Way Over Yonder In The Minor Key - Hannah Sanders and Ben Savage

On the 50th anniversary of Woody Guthrie's death our next LCM featured duo Hannah Sanders and Ben Savage felt it was the right time to record and release a song written by Woody which is always popular in their live set. Our LCM #TrackOfTheDay is the beautiful 'Way Over Yonder In The Minor Key' first released in 1998 on the 'Mermaid Avenue' album. The lyrics were originally written by Woody but the music was composed by UK Folk artist Billy Bragg. This cover version was produced by Juno award winning producer David Travers-Smith (Ruth Moody, The Waillin' Jennys) and the wonderful new video was filmed and produced by Rob Bridge of Redwood Photography. Let us know what you think?

Hannah and Ben are currently on their UK Autumn tour with a London date planned at The Slaughtered Lamb on the 5th October. (Please see poster below)

Anywhere Anytime Soon - Michael Baker

We are thrilled to announce that our next LCM featured artist Michael Baker, will be joining us on Tuesday 3rd October at The Green Note, as part of our brand new 'Songwriters In The Round' show. We will be organising the night with our friends at the excellent Music Makers Festival and Vin's Night In. The full line-up includes Albert Man, Franc Cinelli and Vin Goodwin who will also MC the night. As a tempting taster our LCM #TrackOfTheDay is a live version of Michael's 'Anywhere Anytime Soon' taken from his 2016 debut album 'Dust & Bone', which we highly recommend

Michael is currently working on his second album 'Salt' which is available for pre-sale via Pledge Music.

A regular busker, not only on the streets of London, but all over Europe including the French Alps where Michael’s mother is from, Michael is no stranger to hard graft. Living in a van for 2 ½ year to enable him to afford to record his debut album Dust & Bone. The support for the album has come far and wide including an Independent Video Premier, BBC Introducing London plays, sold out supports for Sarah Jarosz at Union Chappell and David Ramirez at O2 Islington and packed-out Great Escape full band show. Michael is going into record album number 2 in November and has three collaborative ep’s lined up release. for early 2018.

“Michael Baker’s music has a raw honesty that captivates you” – Mahogany Blog

“Michael was phenomenal, really blew us away“ - Adam Maestro Head of Booking Sofar Sounds

Simple Guidance - Fraser Anderson

Our next LCM featured artist Scottish singer-songwriter Fraser Anderson will be in London on Sunday as a special guest of Katey Brooks at The Camden Assembly. If you like Ross Wilson of Blue Rose Code, then you really need to check out Fraser's music as well. After a spell in rural France, travelling troubadour Fraser has is now made his home in sunny Bristol. Our LCM #TrackOfTheDay is the excellent 'SImple Guidance' taken from his last album 'Under The Cover Of Lightness'. Please let us know what you think of the song and hopefully see you at Sunday at the gig.

Anderson’s relationship with music began when as a young teenager he witnessed the tragic death of a wonderful man he had met hours before, to whom he spoke about the profundities of life- and death. At a loss as to how to process the extremity of the experience, he took to writing- at first poetry, then lyrics and songs. His musical talent, stage presence and confidence as a performer were obvious from the beginning. His musical influences were broad, experimenting early as a teenage jazz fusion hip-hop performer, drummer, keyboardist and bassist. Soon after graduating music college Anderson was spotted by venerable Scottish Folk institution Dougie McLean, who invited him to branch into the folk world; he took up the challenge and ran with it, and hasn’t looked back. He recorded his first album, ‘and the girl with the strawberry…’ in his friends bedroom, which his local newspaper the Perthshire Advertiser proclaimed “a masterpiece of a debut album”.

Anderson then moved to rural France, where he lived and raised his family for many years. His isolated expat existence became an unexpected and somewhat miraculous launchpad for his career. In between labouring jobs, he penned songs he performed at local village
concerts, to a community that adored him and his music. Unbeknownst to Anderson, this support would soon after propel him to launch his second, studio recorded album, ‘Coming up for air’, and begin to tour across the European continent. His loving and loyal international fanbase was confirmed by two successful crowdfunding campaigns that funded his third album, ‘Little Glass Box’, and the latest album, ‘Under the Cover of Lightness’. Fraser returned to the UK in 2013, making the musically diverse and vibrant city of Bristol his new home.

Anderson’s support tours include the great Joan Armatrading, The Low Anthem, Pete Doherty, revered Italian artist Nicolo Fabi, and the legendary Chuck Berry who said of his music “two thumbs up”.

He has headlined UK dates and appearances at European festivals including Celtic Connections and Reeperbahn. His second album, ‘Coming up for air’, was picked up and celebrated by BBC Radio 2’s Bob Harris, and features the musician Greg Lawson. The success of the album lead to his current publishing deal with Metisse Music Publishing in Paris. His third album, ‘Little Glass Box’, also received well by critics, features the instrumental work of Danny Thompson.

Anderson launched his fourth and most experimental album to date, ‘Under The Cover of Lightness’, in 2016, which has met with critical acclaim. Described as a “masterpiece” by MSN and voted album of the week by BBC Radio Ulster, this latest offering presents the most powerful songs he’s ever written, and follows up the rave reviewed album, “Little Glass Box”. Already well known across Europe, Anderson is a gem now being discovered across anglophone countries like his native UK, and Canada. With a strong BBC Radio 2 following and repeat requests to perform across the UK, his fanbase is assuredly growing and sees him cross the Atlantic to North America regularly throughout 2017.

Jessica - Me For Queen

Our next LCM featured artist Me For Queen has just created a beautiful new video to accompany her beautiful new single 'Jessica'. At the beating heart of Me For Queen is singer-songwriter Mary Erskine. Mary provides some background about the new song. “I attended a songwriting workshop last summer. It was a hugely inspiring few days, and I was thinking a lot about the value and role of Art and the Artist, as well as what and who we choose to celebrate and commemorate in our society, over the years, and what gets lost along the way.

“I had the idea to write a song as a monument to a person I know. It took another six months to come together. For some reason I couldn’t get it to work on the piano. Then when I came to finishing the words, I was living in an apartment without any access to a piano, so in the end I just had to find a way to make it work on the guitar! Necessity is the mother of invention …”

Her last single, Slow Train, from her EP “Who I Am and What I’m For” (released in February) was included in Tom Robinson’s personal top 5 Fresh Faves on BBC6’s Fresh on the Net and was also single of the week on the Janice Forsyth BBC Scotland Culture show.

Back In The Ring - Chris Pureka

Our next LCM featured artist Portland based Chris Pureka will be at the award-winning Green Note in Camden soon to play a headline set on the 28th September, as part of her current UK and European tour. Thank you Chris Farlie from our friends at W21 for the great tip. Our LCM #TrackOfTheDay is a live acoustic version of her beautiful single and the title track of her latest album 'Back In The Ring'.

It’s rare for an artist to bridge the divide between critical acclaim and dedicated fan engagement. Chris Pureka is a Portland-based singer-songwriter whose body of work has resonated deeply with these seemingly disparate milieus. Her bold vulnerability in processing the intimacies of her life in song has long appealed to those listeners who crave authenticity. Now, five years coming, she shares with us another powerful entry in her life’s work, her sixth release, the aptly titled, 'Back in the Ring'.

Chris’s elegant emotionality as a vocalist, and her flair and immediacy as a lyricist have garnered her favorable comparisons to Gillian Welch, Ryan Adams, Bruce Springsteen, and Patty Griffin. She’s earned accolades from such distinguished taste-making outlets as The New York Times, Paste, Magnet, Billboard.com, and The AllMusic Guide. She’s shared the stage with such diverse and esteemed artists as Dar Williams, The Lumineers, The Cowboy Junkies, Gregory Alan Isakov, Martin Sexton, and Ani DiFranco. Along the way, Chris has remained fiercely independent, selling nearly 50,000 albums through her own label, Sad Rabbit Records.

Chris’s journey in music mirrors her path toward self-discovery. At 16, writing songs became a way of journaling. “I was shy and introverted, and songwriting was a very personal process. I never had any intention of performing,” she shares. Post high school, she went on to complete a biology degree at Wesleyan University, and afterwards, worked in a microbiology research lab at Smith College. Meanwhile, she established a music career parallel to her biology work through touring and issuing a clutch of well-received indie releases. In 2006, when Chris found herself turning down too many opportunities as a musician, she shifted her priorities to become a full-time artist.

Her latest album, 'Back in the Ring', is Chris’s first studio full length since 2010’s critically acclaimed How I Learned to See in the Dark. “I’m not interested in releasing songs I can’t get behind or records I don’t love,” she says of the five-year span between albums. The title of her latest playfully suggests something of an artistic comeback, but it also references the album’s themes of relationship conflict and making the decision to fight back against dark inner demons.

“My music is the outward expression of the work I’m doing internally. What I do comes from my experiences, and I strive to express these experiences authentically. Speaking my truth, and being myself, is the way that I connect with people,” Chris confides.  Her rise as an esteemed artist with captivating emotional integrity has been organic and always on her own terms. For someone who never had an intention of being a professional musician, it’s been a life of far-reaching changes and unexpected rewards.

Son Of Solomon - The Corrs

We have been a big fans of our next LCM featured family band since their second album 'Talk On Corners' was released back in 1997. We are delighted that The Corrs are releasing a brand new album 'Jupiter Calling' on the 10th November. Look out too for their London date at The Royal Albert Hall on October 19th . Our LCM #TrackOfTheDay is the tender and personal first single the 'Son Of Solomon'. Let us know what you think? 

'Jupiter Calling' is the upcoming seventh album by The Corrs, set to be released on 10 November 2017 by East West Records. It is their first new material in two years, following White Light (2015). It was produced by T Bone Burnett and recorded at RAK Studios in London. Following the release of White Light in 2015, the band toured the UK and Ireland in January 2016, and continental Europe in mid-2016 on their White Light Tour. Andrea Corr spoke to The Sun in January 2016, stating that the band were not planning to record a follow-up soon after, "as long as we're all happy to continue. And we are all very happy."

The band chose to include a song about Syria on the album, called "SOS (Song of Syria)", which they called their most "politically outspoken and evocative" song to date. Andrea also spoke of playing the song "Son of Solomon" for Burnett: "He said 'Okay, don't play that any more'. When you're on the verge of knowing something you're much better than when you know it too well. And he was right. That's when the magic happens." Caroline described the recording process as "the most freeing experience we've had in the studio."

Of working with the band, Burnett complimented their "deep, generous spirit" and their "writing, singing and playing". The album was primarily recorded live, with minimal overdubbing. While working on the album, Burnett made use of 40 spools of two-inch tape and a Ludwig drum kit. Guitarist Anthony Drennan and bassist Robbie Malone are also set to appear on the record.

As Far As The Heart Can See - Tracey Browne

Our next LCM featured artist Manchester based singer-songwriter Tracey Browne is a firm favourite here at LCM and you might remember we hosted her last London gig at the Green Note back in April. We are delighted that Tracey Brown will be releasing her fabulous new album 'The Doctrine Of Song' at the end of October. We have an advance copy and it's very good. Our LCM #TrackOfTheDay is the first single, the very catchy 'As Far As The Heart Can See'

Tracey Browne is a singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and session singer; her credits include recording projects by Thea Gilmore, Nigel Stonier and a host of independent artists.

From producing and recording other artists, to singing and playing live with bands and songwriters of many different genres, Tracey has become one of the most versatile musicians to work with in the UK. Playing guitar, piano, tenor guitar, bass guitar, Q-chord and providing outstanding vocals, both on her own songs and harmonising with others, she is in demand on the professional circuit.

Tracey trained as a sound engineer at Manchester’s ‘Airtight Studios’, where she recorded and mixed her 2 EP’s, ‘Tooth and Nail’, (2007) and ‘The Cat and the Moon’, (2009), her album ‘Everyone Is Ordinary’, (2012) and her duo album with Raevennan Husbandes ‘East by North West’ (2015).

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!' 

Perfect - Kat Healy

We have a little treat for you today. Our next LCM featured artist is Edinburgh based singer-songwriter Kat Healy. We love Kat's music here at LCM and we are always thrilled to hear new music from her. Our LCM #TrackOfTheDay is her beautifully tender and personal new song called 'Perfect'.

Kat Healy is a singer-songwriter hailing from Edinburgh, Scotland – and a previously selected winner at the CalMac Music Awards 2016 - described as a combination of well-crafted songs, beautiful voice and delightful stage presence, “Nothing short of enchanting” (****FATEA Magazine 2014).

With this new single 'Perfect' released on the 8th September, Kat shines bright with a pretty-pop edge, showcasing her ability to combine lyrical melody with a lively hook. This new direction of sound is a breath of fresh air, and a deliberate move towards an up-tempo style, revealing a more playful side to her music and a new lease of life.
 
Since her previous releases ‘When You Are Gone’ (2014), and 'Wolf' (2016), Healy has toured successfully throughout the UK and Europe, with a number of high profile gigs, including a debut performance at The Queens Hall in Edinburgh supporting Joshua Radin, as well as appearances at Folk Alliance International (2015), New York’s infamous Rockwood Music Hall and Belfast's The Empire. Healy has also landed several performance features on Scotland’s STV channel and BBC Radio Scotland, including a live studio session with Janice Forsyth (BBC The Janice Forsyth Show).

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.

Ladies & Gentlemen - Ben Maggs

We have been big fans of our next LCM featured artist award-wining Gloucestershire singer-songwriter Ben Maggs for a while now. Ben is a real force of nature. There’s a raw honesty and naturalness to his songs and his delivery.  He’s a generous open-hearted performer, exciting, moving, uplifting and inspiring.  Every precious word is expressed with resonant clarity, as free as the flying feathers that decorate his guitars.  Our LCM #TrackOfTheDay is a live version of the very catchy 'Ladies & Gentlemen' complete with audience participation.

Natural vocal talent was apparent at a young age, as was Ben’s love of his little red toy guitar. There were brief flirtations with violin and saxophone, but once in possession of a ‘grown up’ guitar he never looked back. Thank goodness for first love, because this man and a guitar is a marriage made in heaven. By his late teens, Ben was lead singer and writer with 'Solace', a band that quickly secured a deal with Rip Curl. Philosophy studies at Warwick didn’t temper his commitment, but momentum was lost when two members of the band decided to leave.  Priorities shifted and dreams of a music career all but dissolved into the concept of a more ‘sensible’ future.  And so it was, for a while. With lyrical poetry and melodies coursing through his veins, it was only a matter of time before Ben was overwhelmed by his own nature.  Many cajoled and encouraged, but it was through a series of challenging and tragic circumstances that Ben wrote and performed again. New songs flowed powerfully through him, carrying him back into regular public performance.  This bear’s winter was over and so was his ‘sensible’ job.

Ben recorded his first EP “Let in the Light” in 2011, receiving critical acclaim and winning awards for his then signature song “New York”.  The EP reflected his experience of a deeply transformative period and allowed Ben to explore his musical style, subsequently discovering a more natural expression of his craft.  There’s nothing fixed about Ben, there’s a journey and an evolution in every breath.

His album “Come As You Are” released in late 2015 sings of this evolution, his voice ringing truer and clearer than ever.  Ben’s unique style, lyrics and melodies brilliantly reflect life’s journey, infused with the heartbeat of the natural and concrete world, and the many good folk met along the way.

The album draws especially on Ben’s experiences and adventures around the British Isles – the dramatic wilderness coastline of the Western Highlands and Islands of Scotland, his Grandfather’s Welsh homeland and also his native Cotswolds. 

Audiences are enrapt by his evocative vocals and melodic lyricism, the energetic “nothing held back” visceral nature of his performance and engaging inter-song storytelling, all carried exquisitely by resonant acoustic guitar. Festival and event organisers, audiences and fellow musicians alike describe Ben’s performances as “mesmerising”, commenting on how he “holds the audience in the palm of his hands”.  You can expect nothing less than the full and free expression of the heart and soul of this talented troubadour, live or recorded.

The genre?  Sometimes I want to say contemporary folk, or folk pop, or reference the troubadours of the 70’s, but this music is new.  There really is something here for everyone.   Really the music is just Ben Maggs, it’s not like anything else.  Ben’s music is authentic and unique – as brilliantly expressed by an artistic admirer he is “The Inimitable Mr Maggs”.

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!