trad

Lankum wins RTÉ Choice Music Prize Album of the Year

~ THE HOBBLEDEHOY ~ Leave a comment
Lankum
RTÉ Award-winners Lankum

Folk music group Lankum has won the RTÉ Choice Music Prize Irish Album of the Year for their album False Lankum.

Folk music group Lankum has won the RTÉ Choice Music Prize Irish Album of the Year for their album False Lankum.

The announcement was made by a former winner, Denise Chalia, at Vicar Street in Dublin tonight.

Hosted by Tracy Clifford, the event featured performances from eight of the ten nominated artists and was broadcast live on RTÉ 2FM.

The win caps a remarkable twelve months for Lankum, who previously won the Album Of The Year prize in 2019 for The Live Long Day. In February, False Lankum won the Best Folk Album prize at this RTÉ Irish Folk Awards; the record was also shortlisted for the UK’s Mercury Prize.

Chosen by a panel of 11 Irish music media professionals and industry experts, the band received an award, and a cheque for €10,000, provided by the Irish Music Rights Organisation (IMRO) and the Irish Recorded Music Association (IRMA).

Dance-pop singer Jazzy was named Irish Artist of the Year and Irish Breakthrough Artist of the Year at tonight’s event.

CMAT, Cian Ducrot, Hozier and Lankum were the other nominees in the artist of the year category.

The other nominees in the breakthrough category were John Francis Flynn, ØXN, The Scratch and 49th & Main.

The Classic Irish Album prize, for U2’s Achtung Baby, was presented by Dave Fanning, with Adam Clayton and The Edge accepting the award in a recorded message from Las Vegas, where the band have been in residency at state-of-the-art live venue The Sphere, performing Achtung Baby in its entirity.

The cover of U2’s Achtung Baby, named Classic Irish Album

Earlier, Cian Ducrot’s song Heaven was chosen as RTÉ Choice Music Prize Irish Song of The Year, as selected from a shortlist of ten by public vote on the RTÉ 2FM and Choice Music Prize websites.

Highlights of the Choice Music Prize event will be broadcast on RTÉ2 television next Thursday at 10.30pm.

Source: Lankum wins RTÉ Choice Music Prize Album of the Year

The 10 best folk albums of 2023

~ THE HOBBLEDEHOY ~ Leave a comment

Irish label Nyahh captured the sounds of rowdy pub backrooms, the Gentle Good reimagined folk songs from the National Library of Wales and a legend revisited her past

By Jude Rogers

10. Tamsin Elliott/Tarek Elazhary – So Far We Have Come

The maqams (melodic modes) of classical Arabic music meet with English folk flourishes in this exploratory project between Bristolian multi-instrumentalist Elliott and Egyptian oud player Elazhary. They bonded in Cairo before the pandemic and their musical connection feels affectingly deep. Sixteen tracks whirl between seductive elegies on an accordion (tuned to achieve microtonality), Playford dances, twitchy field recordings, and pastoral reveries. Accompanying players also add gorgeous touches, including singer Leila El Balouty on Palestinian song Amy Abu El Fanous (The Lantern Bearer) and Daniel Gouly’s interventions on clarinet. Read the full review

9. Hack-Poets Guild – Blackletter Garland

The tangling of the characterful voices of Marry Waterson (brilliantly continuing the legacy of her mother Lal) and Lisa Knapp (architect of 2017 modern folk classic, Till April Is Dead: A Garland of May) was always going to result in something special. Add Nathaniel Mann’s soft delivery and sound design and Gerry Diver’s quivery, cinematic production and this set of broadside ballads grows fresh, sturdy roots in the present day. Intriguing textures like the bed of plucked, bare strings on Cruel Mother and the spectral layering of voices on Laying the Ghost keep on surprising. Read the full review

8. Various artists – A Collection of Songs in the Traditional & Sean-Nós Style

An electrifying anthology of unfiltered contemporary traditional singing, captured in echoey kitchens and rowdy pub backrooms. Nyahh is one of Ireland’s most exciting small independent labels and this beautifully curated set reminds us of the many talented individuals that bubble up in local scenes who remain under-promoted. The many gorgeous performances include Michael Frank Ó Confhaola’s take on Róisín Dubh, his voice flitting and fluttering like a skittish bird, Thomas McCarthy’s clear storytelling and Nell Ní Chróinín’s joltingly warm Banks of Sullane. Read the full review

7. Brìghde Chaimbeul – Carry Them With Us

A collaboration with avant-garde saxophonist/multi-instrumentalist Colin Stetson, Chaimbeul’s second solo album sees her smallpipes blending bitingly but beautifully with his less muscular than usual but nonetheless magical playing. These arresting, hypnotic compositions explore folkloric tropes like the dark recesses of the childlike imagination and communication with birds. With dissonance often stuttering next to moments of deep beauty, this feels like an album both of its time and out of time.

6. John Francis Flynn – Look Over the Wall, See the Sky

An excitingly singular figure on the Irish music scene, Flynn departs from the ancient atmospheres of his 2021 debut, I Would Not Live Always, to embrace the essential weirdness and cross-genre potential of old songs. Harry Smith anthology staple Mole in the Ground becomes a propulsive, post-rock excursion, carrying shadows of the work of Will Oldham. The Seasons slumbers in a mood of spare, haunted jazz. Within a Mile of Dublin’s playful reel collapses surprisingly, and brilliantly, into anarchic fuzz. So many ideas bristle here.

John Francis Flynn
Anarchic … John Francis Flynn. Photograph: Steve Gullick

5. The Gentle Good – Galargan

Taking folk songs from the National Library of Wales, Gareth Bonello’s genius is to create a deceptively simple soundworld spanning various shades of the blues. He gives these Welsh-language songs Sandy Denny-like moods of dimly lit, humane clarity: dressing them gently with beautiful arrangements on the guitar, piano and cello, his singing voice is precise yet gentle. This album lands like an evergreen classic. Read the full review

Continue reading →

Young folk musicians you have to hear, 2023

~ THE HOBBLEDEHOY ~ Leave a comment

From tradfolk to psychfolk, from huge ensembles to solo small-pipes, we pick the best young folk musicians of 2023.

It’s a year since we wrote our inaugural article on up-and-coming young folkies, and several of the class of ’22 have already headed on to great things. This year, Frankie Archer lit up Later With Jools Holland, Louis Campbell played to a packed Southbank Centre, Sam Baxter was one of the undisputed highlights of this year’s FolkEast, and you can’t move at folk festivals without stumbling across a Maddie Morris or Granny’s Attic set.

So, who has caught our attention this year? We asked some of the more established folk musicians and writers in our little black book, took a look through our own notes, and then came up with a long list. Over a series of occasionally heated Whatsapp messages, we’ve managed to shave it down to the following selection, some of whom you will be familiar with, some of whom we reckon you’ll grow increasingly familiar with over the years to come.

Before we start, a word on the rules. Very simply, we were looking for musicians who are under 30 and who tend to engage, to some extent, with traditional music. We were also looking largely at the English tradition (with a couple of notable exceptions), simply because that’s where most of the judges work and tends to be the area of focus for the Tradfolk website.

So, without further ado, and in no particular order, here are the young folkies we think you ought to know about in 2023.

Ellie Gowers

A veritable folk powerhouse!

Jon Wilks

If it was anyone’s year, it was Ellie’s. Having established herself firmly on the scene in 2022 with her first full-length album, Dwelling by the Weir, she then went on to boss 2023’s festival circuit and release a significant follow-up single, ‘The Stars Are Ours’ (produced by TJ Allen of Portishead and Bat for Lashes fame). She’s also a key part of two prominent bands – The Magpies and Filkin’s Ensemble (scroll down for more on them) – and a patron of Warwick Folk Festival. All of this while still in her mid-20s. Her self-penned songs bring in elements of the traditional music she clearly loves, and when she’s not holding court on a stage somewhere, she’s dancing with Chinewrde Morris or playing fiddle in the nearest session. A veritable folk powerhouse! If we had a Young Folkie of the Year award, we’d be sorely tempted to award it to Ellie.

Ellie Gowers: Website | Instagram | Bandcamp

Cerys Hafana

“Cerys rips up the rule book and ruffles feathers as she goes.”

Owen Shiers

Predominantly known for her harp-playing skills, it was the spectral aesthetic permeating Cerys Hafana’s interpretation of ‘The Wife of Usher’s Well’ [Roud 196] that really caught our attention, demonstrating the musician’s abilities as both a songwriter and an original interpreter of traditional song. Explains Owain Shiers (Cynefin), “Since bursting onto the Welsh folk scene in 2021, Cerys Hafana has taken the triple harp world by storm, ripping up the rule book and ruffling feathers as she goes. She’s already released two albums and won Best Emerging Artist at the recent Welsh Folk Awards. One to watch.”

Cerys Hafana: Website | Instagram | Bandcamp

Continue reading →