holy Loch in the early 1960's. It became the anthem of the Scottish Anti-Polaris movement of the 60's and beyond. Drawing from the rich Celtic bard traditions and combining folk and popular melodies with biting lyrics, the Anti-Polaris Singers were not only informative but played an important role in sustaining the demonstrators’ morale. Nothing really has changed in that time, the UK government has just swapped Polaris for Trident now leased from the American government, which is even more destructive. With the full ensemble in full voice led by Finday, this is a very powerful and thought-provoking version of the classic. With the very sage thought of 'You can't spend a dollar when your dead!' 

Be The Man - The Young'uns

We are big fans of our next LCM featured artists and we think this multi-award winning trio are rapidly becoming a national folk treasure. Known for their excellent live performances Sean, David & Michael are also fantastic song-writers and interpreters of traditional folk music. They are releasing their brilliant new album 'Strangers' at the end of the month. Our LCM #TrackOfTheDay is one of the lead singles the personal and thought-provoking 'Be The Man'. which was inspired by the incredibly moving story of Matthew Ogston and his fiancé Nazim Mahmood – its poignancy elevated by ex Bellowhead musician Rachael McShane on cello and fiddle and Chumbawamba’s Jude Abbott on flugelhorn. Matthew reacted to Sean’s lyrics saying: “I do not have the right words to even begin to explain how your words have touched my soul and heart”. They wrote the song after hearing about what happened to Naz from the Guardian's interview with Matt in 2016. Through their eyes it tells the story of Naz and Matt, the challenges they faced to be themselves and their eternal, unconditional love for each other.

The Young’uns have proved themselves a unique proposition, writing and performing a cappella or subtly accompanied songs that tell it how it is alongside traditional songs from their native North-East and further afield – songs of conscience, songs of warmth and wit, songs to provoke, songs to inspire.

Renowned for their pitch perfect harmonies and rapid fire humour, their live show undeniably has the human touch. Always engaging, frequently heart-warming, they have built an enviable audience rapport. They are an act that truly takes the cliché out of the “make you laugh, make you cry” tag.

Just two years after giving up their day jobs, Stockton Folk Club’s star pupils have had a milestone year with the release of their third studio album Another Man’s Ground, an appearance at America’s Folk Alliance, collectively celebrating their 30th birthdays and racking up accolades including Best Group in the FATEA Awards and Best Live Act in the Spiral Awards.

A decade of performance around the country, national radio sessions, more than 40 festival appearances (Cambridge to Glastonbury) and increasingly acclaimed album releases has delivered a gregarious, sharply honed, pull no punches act that clinched the Best Group trophy at the 2015 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards in Cardiff – a hugely popular result that saw them beating off opposition including the mighty Bellowhead.

Beguiling audiences around the world, they seamlessly switch from beautiful ballads to brilliant banter, from profoundly poignant songs to infectiously irreverent humour. This, combined with their passion for storytelling and commitment to maintaining the tradition of social commentary, has led to five star reviews, live sessions on BBC Radio 2, 3 and documentaries on Radio 4 as well as countless sell out shows and main stage festival appearances throughout the UK and abroad.

In 2016, The Young’uns gloriously repeated their 2015 success at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards by picking up the “Best Group” award for the second consecutive year in front of a packed house at the Royal Albert Hall in London.

The Teesside trio return in 2017 with an extensive October UK tour and an eagerly anticipated new album, ’Strangers’, which is a collection of folk songs for our times – a homage to the outsider, a eulogy for the wayfarer and a hymn for the migrant.

The Cuckoo - Kim Lowings & The Greenwood

Our next LCM featured band are the very exciting Kim Lowings and The Greenwood. We think they are are one of an excellent group of fast rising stars in UK folk. They are Inspired by the folk tradition but have a wonderful fresh contemporary twist. Live shows are an energetic blend of original compositions and traditional songs. Kim Lowings, Andrew Lowings, Tim Rogers and Dave Sutherland bring together their multi-instrumental skill and individual experience resulting in an innovative and sensitive approach to arrangements. The motivation is to keep the tradition alive and to share their own tales.

Their new 12-track album 'Wild & Wicked Youth' released on the 8th September is a revelation and we think it's the best one yet. Our LCM #TrackOfTheDay is a live version of one of my favourite tracks on the album the traditional 'The Cuckoo', with a new arrangements by Kim and new music by Kim's dad Andrew. 

The group began as a collective in 2011 with Kim and her Dad, Andrew, collaborating with Midlands musicians. Since then the Greenwood has become an established four-piece on the British folk scene. Their recorded work includes their debut album This Life (2012), EP Deepest, Darkest Night (2013) and their latest album Historia (2015) heralded as "beautiful and enchanting” by Living Tradition and "Absolutely captivating” R2 Magazine ★★★★

Kim Lowings and The Greenwood have a busy touring schedule with bookings at Folk and Acoustic Clubs, festivals and live music venues across the country. They have been billed alongside folk greats such as Dougie MacLean, Jackie Oates and Martin Simpson. Their reputation is growing and there are whispers along the grapevine that this group are one to watch out for!

Adrift, Adrift - Rosie Hood

We continue our look at the fast rising young stars of the recent Cambridge Folk Festival with our next LCM featured artist, Sheffield based singer-songwriter Rosie Hood. It's a exciting time for Rosie, as she has just recently released her highly anticipated debut solo album 'The Beautiful & The Actual' through RootBeat Records.  Our LCM #TrackOfTheDay is the very timely and heartfelt 'Adrift, Adrift', one of the albums lead singles. A shout out as well to the very talent Elly Lucas who filmed and edited the video. The song was recorded & produced by Tom A Wright at Powered Flight Music and features Emma Smith & The Barber Sisters.

June 2017 saw Rosie Hood release her first full-length solo album 'The Beautiful & The Actual', a collection of old and new folk songs.

“I have tried to depict the beautiful and the actual”, wrote Alfred Williams in 1923 in the introduction to his book Folk Songs of the Upper Thames. A hammerman, poet, linguist and historian, Alfred Williams was also a prolific folk song collector. In the years prior to World War I he visited the towns and villages close to his home of South Marston, Wiltshire, just 10 miles from Rosie’s home village of Minety, and collected hundreds of songs, eight of which Rosie has arranged and recorded here. “I hope that my interpretations of these songs do the same”, Rosie says of Williams’ words that inspired the title of her debut album. “I feel that Alfred Williams was talking about the duality that exists within his collection of songs, but to me the title reflects the duality within the songs themselves. There’s life and death, love and betrayal, beautiful melodies and hauntingly sad lyrics,” Rosie explains.

'The Beautiful & The Actual' displays Rosie’s artistic progress and creative partnerships that have developed since releasing her eponymous E.P. in 2011. 'From A Furlong of Flight', lamenting an 11th Century monk’s unrealised dreams, effortlessly enhanced by the Barber Sisters’ strings arrangements, to the tragic traditional ballad 'Lord Lovel', sung in classic duo harmony style with Folk Award winner Jefferson Hamer, and 'Undaunted Female', the story of a bold young woman, simply accompanied by Emma Smith’s driving double bass, Rosie’s vocal holds these songs together. John Archbold’s poignant war song 'The Hills of Kandahar' features Ollie King’s sensitive melodeon playing, whilst the stark and haunting version of 'The Cruel Mother' is sung with Folk Singer of the Year nominee Emily Portman. These sparse accompaniments allow each track to breathe and for Rosie’s timeless singing to tell the stories that make up this superb debut album.

Rosie Hood a young folk singer from Minety in Wiltshire, is known for her strong, pure voice and engaging solo performance. A BBC Performing Arts Fellow in 2015 and a 2016 Horizon Award nominee at the Radio 2 Folk Awards, Rosie has become more than purely a traditional singer. Having started learning folk songs at an early age from her family, Rosie has a keen interest in the history of traditional songs, particularly those of her native Wiltshire, where she has spent time researching in the local archives and developing a broad repertoire of local songs. Rosie’s Fellowship year with the English Folk Dance & Song Society proved a pivotal point in her career giving her time and space to develop as an artist. The year saw Rosie develop her song-writing with mentor Emily Portman, hone her instrumental skills and even resulted in a transatlantic collaboration with New York based singer and guitarist Jefferson Hamer.

Angeline The Baker - Jamie Francis

It's a very exciting time for our LCM featured artist singer-songwriter and banjo master Jamie Francis. Not only is Jamie part of Sam Kelly & The Lost Boys, The Changing Room and Stark but he has just released his 10-track solo debut album aptly titled 'The Patient Neighbour'. The album is led by Jamie's banjo, but also features fiddle and whistles from Toby Shaer (John McCusker and Heidi Talbot) and cello from Graham Coe (Jellyman's Daughter and Blue Rose Code). The tracks are a mix of Irish and American traditional tunes, as well as some original compositions by Jamie. As a very good taster our LCM #TrackOfTheDay is the instrumental 'Angeline The Baker'. 

Jamie Francis is a Cornwall based banjo player, guitarist and songwriter. He started gigging at the age of 12, and grew up surrounded by both the blues music popular in his home town of Maryport, and the Irish folk music played by his father. His playing and songwriting styles reflect these varied influences.

Jamie Francis attended the Brighton Institute of Modern Music where he received a 1st Class BA Hons in Music Performance. At University he met his long time musical collaborator Sam Kelly, whose band Sam Kelly and the Lost Boys has won a BBC Folk Award and seen Jamie play all over the world. As well as the international gigging, Jamie has played live sessions on BBC Radio 2 and 3, played in Seth Lakeman's band and supported numerous folk legends such as Cara Dillon and Sean Lakeman & Kathryn Roberts

Princess Rosanna - Top Floor Taivers

Our next LCM featured artists Top Floor Taivers are a young and fresh Glasgow based folk band performing traditional and contemporary Scots song and tunes. Coming from Scotland, England and Ireland, Top Floor Taivers combine stunning vocals with piano, fiddle and clarsach to create unique arrangements of traditional folk songs and tunes as well as their own compositions.The band comprise of Claire Hastings [2015 BBC Young Traditional Musician] (Voice/Ukulele/Guitar), Gráinne Brady (Fiddle), Heather Downie (Electro Harp) and Tina Jordan Rees (Piano). The Top Floor Taivers released their highly anticipated debut album 'A Delicate Game' at the end of February. Our LCM #TrackOfTheDay is a new live version one of the lead singles 'Princess Rosanna' with lyrics from Findlay Napier.

Nominated in the Up and Coming Artist category at the 2016 MG ALBA Scots Trad Music Awards the band are going from strength to strength. With unique arrangements of traditional Scottish songs like 'The False Bride', to contemporary Scottish songs like 'Princess Rosanna' by Findlay Napier, and 'Everybody Knows' by Leonard Cohen, this exciting new album has something in it for everyone.

Since forming in 2013 the band have performed across Scotland and Ireland, with highlights including BBC Music Day, Stonehaven Folk Festival, Edinburgh’s Hogmanay Street Party, and Celtic Connections amongst others. In 2017 they will be touring their new album and will be performing a tour of Germany in 2018.