When folk became fashionable...

It was fairly clear a year ago that 2009 was going to see a resurgence in electro-pop and electronica in general and so it has proved. A rather different genre, which has been chipping away at public indifference for several years, also made huge strides in 2009. Folk/roots and its associated acoustic palette, whether modern or traditional, had long been seen in the UK at least as predominantly the preserve of middle-aged males drinking ale in the local pub.

It became very clear that something had changed: turn on BBC Radio 1 and one can often be forgiven for thinking your tuner has changed to the traditional end of BBC Radio 2 territory and that impression could only be reinforced at many of this summer's festivals.
These are young, talented performers playing a vast range of acoustic instruments and appealing to a young audience as well as the traditional one. Last year Laura Marling, signed to EMI, blazed the trail and seems to have been touring non-stop ever since.
I have mentioned quite a few acts already, as I have always had a soft spot for such music and Bellowhead, touring 2008 album Matachin, is indubitably one of the finest of the hundred-plus live artists of all genres that I have seen this year.

Here are a few more albums/artists to consider, not all of which I have heard yet. I'll start with the latest album by the artist who has possibly done the most to promote this trend over the last decade or so...

Sweet Bells - Kate Rusby (2009, Pure Records)

One new band that seems to have found favour in influential circles is the one that, on hearing them repeatedly on BBC Radio 1, made me realize that things had really changed and that I have probably seen more banjos deployed in 2009 than since forever... In the BBC Radio 1 'Live Lounge' sessions it is expected that the band will perform a cover version: Calvin Harris' - I'm Not Alone and it was as truly amazing as it was a surprising choice.

Sigh No More - Mumford & Sons (2009, Island/Universal)

I have mentioned the eleven-piece Bellowhead already but very recently the sole female member thereof has just released her début solo project.

No Man's Fool - Rachael McShane (2009, Navigator Records)

Many of these albums comprise a mixture of interpretations of traditional songs and completely new ones and this, the second album from Derbyshire singer, songwriter and fiddle player Bella Hardy, is no exception.

In The Shadow of Mountains - Bella Hardy (2009, Noe Records)

And finally, for now...

Here's The Tender Coming - The Unthanks (2009, Rough Trade/Beggars)

They may have changed the artist act name to 'The Unthanks' but it is still the same sisters and this album also includes traditional material, including the title track that also appears on 'The High Level Ranters' album 'Ranting Lads' that I have already mentioned.

Where does that leave us? Well, I'd like to think that it bodes very well for 2010. The raised profile and popularity of the whole genre is likely to inspire others contemplating similar forays in acoustic music and that can hardly be a bad thing.

This post focusses entirely on UK artists but that is not to say that there aren't others working in similar territory and equally deserving of a mention. I have seen several of them live in 2009 and mentioned some already but a fuller retrospective should follow soon. It should bode well for the 2010 festival season, particularly those such as Green Man Festival, EOTR 2010 and The Cambridge Folk Festival.

Little Lights

The 'Kate Rusby' poster has been in the side-bar here for some weeks now and here is why.
Pop is back in fashion, as is live music of all kinds, but perhaps the most surprising rise is that of folk music albeit in myriad disguises. In some cases ( KT Tunstall, Amy Macdonald, Sons and Daughters and many others) it is merely one influence amongst many but still an important one.
They are also all artists from Scotland but English folk certainly hasn't been left behind and its rise is in great measure due to Kate Rusby.

She was formerly associated with both The Poozies and The Battlefield Band but it is as a solo artist she has really made things happen. She has recently released her sixth solo album in barely ten years and all are released on her own label Pure Records. They are all very good albums but if I had to name one that really made a difference it would have to be Little Lights (2001). This was, at least to me, the one on which her original compositions came to at least equal the wonderful versions of traditional folk songs that accompany them and, needless to say she ran away with the BBC Radio 2 Folk Award for best new song.

The new compositions on this album alone include I Courted a Sailor, William and Davy, Who Will Sing Me Lullabies? and My Young Man this last being about her grandfather who was a coal miner in Barnsley. They are all new songs rooted firmly in old tradition; this is what I need to say to explain how she differs from (for want of a better phrase) nu-folk artists, and here I have Laura Marling (artist and lyrics) in mind, but equally it applies to many others. There is nothing even slightly wrong with the traditional tracks on here and, just to add some more icing, there is a fantastic cover of Richard Thompson's Withered and Died.
If you haven't heard anything by Kate Rusby before then this is probably a good place to start; if you are wondering what modern English folk is about then this is a splendid introduction to it. If you wonder what it might be like performed live then you can also get a taste of that without leaving home.

The DVD is Kate Rusby - livefromleeds, recorded at Leeds City Hall and released in 2004.
This image, which I scanned just now, is sadly rather lacking in detail. I'll try and do better soon but for now I'll say it is readily available from amazon.co.uk (£8.98, approximately €13, US $20) but in the US you might need a multi-region DVD player with a PAL/NTSC converter. I'm not sure if is available as yet in NTSC/DVD Region 1 format; it might be but I thought I'd mention the possible pitfalls just in case. I'll try and review all her other albums quite soon, including Underneath The Stars (2003) and The Girl Who Couldn't Fly (2005), but the latest is this...

...Awkward Annie (2007).

Note added 12 April 2008:
The bad news is that this album has not yet had a proper US release. The good news is that is that will have one on 04/15/2008 so you now don't have to wait much longer to hear how good it is!