For this month’s playlist I am accompanying it once again with a giant photo feature. This time I have been digging out a series of photos I took twenty years ago this month at the Spitz Festival of Folk in London. It was a month long event at the club venue on Spitalfields Market and looking back on it, was collectively one of the greatest folk festival line-ups I have ever witnessed. Vetiver head up the playlist because, as I recall, their ‘To Find Me Gone’ album was causing quite a buzz at the time and their set at the Spitz was particularly memorable, especially when Devandra Banhart jumped up to join them onstage. That was one of many highlights my camera captured, including a wild Fence Collective night, a pregnant Beth Orton playing a delightful set alongside Bert Jansch and the brilliant Davey Graham being as enigamtic and mesmerising as ever. Enjoy the playlist and photos…
Tunng at the 2006 Spitz Festival of Folk opening press nightFaces in the crowd at the press nightKing CreosoteMegsonKrokeMi & L’auVetiverDevandra Banhart joins Vetiver on stageCandythief at Fence Collective NightGummi Bako at Fence Collective NightBarbarossa at Fence Collective NightPictish Trail with King Creosote and Adem at Fence Collective NightVoice Of The Seven WoodsDavey GrahamLupen CrookThis Is The KitJim MorayDavid Viner18th Day Of MayBenjamin WetherillJohn RenbournJames YorkstonBert Jansch and Beth OrtonBeth OrtonAdemMemory Band
You somehow know instantly when someone truly special has been taken from us too soon. I recall the same feeling hitting me when news of Jaimie Branch’s horribly young passing arrived last summer as I felt when first reading of Elliott Smith’s death on the front page of the NME. Over the preceding years Jaimie had kind of burrowed into the back of my mind as one of the essential players in the modern Jazz world and so the relatively small back catalogue she left behind will forever seem prematurely curtailed, all the available evidence I hear suggests a peak not yet reached. That said, pretty much all she did put out, whether as the lead player or as a accompanying or guest musician, is pounding with raw talent and a sonic brain absolutely overflowing with ideas and expression. This previously unreleased track is a taster from the posthumous album ‘Fly Or Die Fly Or Die Fly Or Die ((World War))’ and as with the other albums in her ‘Fly Or Die’ series, this sounds fundamentally plugged into the turbulent, ridiculous world around us today, a dissonant soundtrack for our times…
This Is The Kit – Stuck In A Room
This is a stunning piece of live film performance from the dramatic natural open air performance setting known as the Minack Theatre, built into the coastline in the South West of England. The new This Is The Kit album ‘Careful of You Keepers’ was released in June on Rough Trade…
Jason Isbell – Cast Iron Skillet
New music from a supreme US songwriter, played live here with guitarist Sadler Vaden from Jason Isbell & 400 Unit’s latest release ‘Weathervanes’ which came out in June on the Southeastern Records label. As is so often the way with the best writers, Isbell’s songs can sound deceptively simple to start with, but the genius is in the details; the framework may be basic as that’s all it needs, lock into those lyrics and the finer brushstrokes of the playing and it is clear Jason always puts the craft into his music…
Laura Cantrell – Just Like A Rose
The anniversary referenced in this new albums title was in fact due to be the twentieth since Laura’s essential 2000 debut record ‘Not The Tremblin’ Kind’, an album that I recall John Peel getting very, understandably, excited about at the time. Well the pandemic derailed that intention but the music captured in these sessions has been well worth the wait all the same. ‘Just Like A Rose: The Anniversary Sessions’ was released in June on the Propeller Sound Recordings label and includes contributions from Steve Earle, Buddy Miller, Rosie Flores and Paul Burch…
Smoke Fairies – There Was A Hope
New music from the Smoke Fairies is always worth a listen, they are a duo that have consistently produced lush panoramic pop for more than a decade now. This tune, a beautiful ballad with the piano as lead instrument adorned with graceful strings and shadowed by sonic tensions from the still of the night, is to be found on Year Seven Records…
Durand Jones – Lord Have Mercy
The sizzling soul sound of Durand Jones really catches a fire on the brand new album ‘Wait Til I Get Over’, released on the Dead Oceans label. Get into the whole vibe with this short film, the pay off realised in the music is worth your attention for real in a gospel inspired cut that positively roars with a distorted cutting edge…
Fruit Tree Records 