September already, adieu sweet Summer. That means, though, that it’s also time for another edition of Folk Tracks Roundup, our regular feature where we try to reduce the unused Track list feature nothing but the best in recent folk releases – whatever this folk thing is anyway.
We head out with a song from the album “It Was Also Sometimes Daylight” by Merlyn Driver. The album is out on October 10th, but ‘Onto Something‘ has been previewed as a first single and it reveals Driver to be in a contemplative mood, reflecting on change and wondering if the fruition of a concept is coming into his grasp. The album is very much connected to nature, and his upcoming tour kicks off at RSPB Dungeness on Sepetember 20th and then continues mostly through other reserves.
He was raised on a smallholding in Orkney without mains electricity, and Merlyn’s childhood was shaped by long hours spent outdoors – often to escape what could be a volatile home environment as he explains: “Some of my favourite early memories involve tracking and studying wildlife in the fields around my childhood home. I didn’t attend the local school until my early teens and was able to spend a lot of time outdoors. Once the dark winter months set in though, my siblings and I had to make our own fun inside. One of my earliest musical memories involves us creating a homemade tape of surreal songs and imaginary sounds, including ‘a typewriter in depression’… We discovered that by simultaneously pressing ‘Record’ while holding the Pause button halfway down, we could change the recording speed and distort our voices.”
There’s at least a name nature link to our next choice – Hilary Hawke is an accomplished bluegrass banjo player – but has recorded in a wide range of styles including her “Open the Doors” release which was a a neo-classical collaboration with pianist/synthesist duo Ola & Claude Aldous. Hawke’s current live project features a powerhouse trio, rounded out by celebrated guitarist Ross Martin and rising fiddle innovator Camille (Camie) Howes. ‘It’s All I’ve Ever Known‘ is taken from their new release “Lift Up This Old World” which is a blend of bluegrass and old-timey compositions. As Hilary Hawke says: “I stopped trying to fit into a box. Instead, I just followed the music I could hear in my head and feel in my hands.” That is, of course, the approved Bela Fleck approach so there’s a definite career path there.
It looks as if “nature” just might be this month’s theme as Colin Manson tells us that his finger-picked guitar folk is inspired by the rhythms of the sea that he heard growing up on the rugged West coast of Scotland. His debut EP “Wayfinding” reflects this, nowhere more so than on ‘The Water.’ The EP gathers together four singles that Manson has previously released to make for a beautifully balanced collection.
On the other hand, maybe the theme is bluegrass – because that’s the music that Newcastle’s The Often Herd play. ‘Remember My Name‘ is their second single of 2025, and was inspired by a trip to La Roche Bluegrass Festival in the French Alps. Mandolinist Evan Davies wrote this song of a fleeting connection between two people after the group’s first voyage to the festival. The rush of a holiday romance is tinged with the poignancy of coming to an inevitable end.
The Often Herd are songwriters Rupert Hughes (guitar) and Evan Davies (mandolin), write songs steeped in personal supported by American-born fiddler Niles Krieger and jazz bassist Sam Quintana.
Nope – it’s definitely nature, and in particular the RSPB. How unexpected. Nonetheless, there’s no denying that Alice Boyd‘s delicate ‘Return Of The White-Tailed Eagle‘ is a thing of some delicate beauty. It has been created in collaboration with the RSPB (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds), to mark the 50th anniversary of the return of White-tailed Eagles to the UK. Our largest bird of prey, the species had previously been driven to extinction by persecution and habitat loss. It’s hardly Boyd’s first piece to be influenced by nature and the world of conservation – Alice has served as the Eden Project’s Artist in Residence (using the process of biosonification to capture electric currents from plants, and transform them into sound), and was also hand-picked for the Following Nan Project, during which she hiked in Nan Shephard’s footsteps across The Cairngorms, assimilating her field recordings into the EP “Cloud Walking.”
And finally a classic song, and this one’s both in keeping with our finally decided upon theme and is also driven by the reflection that of the paltry 8% of open land in the UK that is designated as Open Access Land there are still 2,700 hectares which is surrounded by private land with no legal means of access. That is, one might submit, the very definition of taking the piss and – presumably – is something a government with 411 of the available 650 seats could address in a slow Friday afternoon with a simple increase of access land, or giving local communities the power to request new permanent footpaths. The road network is constantly evolving – the footpath network not so much. Two ideas, Keir, you can ‘ave ’em for free. With that thought in mind, Ewan McColl‘s ‘The Manchester Rambler‘.
