Brit Folk

The Unthanks win best album at Folk Awards – BBC News

by

Folk duo The Unthanks win album of the year at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards, while Joan Armatrading receives a lifetime achievement prize.

The Unthanks have won album of the year at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards for the ambitious, melancholy Mount The Air.

The record, which received a host of five star reviews, is notable for its 10-minute title track, which marries a traditional Dorset folk song with Miles Davis-inspired trumpet figures.

The band closed the ceremony, at London’s Royal Albert Hall, by playing the song, complete with clog dancing.

Source: The Unthanks win best album at Folk Awards – BBC News

Ivor Cutler “A Saucer” and other poems

by

“John Peel has a show on Number One [Radio 1] on which he plays the latest gramophone records,” says Ivor Cutler “He put one of my records on, and a few days later there was a cloud of envelopes coming in. But some people like Cutler, and some people don’t. […] One man called in and said ‘Hey! Get rid of that guy! He’s driving me nuts and his voice is making my wife’s hair stand on end!'”

Scottish poet, humorist and songwriter Ivor Cutler performs his touching, absurd short poems in a gentle Scottish burr. He recorded a total of 21 Peel sessions between 1969 and 1991. ‘I gained a whole new audience thanks to Peel,’ said Cutler. ‘Much to the amazement of my older fans, who find themselves among 16-to-35s in theatres, and wonder where they come from.’ – Keeping It Peel

 

Bridget St John (Live) French Television 1970

by

By Johnny Foreigner

Here in the colonies, Bridget St John remains one of the more under-appreciated artists in the British Folk genre. Her voice is not as sweet as Sandy Denny’s, nor possessing the huskiness of latter-day Marianne Faithful, but combines a small scoop of each with a delicious melted Nico topping.
In England during the 1970s, she worked with Kevin Ayers, John Martyn and Mike Oldfield. Her first album, Ask Me No Questions was released in 1969, and during the early seventies, she shared Folk charts and BBC radio time with Sandy Denny, Nick Drake, Cat Stevens and Fairport Convention.

Born in Surrey, England, she lived periodically in London, Aix-en-Provence, France, eventually landing in Greenwich Village, New York, only to decide to take the next 20 years off from performing.

This small concert made for French television in 1970 is quite wonderful. Listen, and appreciate Bridget’s je ne sais quoi.