Review: Folk CDs of the year?

Subject: Review: Folk CDs of the year?
From: Colin Randall
Date: 22 Dec 08 - 04:31 AM

Just one view of course. But having voted for Eliza Carthy in the two critics' polls in which I was invited to part, I found myself making Cara Dillon's Hill of Thieves joint best album of 2008.

I might have done so for the sublime version of Spencer the Rover alone, but it really is a special album, much more traditional than I'd come to expect from her, with excellent contributions from the Lakeman brothers, including her husband. And I think her singing has acquired a little welcome grit.

My runners-up include Bellowhead, Leon Rosselson, Maddy Prior and Chris Foster - the full list is at
Salut! Live

Anyone else want to chip in with their nominations?

Subject: RE: Review: Folk CDs of the year?
From: Bryn Pugh
Date: 22 Dec 08 - 07:33 AM

Bellowhead, , and the Jim Moray with the 'rap' version of Lucy Wan.

Subject: RE: Review: Folk CDs of the year?
From: Dave Sutherland
Date: 22 Dec 08 - 08:02 AM

Since Cara Dillon's album isn't due for release until January I hadn't considered it for my top 5 of 2008 (not that it would have got in in the event).
The Nottingham Evening Post top 5 will not be published until Friday but it will include Brian Peters and Kerfuffle

Subject: RE: Review: Folk CDs of the year?
From: Mick Walker
Date: 22 Dec 08 - 08:26 AM

I agree that the Cara Dillon album is superb but it has a 2009 release date. I bought a copy at her Nottingham gig in November and think it's her best to date.

I add another vote for Kerfuffle 'To the Ground'
also Ruth Notman 'Threads'
and Karine Polwort 'This Earthly Spell'

Subject: RE: Review: Folk CDs of the year?
From: bfdk
Date: 22 Dec 08 - 08:58 AM

The two best 'new buys' for me this year have been:

Martyn Wyndham-Read 'Jackeroo' and
Wongawilli 'Australia Street'

Subject: RE: Review: Folk CDs of the year?
From: Folkiedave
Date: 22 Dec 08 - 09:09 AM

I didn't choose a record of the year - Bellowhead of course - I especially liked Mark Dunlop Islands of the Moon. But if there had to be one or two then Brian Peter's and Kerfuffle would do it for me as well.

Subject: RE: Review: Folk CDs of the year?
From: matt milton
Date: 22 Dec 08 - 09:19 AM

My favourite folk album this year was "My Dearest Dear" by Michael Rossiter, who's a young guitarist from Yorkshire, playing very much in the Davy Graham school. It's an album of appalachian-tinged reworkings of traditional English and American ballads; largely solo fingerpicking guitar, but with mandolin and double-bass guesting on some tracks.

It takes a while to sink in – but when it does you notice that there are some astonishingly subtle melodies in there. Anyone who likes Martin Simpson will dig it. And it's only a fiver. I've set to see any mention of him in the folk press, and he really deserves it. Some of his songs can be heard at:
www.myspace.com/michaelrossiter

Subject: RE: Review: Folk CDs of the year?
From: matt milton
Date: 22 Dec 08 - 09:22 AM

"I've set to see" should obviously be "I've yet to see" of course...

Subject: RE: Review: Folk CDs of the year?
From: GUEST
Date: 22 Dec 08 - 09:38 AM

Yes, I have just seen the press release for Cara and Mick and DaveS are quite right about the release date. The offical one, that is. It perhaps isn't surprising that someone who occasionally reviews albums should get one early, even if he lives in the Middle East, but has it not also been featured on radio, on Amazon, at Cara's website and elsewhere, including her "Nottingham gig in November"? Do release dates actually mean anything any more?
ps Brian Peters was v close to being in my top 10, but then I think it has been a pretty good year for folk (though I said the same thing last year and someone shot me down in flames!).

Subject: RE: Review: Folk CDs of the year?
From: Colin Randall
Date: 22 Dec 08 - 11:20 AM

That was me, as guest, though I am logged on in my own name

Subject: RE: Review: Folk CDs of the year?
From: SINSULL
Date: 22 Dec 08 - 11:37 AM

Kendall's latest.

Subject: RE: Review: Folk CDs of the year?
From: GUEST,bankley
Date: 22 Dec 08 - 06:06 PM

Bruce Murdoch    "Matters of the Heart"

Subject: RE: Review: Folk CDs of the year?
From: Bryn Pugh
Date: 23 Dec 08 - 05:01 AM

Oops ! Yes, "Matters of the Heart", too - a work of genius in my anything but humble opinion !

Subject: RE: Review: Folk CDs of the year?
From: theleveller
Date: 23 Dec 08 - 06:19 AM

What a brilliant year it's been for new releases - many more than I can afford to buy. Highlights have been Chris Wood's 'Trespasser', McCusker, Drever and Woomble's 'Before the Ruin' and Brother Crow's 'Hollow Hills' - although I'm hoping Santa might bring me offerings from Reg Meuross, Tom Bliss, Richard Grainger and Dougie Mclean (some new, some old).

Subject: RE: Review: Folk CDs of the year?
From: Acorn4
Date: 23 Dec 08 - 07:24 AM

Steve Tilston -Ziggurat - if we can count it as folk.

Subject: RE: Review: Folk CDs of the year?
From: Colin Randall
Date: 24 Dec 08 - 06:32 AM

Come on DaveS. The people of Nottingham will quickly forgive you for spilling the beans early - who else, with Kerfuffle and Brian Peters, in your top five? You could compromise and give them in random order.

Subject: RE: Review: Folk CDs of the year?
From: Dave Sutherland
Date: 24 Dec 08 - 07:25 AM

Only if Forest beat Doncaster on Boxing Day

Jack Crawford "Pride of the Season"

Tom McConville "Tommy on Song"

Brian Peters "Songs of Trial and Triumph"

Sarah Matthews and Doug Eunson "On Shining Wings"

Kerfuffle "To The Ground"

(random order)

Subject: RE: Review: Folk CDs of the year?
From: Colin Randall
Date: 24 Dec 08 - 07:35 AM

Throw in three points for Sunderland at home to Blackburn and you're on (though Tom McConville, as a presumed Mag, may object).....

Subject: RE: Review: Folk CDs of the year?
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 24 Dec 08 - 07:41 AM

which year would that be?

Subject: RE: Review: Folk CDs of the year?
From: Colin Randall
Date: 24 Dec 08 - 07:44 AM

WLD
There's a strong clue in the first line of the first message!

Subject: RE: Review: Folk CDs of the year?
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 24 Dec 08 - 08:44 AM

Its all relative I suppose.   When its next year, do we have to decide who made a major contribution because of the chronology of the situation. Some of the albums that influence me every day are seventy years old - and I bet most dudes never get round to hearing them ever.

cd of the year - its a bit anti folk music/pro music industry - isn't it?

if I were bruce Murdoch, I should be more than a bit disappointed. His album should have put him in a position of pre-eminence internationally. the craftmanship of the songs was not something you put together in mere year - try twenty years!(and the rest)

On the English trad front brian peters and john kelly's efforts deserve a mention. I think they would both smile grimly at the idea of being - flavour of the week. Both represent a breadth of vision that you don't walk out of primary school with.

On this side of the pond there are a few worthy efforts - No Fixed abode's long awaited studio album (two years in the making) never impinged on the consciousness of various BBC programmes (but then what does?) - so not enough people have really got to hear it. that in many ways symbolises the general mean spiritedness of the folk world - with all its vested interests and sycophantic in crowd.

still if it makes you puke - it leaves room for more christmas dinner.

Subject: RE: Review: Folk CDs of the year?
From: Azizi
Date: 24 Dec 08 - 11:22 PM

Speaking of Bruce Murdoch's songs, I don't know if he would consider them to be folk music.

But, regardless of their genre, I have faith that his songs-those we have heard and those we haven't yet heard- will in time reach a much wider audience.

It's my hope that Bruce and other creative people who are part of this online global community will keep on keepin on, and continue making good music.

Subject: RE: Review: Folk CDs of the year?
From: Mark Ross
Date: 24 Dec 08 - 11:33 PM

Rosalie Sorrels tribute to Utah Phillips STRANGERS IN ANOTHER COUNTRY.


Mark Ross

Subject: RE: Review: Folk CDs of the year?
From: GUEST,jaze
Date: 24 Dec 08 - 11:39 PM

Joan Baez- "Day After Tomorrow"- and nominated for a well deserved Grammy

Subject: RE: Review: Folk CDs of the year?
From: Art Thieme
Date: 25 Dec 08 - 12:05 AM

Subject: RE: Review: Folk CDs of the year?
From: WFDU - Ron Olesko
Date: 25 Dec 08 - 12:10 AM

Bill Hahn and myself will present our "favorites" on the show this Sunday 12/28 from 3 to 6pm ET. We hesitate to use the words "favorite" or "best of" since every CD is a unique work of art and comparisons aren't really fair and are arbitrary based on the taste of the listener.    What Bill and I do is choose recordings that touched us and are representative samplings of the "state of folk music" in 2008.   Hope you can tune in, it is fun to discuss!!

Subject: RE: Review: Folk CDs of the year?
From: Colin Randall
Date: 25 Dec 08 - 05:28 AM

Everyone knows that the word "best", in this context, means the one/s you like best. Of course it's subjective. But life would be duller if we were not allowed such self-indulgence.

Happy Christmas/Joyeux Noel to all at Mudcat!

Subject: RE: Review: Folk CDs of the year?
From: Dave Sutherland
Date: 29 Dec 08 - 11:20 AM

Just to set the record straight (fwiw) the Nottingham Evening Post Best of 2008 - Folk was:-

Albums:-
1 Brian Peters "Songs of Trial and Triumph"
2 Kerfuffle "To The Ground"
3 Jack Crawford "Pride of the Season"
4 Sarah Matthews and Doug Eunson "On Shining Wings"
5 Tom McConville "Tommy on Song"

Gigs:-
1 "The Writing on the Wall" Roy Bailey & Tony Benn - Loughborough Festival - March
2 Martyn Wyndham - Read - Grand Union Folk, Barrow on Soar - September
3 Martin Simpson - Nottingham Playhouse - January
4 Kerfuffle - Off The Tracks Spring Festival - May
5 Edward 11 - The Flowerpot, Derby - November

There wasn't a book section but Pete Wood's "Elliotts of Birtley" would have got it.

Al, I have been impressed with what I have seen of No Fixed Abode live but, like Colin says, we can only go with what we receive so suggest to them that they float the odd copy of their album(s)to their local papers for their perusal.

Colin, neither of us got our Chrstmas wish but we both got/will get new managers. At least I stayed to the bitter end on Friday and man was it bitter!!

Subject: RE: Review: Folk CDs of the year?
From: WFDU - Ron Olesko
Date: 29 Dec 08 - 11:30 AM

Here are my favorites, in no particular order:

Pete Seeger "At 89"
Various "The Imagined Village"
Kathy Mattea "Coal"
Kerfuffle "To the Ground"
Magpie "In This World: Looking Back, Moving Forward"
Two-Man Gentleman Band "Heavy Petting"
Lindsay Mac "Stop Thinking"
Joan Baez "Day After Tomorrow"
Red Molly "Love and Other Tragedies"
Jack Hardy & David Massengill, The Folk Brothers "Partners in Crime"

Links to the artists as well as my reasons behind choosing them can be found at my website: www.ronolesko.blogspot.com

Subject: RE: Review: Folk CDs of the year?
From: Rasener
Date: 29 Dec 08 - 11:39 AM

Her are 2 from Lincolnshire that I think deserve to be mentioned - both are very good. In no particular order

John Conolly The Grumpy Old Men of Old England

The Grumpy Old Men of England
Out With The Tide
Kiskadee
Smiling Stavros
Boars Head & Bell / Market Rasen Quickstep
Lincoln Castle
Coldbath Fields
Stone Walls & Cells
The Joly Tar
Sally Brown
Dow Dock
Sam The Squeeze-Box Man
The Crystal Stream
The Nobleman & The Serving-Maid / A Frog He Would A Wooing Go
Brave Admiral Storey
Charlie In The Meadow
Fiddlers' Green According To Les Barker
I Am Christmas
Return Of The Grumpy Old Men The Adventure Continues



Bill Whaley & Dave Fletcher

Acorn to Oak         BILDA 005

Acorns
Courteous Travellers
A New Song To Sing
Give Me Love, Give Me Life
The Maid With The Smile In Her Eyes
End Of The Day
Another Mountian To Climb
Time Like The Tides
Sweet Is The Melody
Bide-a-While
The Sergeant Said "Son"
Sing For Me
The Miracle Of Life
The Brambley Lane
Flowers For Antonio
Till The Day Of My Returning
The Bard

Subject: RE: Review: Folk CDs of the year?
From: Phil Edwards
Date: 29 Dec 08 - 06:39 PM

Eight or nine months ago I nominated John Kelly's self-produced album /Come all you wild young men/ as my CD of 2008. Eight or nine months later, I don't think I need to revise that opinion. I don't agree with WLD about many things, but this is one of them - John Kelly's one of the finest interpreters of traditional songs in Britain, and his CD deserved to be massively successful.

Subject: RE: Review: Folk CDs of the year?
From: BusyBee Paul
Date: 30 Dec 08 - 08:32 AM

Add another vote for Brother Crow's second CD, Hollow Hills.

Subject: RE: Review: Folk CDs of the year?
From: Colin Randall
Date: 31 Dec 08 - 04:45 PM

Lots of great stuff, so far unheard by me, has been mentioned here
and I'll be checking out a lot of it. Joan Baez, Bruce Murdoch and Tom McConville will be good for starters.

And since it is already 2009 where I am - the UAE - happy new year to friends, electronic pen pals and occasional sparring partners at Mudcat.

Colin


Salut! Live

Subject: RE: Review: Folk CDs of the year?
From: Ref
Date: 31 Dec 08 - 06:45 PM

Just so nobody will feel like they've left Mudcat, may I be the first to say "That's NOT folk music!" My goodness, you're talking about singer/songwriters here!

Subject: RE: Review: Folk CDs of the year?
From: WFDU - Ron Olesko
Date: 31 Dec 08 - 07:06 PM

"My goodness, you're talking about singer/songwriters here! "

...and some damn good ones too, from the contemporary folk community!

Subject: RE: Review: Folk CDs of the year?
From: Ref
Date: 01 Jan 09 - 01:17 PM

And I love hearing them! Let diversity reign.

Subject: RE: Review: Folk CDs of the year?
From: Lizzie Cornish 1
Date: 02 Jan 09 - 03:27 PM

I'm with many of the posters above on this one..


Bruce Murdoch's 'Matters of the Heart' CD, is '*The* CD of The Year' regardless of genre.

Bruce's Myspace Page



Diveristy? Wonderful stuff, Ref!

Singer Songwriters? - Even better!

:0)

Subject: RE: Review: Folk CDs of the year?
From: peregrina
Date: 02 Jan 09 - 03:35 PM

If you haven't yet heard Tommy on Song you are in for a treat.

The last track on the CD, 'Fiddle Farewell' (a song by Archie Fisher written from the point of view of an old Cape Breton Fiddler ready to put away his fiddle--but not quite; the song leads into a beautiful Jerry Holland Tune) is sublime, poignant, moving... Definitely my track of the year.

Subject: RE: Review: Folk CDs of the year?
From: Jean(eanjay)
Date: 02 Jan 09 - 03:39 PM

I bought some great CDs in 2008 but my nomination for 'best album of 2008' definitely goes to "Matters of the Heart"; it is absolutely brilliant.

Subject: RE: Review: Folk CDs of the year?
From: GUEST,Shimrod
Date: 02 Jan 09 - 03:46 PM

I didn't buy any folk CDs in 2008. I wonder why not?

Subject: RE: Review: Folk CDs of the year?
From: Goose Gander
Date: 02 Jan 09 - 04:08 PM

Elizabeth Laprelle - 'Lizard in the Spring' CD (Old 97)

Subject: RE: Review: Folk CDs of the year?
From: GUEST,Spleen Cringe
Date: 03 Jan 09 - 06:59 AM

Whether it's a folk CD is open to debate, but one one of my albums of the year has to be 'Is It The Sea?' the stunning live album from Bonnie 'Prince' Billy with Harum Scarum and Alex Neilson. Worth the price of admission for his epic seven minute version of "Molly Bawn" alone.

As a newly inducted member of the i-pod generation, this year has more been about individual tracks and self-compiled playlists than yer actual albums. So special mention to:

Faustus - Ballina Whalers
The Owl Service and Alison O'Donnell - William & Earl Richard's Daughter
Pumajaw - The Burning of Auchindoun
Jackie Oates - Lark In the Morning
Mawkin Causley - Mariners
Crazy Man Michael - Winter Song

There are plenty of other songs I've enjoyed, but these'll do for a start...

Subject: RE: Review: Folk CDs of the year?
From: GUEST,Spleen Cringe
Date: 03 Jan 09 - 07:03 AM

Oh, and I'll have "All You Pretty Girls" and "Adam Ant" by Jim Moray, too...

Subject: RE: Review: Folk CDs of the year?
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 03 Jan 09 - 07:25 AM

Ramskyte - Flickering Light. Requested christmas prezzie from my sis in law Ros and her partner John (John was member of Ramskyte)

Graham & Eileen Pratt - To Friend and Foe (vinyl). Just because I needed to have it.

Folly Bridge - All in the Same Tune. Thank you EssexGirl for putting me onto this group.

Maddy Prior - Seven for Old Enlgand. Where has she been all my life?

Odetta - The Tin Angel. Quite possibly my favorite album of all time.