Folk music

Fern Maddie: Ghost Story review – an unnerving, arresting folk debut

Maddie’s young, welcoming voice belies a darkly evocative lyricism creating an album that is both unsettling and thrilling

Jude Rogers

01, Jul, 2022 @7:30 AM

Joan Shelley: The Spur review – timeless and vital Americana

Pretty but unsentimental reflections on putting down roots inform the singer-songwriter’s elegant seventh album

Kitty Empire

26, Jun, 2022 @8:00 AM

Phoebe Bridgers on Taylor Swift, her boyfriend Paul Mescal and speaking out on Roe v Wade: ‘I want to show everybody what I believe in’

As the indie superstar makes her Glastonbury debut, she explains why she is much more than just the ‘patron saint of sadness’

Laura Snapes

24, Jun, 2022 @10:00 AM

Jessie Buckley and Bernard Butler: For All Our Days that Tear the Heart review – a mesmerising debut

(EMI)
The actor and the former Suede guitarist deliver a beautifully produced folk-inflected set that showcases Buckley’s magical voice

Damien Morris

19, Jun, 2022 @2:00 PM

‘I was losing words. I didn’t remember the week before’: Beth Orton on chronic illness, MeToo and motherhood

On her brilliant new album, Orton ploughs her deepest emotions – and doesn’t hold back. She talks about living with Crohn’s disease, her identity struggles and the limits placed on women

Ben Beaumont-Thomas

09, Jun, 2022 @3:00 PM

Thrifty summer: free films, folk and standup – 25 cost-free ways to enjoy arts in the UK

You don’t have to shell out to enjoy the best in music, film, theatre, art and comedy – from a Francis Bacon in Aberdeen to Notting Hill’s unique and spectacular carnival

Jenessa Williams, Graeme Virtue, Jonathan Jones, Kate Wyver and Rachel Aroesti

07, Jun, 2022 @11:00 AM

The best albums of 2022 so far

From yacht-rock atmospherics to portraits of disaffected Britain, here are our picks of the best LPs from the first half of the year

Alexis Petridis, Ben Beaumont-Thomas and Laura Snapes

07, Jun, 2022 @10:00 AM

Alison Cotton: The Portrait You Painted of Me review | Jude Rogers's folk album of the month

Cotton’s album renders traditional music in uncanny colours with influences from her native north-east England

Jude Rogers

03, Jun, 2022 @7:30 AM

Yma o Hyd: the defiant Welsh folk song that’s been 1,600 years in the making

Dafydd Iwan’s Welsh-language ballad tells a rousing story of national survival. Now, 40 years since its release, and with support for independence on the rise, it’s become a football anthem

Rhys Thomas

02, Jun, 2022 @1:00 PM

Don Craine obituary

Other lives: Singer and guitarist with the English R&B and blues-based rock band the Downliners Sect, which he formed in the 1960s

Niall O'Donnell

31, May, 2022 @1:49 PM

‘She told Martin Luther King: tell ’em about the dream!’ The eternal life of gospel singer Mahalia Jackson

Fifty years after her death, friends and fans including Al Sharpton assess the legacy of a singer who took gospel mainstream and became ‘as big as Beyoncé’

Stevie Chick

19, May, 2022 @1:05 PM

Mavis Staples & Levon Helm: Carry Me Home review | Alexis Petridis's album of the week

On poignant yet defiant recordings made in 2011 shortly before Helm’s death, Staples’ commanding vocals give enormous vibrancy to blues, folk and soul standards

Alexis Petridis

19, May, 2022 @10:15 AM

1 / 320 pages