This year I will be mostly listening to....

Well it may have only just started but 2012 is already looking like a great year for folk music. These are some of the very exciting albums I will be listening to this year
Jim Moray - Skulk

It's accoustic, it has a fox on the cover, what's not to love??? The Moray returns with a fantastic album of new material, all of which is available for your listening pleasure here but please buy the cd or pre order the (hopefully it's happening vinyl because its that good and to quote loreal he's worth it (oh extra fox footage for your pleasure can be found here, I'm talking about Sorrell obviously...)

Mawkin  - Crow

Not to mistaken with the Ralfe band tune of the same name, the Delarre double are back with the additon of Nick (Cookie Monster) Cook and a guy hitting stuff for an entirely new album. If its as good as the single Skymningspolskan / Betsy Likens (which you can listen to here) it should be a scorcher (oh and if you missed any of their previous output its all on the website for a tiny fee too, so hook yourself up!)

Seth Lakeman - Tales from the Barrel House

After the disappointment and lack of tunes of offerings like Hearts and Minds (I would have thrown cabbage but its best not to waste good food) Mr Lakemen returns to his roots (yey) and heads off recording down an disused copper mine to record Tales and it certainly seems like he's mining the tunes again (collective groan) it isn't as good as Kitty Jay but a definite step back in the right direction.

Moss, Moore, Rutter - Moss, Moore, Rutter

Okay technically not released this year but they won the young folk award last year and now being back in the spotlight thanks to Jack Rutters unlikely appearance on ITV's Take Me Out (???). I think I might have heard most of this album thanks to the delights of free musicy listening places but its very very good so this year there will be a concerted effort to find the cd and play it many many times, I recommend you do the same.

Message to Bears - Folding Leaves

Sadly Jerome (who writes all the music for this collection of musicians) has now moved back to Bristol, which means less local gigs for us Oxfordonians. Awesomely however there is a new album of tunes (after getting funding sorted via this site). I've got their last release Departures ad having seen them live quite a few times can confirm that yes they are brilliant, fantastic music to chill out to or watch snow fall, make sure you grab a copy.


And now a couple that are hopefully on the way
Bad Anna - Debut

Uiscedwr split up, I'm devastated, Bad Anna form, I am slightly pacified. Described on their page here as new kind of folk music for our generation, if its got Anna Esslemont playing fiddle it will def be worth a listen

Writings on the Wall - suggestions for a  title welcome!

The idea has been mooted that we attempt a recording, we were going to try a six track until we realised we probably have quite a bit more material than that... Anyway after we play the fringe event in April we should be locking ourselves away and trying to record something. In the meantime however for more informative updates you can like us on Facebook here.

Gig in Garsington

This has just dropped into my inbox, the official poster for the gig that Writing on the Wall (otherwise known as the fabulous band what I am in) are playing in about a week and a half. Also on the bill is Robin Bennett's new country band the Grassy Hillbillies ('locals' may recognise the name as Robin and his brother Joe are responsible for running local fab festival Truck, Robin was also described by one of my friends as the batman of cool, so there you go!). The other bands we haven't encountered yet but I can give a small sneak preview of the finale (well the song at least) here it is sung by folk legend John Coppins . Be lovely to see some of you there!

Blowzabella & tune writing

 Jam and I attended a Blowzabella gig tonight, as usual there was much dancing and the music was great. As well as getting the chance to have a really good dance I also managed to pick up a copy of the tune book I haven't got and get it signed (be still my beating heart, this will take pride of place on my music stand!).


I've since found out there is to be a Blowzabella day next year in April, with dancing and playing workshops and also a competition for original compositions. The winner gets their tune recorded by the band!!! I think I may have to get scribbling (its really special to have my stuff played by Writings but by my favourite folk band that would really be something!). I have a feeling the standard of entries will be quite high, here is Andy Cutting (box player for the band) playing a composition by their hurdy gurdy player (and possibly man with the best name ever) Gregory Joliever.

And then there were 4...

So having mentioned the gig in Garsington it dawned on me that I had actually forgotten to mention that the number of musicians in Writings has actually doubled since our first gig in April. I was waiting till I had some decent practice shots or better than that some demos to post here but we've been so busy practicing there has been no time for photos.  Plus recording has been postponed till after Christmas because of an interesting possible development of which alas I am not yet permitted to speak of... Anyway the two nw members are my friend Emily (who I met while building a newt house post here) and Kevin who I used to play alongside in Stranger things happen at sea. As is so often the case with these things the whole process of expanding the band happened quite organically with people we already knew who had simular ideas about the kind of music they wanted to create, but I think Emily and Kevin will also bring their own ideas and style to the table as well. This weekend was our final practice before the Garsington Gig (we are playing quite a bit of the material which received its debut in April but all of it has had to be rearranged to make the most of the expanded line up (my favourite bit has to be when Emily takes one of my tunes on the cello, it just sounds beautiful). After a hard (timed) practice we had a bit of a relax and as it was all lovely and autumnal outside it was decided an updated band photo was in order so left to right Kevin (violin), Emily (cello), Chris (melodian, piano, everything), me (viola/violin/vocals) all stood outside Chris' house in Garsington (the reason I'm beaming is that Julia Chris' most excellent wife had just plied us with tea and cake, yum!) This one was eventually ruled too dark so the official photo is here and will hopefully be used to promote the band in all future endevours!