
Welcome to the first edition of Folk Roundup for 2025 – with a variety of bands and singers to feature with a strong British folk showing, and a sub-text of Welsh singer-songwriters, albeit with not a lot of Welsh language folk this time. There’s some fine dance music, and a lot of excellent fiddle tunes to come so let’s get right to it.
Club Débris have released their debut album ‘Ricochet’ which features eleven instrumental tracks of Quebecois dance music. An odd choice for a London-based five-piece band made up of English and Scottish players – but it’s lively and engaging music, easy to listen to and, with the percussive feet of Jess Collins, easy to imagine as the soundtrack to a lively ceilidh. Reels, marches and polkas are the order of the day and the playing is spirited to say the least – to suggest that it is not subtle is no insult. Here’s music that says “dance!” and backs up its clarion call with music that is bold, lively, insistent and frankly totally unwilling to take prisoners in its single minded pursuit of having a good time, all of the time. It’s quite amusing that the final track on the album ‘Reel du Combat‘ is listed as being “live” when the whole album sounds like someone snuck a recording desk into the local ceilidh to record the best band that had passed through in many a long day. And with the percussive dance of Jess Collins a key part of the band’s sound it’s hard to avoid a bit of head nodding and foot tapping whilst listening. (7/10)
Now we come to the review where I know I’m differing from the mainstream – The Rheingans Sisters‘ album ‘Start Close In‘ has had some excellent reviews in recent months, and there’s no denying that it is well played and well sung. It’s quite an artistic statement of an album – raising songs to higher levels than perhaps they usually are treated, and with other songs song in French and blended with a playing that borders on the classical in places. Not that “art folk” is necessarily a bad thing but it makes for a definite statement above the mere qualities of great singing and playing. There is a debate to be had about the album opener ‘The Devil and the Farmer’s Wife‘ as to whether it is a proto-feminist anthem or an example of a pretty poor joke wrapped up in a song: The Devil comes for a member of a farmer’s family and he’s distraught until he finds out it is his wife that is to be taken – then he couldn’t be happier. The Devil soon finds out why – she’s such a pain to live with that she can’t be tortured in Hell, quite the reverse she drives the imps and fiends up the wall. “Hilarity” ensues as the Devil tries to return her…the feminist reading is that she’s a strong independent woman who cannot be ground down – the lyrical reading suggests she’s someone who is just too awful to live with, a prototype for centuries of Mother-In-Law jokes. We’re on much safer ground with the instrumental pieces such as ‘Livet Behöver Inga Droge‘ which has a spine-tingling live feel that seems to tap into something eerie and primal, whilst ‘March à la Cabrette‘ is beautifully sombre. Rowan Rheingans song ‘Drink Up‘ is a rollicking drift through a drunken night – it sounds a little like Eliza Carthy in general feel and does contain a wonderful lists of distractions: “Everyone’s cute / Everyone’s lonely / Everyone’s swearing that mornings used to be easy, / Everyone’s tumbling in from the rain / Everyone’s off to see Dylan again / Clouds, everyone’s rushing around / The idiot rain is heavy / Everyone’s cold ‘cos they’re wearing the wrong thing / Everyone’s smoking just to feel warm again.” An album that has great moments, but perhaps not the unshakable masterpiece it has been billed as. (6/10).
Susy Wall‘s debut album ‘The Spaces In Between‘ follows on from a couple of EPs from the Welsh relocated to Birmingham singer that were released in 2023. It mostly features modern folk singer-songwriter with somewhat of a pop style – there are observations on the commonality of human experiences with a large slice of interest focussed on love and relationships. The love and pop vibe appears most strongly on the sweet confection ‘Dragonflies‘ which is a tale of a burgeoning love between strangers who become familiar with each other on the same daily tube journey. Susy Wall also draws on natural imagery – and whilst still a love song ‘Shortest Day‘ pleases with its slower pace and more stripped back instrumentation. The atmospheric ‘Fallingwater‘ is ushered in on a sparse piano and a recording of rain fall, and develops into a series of gentle reflections with something of an Eighties indie-pop feel to it. In places a strong, if not a knockout, debut. (5/10)
‘Summer Sun, Winter Trees‘ is the debut release from another Welsh folk singer – Eve Goodman. Raised in North Wales, Eve is bilingual, and there is one Welsh language song (‘Pellter‘) amongst the English songs. Perhaps unexpectedly there is a strong modern American rock and folk feel to the album, ‘Alive‘ is reminscent of a slowed down Stephen Stills melody, whilst the combination of guitar on ‘Burn’ brings Suzanne Vega quickly to mind. The title track is a dreamy, hazy, love song whilst the ghostly ‘Pellter‘ is evocative even in a language one doesn’t understand. The imagery throughout weaves together carefully observed minute detail with moods explored through natural imagery of light and shade. Adding in that Eve Goodman has a lovely pure voice and sensibly keeps the accompaniment restrained throughout makes for a gentle, calm and satisfying album. (7/10)
The final album this month comes from Thorpe & Morrison, with their latest release ‘Grass & Granite‘. It’s the third album by the duo who emerged from the folk scene in Birmingham. Predominantly instrumentals, with a dynamic interplay between guitar and fiddle, and a mixture of traditional and newly written pieces. The new pieces draw on the duo’s original homes with the expansive ‘Big Skies & Water Meadows’ reflecting on guitarist Harry Thorpe’s Suffolk childhood whilst it is Sean Morrison’s background that inspire the album cover which features a house carved into the standing stones of Pobull Fhinn, North Uist where Sean’s grandfather is from. The combined playing is inspired and lively – but not abandoned. Indeed it can be slow and contemplative on the lovely ‘Put the Gown on the Bishop.’ There are vocals on three tracks, a cover of The Pogues ‘Rainy Night in Soho‘ which is somewhat of a tribute to Shane McGowan, a version of ‘The Girl I Left Behind Me‘ and with guest vocal from Michelle Holloway a slightly rapid version of the story of the female highwayman ‘Sovay.‘ (7/10)