We’re heading towards the Summer now, May Day falls this week, and the obvious thing would be to offer you, valued reader, a swathe of music that touches on those themes of rebirth and the explosion of vitality in the natural world. But we won’t be doing that, because that is not what is in the minds of those folk artists we’ve been hearing from recently.
Natalie Wildgoose has a new release, the Rural Hours EP, which has Sibyl as the current featured track; it’s a frail and delicate song recorded in Wildgoose’s usual way, in an out-of-the-way setting with as little influence from the modern world as possible. For Sibyl Natalie Wildgoose took Chris Brain (with whom she collaborates regularly) and Owen Spafford to a remote bothy high up in an isolated part of the Yorkshire Dales, two hours’ walk from the nearest village and without heating or electricity. Playing by candlelight, the result is like some ancient song that has somehow tumbled through time to be recorded to tape.
Natalie Wildgoose has festival and concert appearances coming up in the next month:
14 MAY The Great Escape
19 MAY London, Stoke Newington Old Church [Headline]
22 MAY London, MOTH Club (supporting Chris Brain)
23 MAY Andover, Late Spring Folk Festival
24 JUL Latitude Festival
26 JUL Deer Shed Festival
In complete contrast, the massed sounds of the Irish Concertina Orchestra bring more than a classical tinge to their latest single Lovely Anne. Bringing together 30 of Ireland’s finest young concertina players from across the country, the Irish Concertina Orchestra has spent the past year developing an ambitious programme of newly commissioned works, original compositions, and innovative arrangements.
Lovely Anne was given a fresh and evocative interpretation by singer Piaras Ó Lorcáin. He says of the performance: “I was delighted when Pádraig Rynne approached me with the idea of performing as a special guest with the Irish Concertina Orchestra, NOTIFY, Cormac McCarthy and the MGCE Concert Orchestra as part of their concert in Glór in May 2025. I first heard the song Lovely Anne recorded by Cathal O’Neill on his album Inherited, and later came across versions sung by Len Graham and Cathal McConnell. The song has been collected in Fermanagh, though the author remains unknown. It was wonderful to see the song grow into such a large-scale arrangement through Cormac McCarthy’s orchestration, and it was given great care and attention in its performance by both NOTIFY as the house band and the Irish Concertina Orchestra.”
On Saturday 23 May at 7:30pm, the Irish Concertina Orchestra will present a night of contemporary tradition, extraordinary musicianship, and inspiring young talent, live on stage at glór, a thriving arts centre in Ennis. They’ll be joined by special guests NOTIFY, Caitlín Nic Gabhann, Ernestine Healy, Sárán Mulligan, and Séamus & Caoimhe Uí Fhlatharta. The event is led by musical director Pádraig Rynne, and supported by MGCE musician educators Conor O’Loughlin, Karen McMahon, and Méabh Holland.
Omie Wise is the new single from Jim Moray, taken from the new album Gallants, and although it is a tender ballad, it also sits within a full band folk-rock setting. Gallants marks twenty-five years of recording music that has, for many, set Jim Moray as an heir to the likes of Fairport Convention in blending traditional song with modern instrumentation. On Gallants as well as playing most of the instruments, he collaborates with diatonic accordionist Archie Churchill-Moss, drummer Matt Stockham Brown, violinist and violist David Le Page, cellist Clare O’Connell, Northumbrian piper Andy May, and singer Maddie Morris. The closing track Fortune Turns The Wheel features rich choral harmonies from members of Trans Voices, bringing the album to a powerful and moving conclusion.
If you’re looking for a band that can add a shot of urgency into their music, then look no further than Goblin Band, who make a raucous sound on Clyde Water, that drives forward this traditional tale of lovers kept apart by cruel mothers, and a river too deep to ask a horse to cross twice in the same night. Goblin band revel in a form of folk that affirms life, and sounds like it should be sung along to rather than revered (there’s a place for reverence, of course, but not all the time) and they like to celebrate significant events of the year, such as a solstice or, this Friday, May Day – they’ll be playing a gig at EartH in London along with Jim Ghedi, Jennifer Reid, Owen Spafford, and Belles of London City.
Showing that folk is not constrained to just its original settings, Unfortunate Rake is a cautionary tale that originated as a ballad from 1700s England and Ireland, and has since evolved through many versions, told from different perspectives and exploring vices like drinking, gambling, and prostitution. On this version by Californian Food For The Wyrm (also known as Beau James Wilding), the main focus is on the corrupting influence of overindulgence in alcohol. Wilding notes of the song that “We are often both sides of the same coin at the same time at certain points in our lives, and the song seems to speak to the frustration and confusion of feeling in the middle of these two warring sides.”
Food for the Wyrm’s upcoming debut album, A Wicked Huntsman, was recorded live at Analogue Catalogue Studios in Ireland while the artist was on tour.
And so we come to the end of a really mixed bag of influences and approaches to folk: diversity, we love it. Incidentally, we’ve noticed that our well of Welsh folk has pretty much dried up in recent months, which is a bit strange. But there’s still time for a final Classic Folk Track, and actually it’s a double, as depending upon the mood, sometimes June Tabor‘s version of Finisterre from the album Ashore really hits the spot, it’s sad and slow. And sometimes it’s the version she recorded with The Oysterband that seems the right sound for happening now people. Why choose? Have both.
