Be Excellent To Each Other

The magic of spring sees the trees blossom, the bumblebees return, and folk artists crawl out of their hibernatory burrows with new albums full of goodness. Yes, I said folk. It's really rather good these days. If you like narrative lyrics, rather than Coldplay-esque pseudo meaningful bollocks, it's almost impossible to beat. On top of that you get genuine English voices free from cod-american accents, close party harmony, and the kind of genetic fitness you get from time-worn tunes which survived not by being written down, but purely by being memorable - this is survival of the catchiest.

In particular, the splendid, splendid Faustus will shortly be releasing their first album. Judging from the sample tunes on their MySpace (and a few released earlier), they're more than equal to Dr Faustus, from whose ashes they rose. Excellent rhythm, harmony and choice of tunes. Not to mention oboe.

I insist you listen to The New Deserter and Ballina Whalers

Next up, young folk veterans John Spiers and the marmite voiced Jon Boden have a new album coming up, celebrating vagabonds throughout history. Despite sounding like about four people, there are only two of them, and if you ever get the chance to see them live, do without fail.

I can recommend Captain Ward (old pirate ballad) for song and Beggar Boy for tuneage

Lastly, although it's neither springy or new, do listen to Down Among The Dead Men by The Devil's Interval, as it's bloody marvellous. This randomly came up on my iPod Shuffle the other day on my way back from the Doctor's after being told I didn't have lymphatic cancer (along with All We Have Is Now by the Flaming Lips).

My God

Listening to Faustus right now. Immense stuff. I love me some folk music, and country and bluesgrass as well. But I'll stick on the folk for this thread. I'm off to the Green Man festival in the Brecon Beacons this August 15th, and it's basically the best folk music fest going in my opinion. Been to six of them so far. Beautiful setting, lovely people, no littering and you're always stumbling across new bands. And yes, folk is the music of Spring and it does get me grinning helplessly.

I also agree that folk and folk-leaning indie groups are impossibly better lyric writers than Coldplay et al. They deal with specifics and tell stories and come up with characters and images and places in your mind. What do Travis do? Feature a meaningless mantra that would be getting you quite dizzy in reality. (Note: I'm not knocking indie. I love indie. Good indie. But there seems to be more good folk bands at the moment than good indie bands at the moment.)

My current favourite folksters are:

James Yorkston

http://www.myspace.com/jamesyorkston

Always good value live, James is a burly rugby playing type of fellow with an impossibly fine voice. Hi-jinks and crowd participation the order of his gigs. Look to 'I Spy Dogs' for a top giddy party song.

King Creosote

http://www.myspace.com/kingcreosote

Inexplicably always pronounced wrongly by me as King 'Cre-oh-teh', this is a bit more sombre but incredibly catchy all the same.

It's Jo & Danny/Yellow Moon Band

http://www.myspace.com/theyellowmoonband

They run the Green Man fest and created it. That gives 'em legendary status in my book. Plus I danced with Jo once after the second festival, we both a bit drunk. Her husband didn't mind. Phew. Hate to be bludgoned by a fey Flight-of-the-Conchords-Brett lookalike.

Emmy the Great

http://www.myspace.com/emmythegreat

My latest find. She was at Green Man last year, and is this year. And she is great. And very cute.

Joanna Newsome

(Doesn't actually have a myspace page - gosh. Just buy Ys, as it is acebest.)

Fucking awesome. Saw her live, just - wow. Ys is a leap ahead of her previous skwinchy voiced effort, and was my fave album of that year.

The Flash Girls

http://www.last.fm/music/The+Flash+Girls

Lorraine Garland and Emma Bull, one of them's Neil Gaiman's assistant, though sadly they amicably split up a whiles ago. Made fun, witty, snarky, story-telling music when they were together though.

Elaine Palmer

http://www.myspace.com/elainepalmer

Beautifully voiced Yorkshire lass.

And finally -

Linsey Leven

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fu ... =170052228

Cardiff lass and I hope she releases an album soon, as I saw her at the Norwegian chapel and she was spell-bindingly good.

And here's the links to the Green Man Fest -

http://www.myspace.com/thegreenmanfestival

http://www.thegreenmanfestival.co.uk

Cheers again Whomper!


P.S: Here's my co-worker Ellie's band, Silver Spurs. I'm a fan. Country, so shouldn't really be here but I couldn't help myself. http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fu ... =127513220