Well, it’s still July so as we head into the depth of Folk Festival season – Cambridge just behind us, Sidmouth on the horizon as well as the (admittedly unverified) approximately 139 or so other folk festivals which will occur over the next couple of months – there’s just time for a quick roundup of Folk Tracks to set the mood for whatever kind of session – or none – that you may be heading for.
‘Lodestone‘, the new single from Ian Roland, is a pastoral English song inspired by church bells in a Sussex village which speaks of a gentle sense of community and captures an instant of tranquility. Ian Roland says of the song: “The sound of church bells rolling across the South Downs on a Sunday morning transcends the restrictive, the prescriptive, the contained, and allows our hearts to beat free for a moment.”
By contrast, Ian North‘s ‘Tumbledown‘ reflects on non-tranquil moments – with the song title reflecting on both the physical status of a house live in, and a similar mental chaos. Canadian Ian North’s song is taken from his third album ‘Everything is Incomplete’ which is released on August 4th. It was recorded during North’s year-long stint in rehabilitation after suffering from a double-lung pulmonary embolism, which caused his heart to stop three times over a two-hour period. Thanks to the heroic efforts of emergency medical staff, North survived a week-long coma and a month’s worth of medical morphine-induced hallucinations. ‘Everything is Incomplete’ completes one thing, his wife’s wish that he would make another album, and her undying-love promise that she’d help him accomplish that.
Taking us fully up tempo, Blue Highway bring us some reflections on driving alone, heartbreak and, naturally, the occasional shot of whiskey. It’s Bluegrass with a broken heart. ‘Lonesome State of Mind’ is the title track of the band’s latest – and 15th – album release. ‘Lonesome State of Mind,‘ was named the most played song in bluegrass music in 2023 by Bluegrass Today, once you have heard it, it is easy to see why. Catchy would be the nutshell description. The song was written by Tim Stafford and Bobby Starnes and originally released in December 2022 on Rounder Records.
Taking us to a somewhat more sombre place, ‘Rockingham‘ is a richly moody and atmospheric instrumental from ‘Beehive Cathedral‘ the latest album by Joseph Decosimo, Luke Richardson, and Cleek Schrey which was released at the end of June. This particular tune is from ‘Southern Harmony‘, published by William Walker in Spartanburg, South Carolina in 1835, performed by Cleek Schrey on an Estey field organ built in the 1890s.
And then moving right up to date, ‘The Fold‘ is a full on folk-rock composition from Noah Solt‘s debut album ‘Big Water‘ which was inspired by the decision to drop out of Berklee College of Music and become a full-time professional sailor. Quite a change of position for the singer-songwriter who was raised in the landlocked Colorado Rocky Mountains. Not surprisingly Noah Solt found that the Ocean was a source of considerable inspiration for his music.
One final thought before we head off until August (and probably not as soon as tomorrow). A frequent request in our emails is for a Classic Folk track – “hey, Americana UK, how come you don’t have a classic folk track feature, huh? What gives, man?” And whilst we can certainly sympathise with the thought, it is probably worth pointing out that the clue is in the name – Americana UK. We can’t do folk all the time, if you can dig that. But – who’s up for a compromise? How about a classic track at the end of the roundup? That could work, right? Right! Cool. Our inaugural offering is another sea inspired song – Ewan McColl‘s take on ‘The Dreadnaught‘…a suitable choice for Americana UK, since it tells of the glories of the fleet Liverpool Packet: “the Dreadnaught’s the flyer that out sails them all.”
