MARTYN JOSEPH
Martyn Joseph is a completely unique and mind blowing artist. Take everything you think you know about singer songwriters….and rip it up. For one man and a guitar he creates a performance with a huge far-reaching sound that is energetic, compelling and passionate. Be it to two hundred people or twenty thousand, he blows the crowd away night after night.
2018 saw him honoured with a ”Spirit of Folk” Award by Folk Alliance International in Kansas USA and he also received Fatea magazine’s “Lifetime Achievement Award” here in the UK, and in January 2019, he released his critically acclaimed album Here Come The Young, of which Uncut magazine said “He’s never sounded more potent than he does here”
BLAIR DUNLOP
Blair Dunlop, the award-winning British singer, songwriter and guitarist, has now released 3 albums 2 ep’s and toured widely around the globe. All of this in a short 4-year career is astounding alone but what sets Blair apart from his peers is the lyrical and musical maturity with which he writes. His third album ‘Gilded’ was released in May 2016 on his own label –Gilded Wings –and was widely acclaimed gaining BBC Radio 2 Playlist status for the twosingle releases (‘The Egoist’and ‘356’)both of which were remixed by Ed Harcourt. Prior to this Blair released his acclaimed album ‘House Of Jacks’ in mid 2014whichlived up to the promise of his 2012 debut ‘Blight and Blossom’ (the quality of which contributed to his winning theBBC Radio 2 Horizon Award). Blair has now cemented his place as one of Britain’s most exciting talents to come from the folk scene. The Guardian stated that the ‘House Of Jacks’ proves Blair is ‘an increasingly adventurous songwriter’, Uncut reviewed it as ‘thoughtful and exploratory’, The Independent on Sunday described it as ‘fluent, lamentory and accomplished’ while Q Magazine wrote that House of Jacks is ‘an exciting glimpse of where traditional folk might go’.
2018 Blair saw the release of his 4th album ‘Notes From An Island’ on his own label to rave reviews. On this album he brings in previous collaborator Ed Harcourt as producer. After successful tours of Australia (March 2018) and the UK (October 2018) Blair has cemented his place amongst UK folk influenced songwriters and leaps into 2019 with shows in Switzerland, Canada and Germany followed by a UK tour in April 2019 and a bucket load of festivals through summer 19
"An adept guitarist whose epic songwriting instincts prevail ona personal-political fourth album" MOJO
SAM CARTER
Since being named Best Newcomer at the 2010 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards Sam has been stirring audiences from Camden to Canada, via an attention grabbing appearance on Later… with Jools Holland and a dreams-really-do-come-true performance in a specially assembled band to back Richard Thompson at Shrewsbury Folk Festival.
Described as ‘the finest English-style finger-picking guitarist of his generation’ by Jon Boden (Remnant Kings, ex-Bellowhead), Sam has toured the world, equally happy to perform intimate solo shows on acoustic guitar, on electric with a full band, or to collaborate with other artists. Recent collaborations have included Sweet Liberties, an EFDSS and Folk By The Oak joint-funded project which saw Sam, Nancy Kerr, Maz O’Connor and Martyn Joseph delving into the archives of Parliament in search of inspiration for songs about the pursuit and development of democracy. Sweet Liberties toured major UK venues, spawned an album of the same name and featured on BBC Radio 3’s World On 3 in late 2016.
Sam’s third solo album How The City Sings was released in April 2016 and captured this fervently admired singer, songwriter and guitarist at his most passionate and moving, with The Guardiancalling it a ‘bittersweet electric-folk concept album’ in their glowing 4-star review.
KITTY MACFARLANE
Kitty Macfarlane is a songwriter and guitarist from Somerset, whose music is rich with visual imagery and written with an eco-eye. From the starling murmurations on the Somerset Levels to the lowly eel's epic transatlantic migration, and the small part we ourselves play in a much bigger picture, her songs are bound by the underlying theme of mankind's relationship with the wild. Kitty Macfarlane's highly anticipated debut album Namer Of Clouds, released September 2018 and produced by Sam Kelly and Jacob J Stoney, gathers inspiration from the sky to the seabed. Carried by a voice 'as clear as a mountain stream' (FRUK), her lyrics touch on intervention and rewilding, climate change and migration, and woman’s historical relationship with textiles and the land. The album is augmented by all kinds of ‘found sound’ recorded in locations from Somerset to Sardinia – birdsong, waterfalls, the click of knitting needles - and bookended by sounds of the wild.
Kitty was voted Female Artist of the Year 2018 by FATEA. Namer Of Clouds was included in The Guardian's Best Folk Albums of 2018, and nominated for Album Of The Year in the fRoots Critics Poll. Kitty released her first EP Tide & Time in 2016, after being shortlisted for the BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Award the year before, and has since toured with acclaimed folk duo Kathryn Roberts & Sean Lakeman, Blair Dunlop, and Elephant Sessions
