Tonight, Temples were Mercury. They were quicksilver. Tonight, Temples were gender-fluid, genre-fluid, generation-fluid. Tonight, Temples were 60s psych and 80s glisten, they were disco, they were mod, they were blokey chat and ethereal voices, they were heavy as hell and sunlight soft, they were drop-dead cool and not cool at all, they were everything toContinue reading “Temples – The Fleece – September”
Author Archives: tallfolk
Tommy Prine – The Louisiana – August
Tommy Prine is on a journey. Not just the one that has taken him from his Nashville home, around the UK, and into Bristol. This journey is a little more profound. Tommy Prine is a man trying to work out who he is. His biography is easy to find but that’s only a part ofContinue reading “Tommy Prine – The Louisiana – August”
Jake Xerxes Fussell – Strange Brew – August
There are days when you just need the world to stop. To cease the endless whirring, the endless babble. There are days when you need to find a sanctuary, a small hideaway, somewhere to be still and quiet. There are days when you need, really need, Jake Xerxes Fussell. Fussell is from North Carolina, heContinue reading “Jake Xerxes Fussell – Strange Brew – August”
Karen Jonas – Hen & Chicken, Bristol – August
Towards the end of her brilliant set in Bristol, Virginia resident Karen Jonas sings an astonishing version of the Gordon Lightfoot classic If You Could Read My Mind. It is hushed and heartbreaking, vulnerable but with just enough warmth to reassure. It is flecked with nostalgia, is wordy, intelligent and opens up your heart withContinue reading “Karen Jonas – Hen & Chicken, Bristol – August”
The Endless Coloured Ways – The Songs of Nick Drake
Sometimes you need to re-evaluate. Sometimes you need to wonder whether those music snobs, the geeks, the nerds, are right. Sometimes you need to question the orthodoxies. Is it really true that The Byrds are better than The Beatles? Is it really true that Martin Carthy is the most important singer of the twentieth century?Continue reading “The Endless Coloured Ways – The Songs of Nick Drake”
Milkweed – The Mound People
There should be a name for that sensation when, as a child, you nagged away at a loose tooth no matter how much it hurt. When you welcomed the pain. When the discomfort was addictive. If there were a name for such a thing you would be able to attach it to this cassette/download onlyContinue reading “Milkweed – The Mound People”
Morvran – EP
It’s amazing quite how transportive four tracks of beautiful instrumental music can be, really. Plymouth’s Morvran take two instruments – a bouzouki and a violin – and use them to fashion a Celtic-powered vehicle, one that’s able to convey the listeners from the bottom of the British Isles, via France, then right to the topContinue reading “Morvran – EP”
Jim Ghedi & Toby Hay – Jim Ghedi & Toby Hay
There are times, when writing about English folk music, that it’s difficult not to reach for the clichés. Difficult not to dutifully witter on about birdsong, things that swoop and soar, music that looks back to the old whilst looking forward. It’s difficult not wax poetic about every squeak of a string, every hushed pause. Continue reading “Jim Ghedi & Toby Hay – Jim Ghedi & Toby Hay”
Cinderwell – Cadence
Even as the sunshine attempts to peek out from the Springtime clouds, there is still a chill in the air, there is still darkness in the light. If there is a perfect time to listen to Cinderwell’s third album then late April/early May is surely it. Amelia Baker’s experimental folk project is a thing ofContinue reading “Cinderwell – Cadence”
The Langan Band – Plights O’ Sheep
Is there anything more tedious than the cliché, “good things come to those who wait”? Is it just an excuse to sit on your hands? A charter for the meek? Maybe, but it is also, in the case of the new album from Scottish whirlwind The Langan Band, very true indeed. Ten years on fromContinue reading “The Langan Band – Plights O’ Sheep”
TallFolk 