A selection of new musical offerings to accompany a relaxed Sunday.

Growing up, the idea of listening to folk music would have been an almost ludicrous one. As a teen, I was, like many of you, obsessed with rock/pop and, in my case, hard rock. I’d been raised in a house where Elvis and country music ruled the airwaves, so with a typical teenage disregard for my parents, I was always on the lookout for noisier sounds, provided there was still a tune to be heard, extreme metal was out. Folk was almost a four-letter word. Naturally, my tastes evolved over the years. I could not and would not, thankfully, shake Elvis (Mum had done a fine job of ingraining the King into my psyche) while I found my way back to more traditional country music via Americana, or alt-country as it was back then. This brings me to folk music, like Americana, a melting pot of widely differing sounds and styles. You might well be listening to folk music and not know it. So, it seems like a good time to peruse the August 2024 edition of the UK Folk Music Charts in search of some great music.

Silver Patron Saints, a star-studded tribute and benefit album for musician and songwriter Jesse Malin, is set for release 20.09.24 on 3xLP | digital via Glassnote Records. As a taster for the set Bleachers aka Jack Antonoff (Taylor Swift, Lana Del Ray, Kendrick Lamar, Lorde etc) recently released a cover of Jesse’s ‘Prisoners of Paradise’. Jesse suffered a rare spinal stroke in May 2023 that left him paralysed from the waist down. All proceeds for Silver Patron Saints will go to Malin’s Sweet Relief Musicians Fund. More about Jesse Malin, Silver Patron Saints and the impressive range of musicians involved in the record follows:

To quote John Surge, “These five songs represent a real cross-section of the music we make”. John is referencing a new EP aptly titled, ‘Maybe You Don’t Know Me’. The ‘Almost Time’ album from last year was well received, but Surge still had a host of material that wasn’t quite right for that record but worked well in his live set. A live set that had gotten John noticed on the LA country scene in the first place. Surge re-connected with highly regarded Texas producer Tommy Detamore  {Doug Sahm, Jim Lauderdale, Sunny Sweeney, Jesse Daniel} and reenlisted many of the ‘Almost Time’ crew including his right-hand Haymaker guitarist Randy Volin, plus Brennen Leigh on harmony vocals, Brad Fordham (Dave Alvin/Hayes Carll) on bass, Tom Lewis (Junior Brown/Raul Malo) on drums and Floyd Domino (Asleep at the Wheel, Merle Haggard) on keyboards.

A new name to me, but based on the new EP, ‘Tigers in Your Backyard (Nocturnal Edition)’, Molly Murphy is one to watch. Initially, Molly embarked on a promising college career as a double Film and English Major pursuing a career in screenwriting but left all that behind to form a band (as you do). Murphy’s latest release finds the singer-songwriter adding a modern sheen to her traditional Celtic roots.

Sons Of Liberty are a bunch of old-school rockers who, somewhat surprisingly, hail from Bristol in the UK but are steeped in the harder-edged Southern rock rooted in the Southern states of the USA that came to prominence in the late 70s. The quintet made their recording debut in 2018 with a brace of EPs, ‘...Shinola’ followed by ‘Aged in Oak’. 'The Detail Is In The Devil' is their third full-length release and first with new singer Russ Grimmett.

Status Quo might not instantly spring to mind as an artist you would expect to embark on a series of archive releases, but if Vol.1 – Live In Amsterdam is any guide to the quality of this new undertaking, fans are in for a treat. The band has joined the likes of Bob Dylan and Neil Young in delving deep into the vaults to unearth, spruce up, and release a live show recorded on October 19th 2010, at the Heineken Hall in Amsterdam for a limited numbered edition CD and LP release. This makes perfect sense; Status Quo live, there are few better, so what more do you need to know?

Fred Abbott may be better known to you as the guitarist from the much-loved and hard-to-pigeonhole band Noah & The Whale.  A popular live draw, their refreshing, inventive approach to songwriting and record-making set them apart from the crowd but ultimately the band split in 2015, with four albums to their name.  Abbott’s solo debut, Serious Poke, appeared shortly after, sporting a more straightforward, guitar-centred sound.  Eight years later - and having gained broad experience as a session musician and producer in between - Abbott has returned with Shining Under The Soot, a mature and beautifully crafted follow-up, brimming with energy and heart. 

When you think of progressive rock/metal concept albums, one name springs instantly to mind, Arjen Lucassen. It could have all been so different for Lucassen, as his 1993 solo album, released under the Anthony moniker, ‘Pools Of Sorrow, Waves Of Joy’ was met with indifference by the record-buying public (finding a copy thirty years later will be a long and expensive search). Seemingly undaunted and already a hard rock veteran after stints in Bodine and Vengeance, Lucassen pushed on regardless, his determination resulting in a slew of projects that played a crucial role in revitalising the progressive rock/metal scene via releases under the Ayreon, Ambeon, Guilt Machine and Star One banners while still finding time for guest appearances and contributions to albums by leading lights of the scene such as Within Temptation and Avantasia. For this project, Lucassen has put his little black book of names to one side (Lucassen has enlisted many performers on his star-studded albums, especially singers) and settled on a band project, it’s still essentially a concept record in the Lucassen tradition, but he looks to be out to have a little fun, and the results are glorious.

Ledfoot aka Tim Scott McConnell and Ronni Le Tekrø seem, at first look, like an odd pair. Tim, born in Florida, has been based in Norway for many years, adopting the Ledfoot moniker in 2007 after a string of solo releases on major labels and as frontman of The Havalinas. Ronni Le Tekrø is best known as the guitarist in TNT, Norwegian rock royalty, enjoying considerable international success since their formation in 1982. The Norwegian connection would seem to be the cement here, and ‘Limited Edition Lava Lamp’ is their second record as a duo.

For bands and singer-songwriters, 2020 was hardly the best year to release a new album.  And let’s face it, 2021 wasn’t much better.  The only hope for artists with new music was that they could somehow connect online, as reaching fans via physical touring was out of the question.  As a result, countless records were overlooked, under-noticed and sailed away, unloved.  Scott Matthews released his eighth album, the sonically ambitious New Skin, in December 2020, at the start of a winter most of us are keen to forget.  Three years later, Restless Lullabies sees the same set of songs reborn, and, in an effort to ensure that each are properly heard, they have been stripped of skin, flesh and - in some cases - their very bones, in his most exposed and intimate record to date. 

From his self-titled, triple platinum-selling debut album in 1987 to ‘Limitless’ in 2020, Richard Marx has had an unerring knack for a melody (not to mention a pretty wonderful voice). Marx's songwriting skills have enabled him to stay relevant throughout his nearly forty-year career. His sound has evolved over time, with the punchy guitars of the late 80s replaced by a smoother, more R&B/pop sound tailored to radio and streaming services. Along the way, his song craft has been in high demand, co-writing and/or contributing songs to a startling array of artists from Kenny Rogers to Keith Urban via NSYNC, Luther Vandross and Vixen. An impressive CV, but where does that chameleon-like ability to pen hit songs come from? How does he do it? Hopefully, ‘Songwriter’ might give us a bit of a clue as we take a journey through twenty tracks encompassing four genres; pop, rock, country and ballads.

In 2003 fresh from the success of ‘Heavy Traffic’, which found a rejuvenated Quo recovering somewhat from a run of uninspired releases, things were seemingly on an upward curve. So, what do they do? They release another covers album…honestly guys, really? There’s been a trend in recent years, which isn’t particularly welcome, of bands rerecording their own songs or putting out cover albums of their “favourite” songs (usually the same “favourite” songs of every other band on the planet). The Quo did both on one album!

I’ll always have a soft spot for Status Quo. Admittedly this is based on a hazy memory of a March 1981 show on the ‘Never Too Late tour. In those days, the Quo were a British institution as the classic line-up of Rossi, Parfitt, Lancaster and Coghlan were revered by fans and could be relied upon for no-nonsense hard rock of the highest order. It wasn’t overly complicated, but they had the songs; it was loud, it was sweaty, and that was good enough for me. Unfortunately, my love of all things Quo was brief as post ’82 Quo were a mere shadow of their former selves and had a string of pretty terrible records to prove it.

Back in 2015, Miriam Jones was treading the well-worn path of the folky singer/songwriter. Her Simon Edwards (Fairground Attraction) produced album ‘Between Green and Gone' was acoustic-based but recorded with a full band and received radio support from Bob Harris and Robert Elms. An impressive record, it looked like we would be seeing a lot of Miriam but the Canadian native slipped off the radar (well, my radar anyway) until recently when she reappeared with new music that showed a marked evolution in her sound.

Silent Running is a name that might be familiar to readers with a long memory. The Northern Irish rockers released their debut record ‘Shades Of Liberty’ on EMI in 1984 before moving to Atlantic for two further albums. The guys maintained a busy touring schedule that included shows with Talk Talk, Simple Minds, John Foxx and Robert Palmer and even appeared on The Tube (an iconic TV show that was incredibly influential at the time). Unfortunately, major success eluded them and the band called it a day in 1989. It looked like the Silent Running story was over, but after a thirty-year hiatus, the guys thought it might be fun to play a few songs at a band member’s wife’s birthday party. The birthday party would lead to a sold-out show at Belfast’s Voodoo, and now Silent Running are back with a fourth album, ‘Follow The Light’ to coincide with the 40th anniversary of the band.

‘Solace’, the debut record from Held By Trees, is a new instrumental project featuring a string of well-known names from the UK and further afield. The man at the heart of Held By Trees is David Joseph, a producer and multi-instrumentalist with aspirations to put together an album that harked back to the seminal recordings of Mark Hollis and producer Tim Friese-Green in Talk Talk and celebrate the natural world.

Jack Broadbent’s 2019 album ‘Moonshine Blue’ was an impressive release that found the singer and guitarist dabbling in various genres. Jack wasn’t a slave to his reputation as an excellent slide guitarist and bluesman and seemed content to go wherever his muse took him to showcase his talents as a singer, songwriter or, as I put it, folky troubadour. For his latest release, at least at first glance, he’s seemingly sticking to the blues, but there are still plenty of twists and turns along the way on what might well turn out to be his best and most cohesive release yet.