This month’s show features music from Eliza Marshall, Quinie, Lisa Knapp and Gerry Diver, James Yorkston and Johanna Soderberg, Nina Nesbitt, Martyn Joseph, The New Eves and Nathan Evans and SAINT PHNX. Matthew announces the winners of tickets to the Folk Album of the Year Award Gala and Lucy Shields previews forthcoming gigs and album releases.

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Join us on a walk around the unassuming village of Pathhead, Midlothian, just south of Edinburgh, which is home to a whole galaxy of Scottish musicians.

We start with singer songwriter Karine Polwart, who takes us to meet pianist Dave Milligan and his partner the harpist Corrina Hewat. Then it’s round the corner to see singer and multi-instrumentalist Inge Thomson, her partner Martin Green (of Lau) and their son Ewen, who plays mandolin. They hand us on to bass player Tom Lyne who also creates music using the sounds of the natural world. After a walk with Tom (spotting three mad March hares along the way) we go to his home to meet his wife, the jazz singer Sophie Bancroft. A knock on the door heralds the arrival of fiddle player Amy Geddes who invites us all back to her place for a feast. Joined in Amy’s sitting room by drummer Tom Bancroft and fiddle player Jenny Gardner, the assembled group pay an emotional musical tribute to local pipe maker Nigel Richard who died last year.

You will hear beautiful performances, meet some extraordinary talents and gain an insight into the true meaning of community spirit when you listen to our longest episode yet.

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We rely on support from our listeners to keep this show on the road. If you like what we do please either...

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When Alex Merry of Boss Morris, artist Ben Edge, actor Charlie Cooper, singer and naturalist Sam Lee and broadcaster and author Zakia Sewell met in the spectacular Devon countryside to decide which folk projects should receive a share of a £50,000 grant from the organic perfume company Ffern, we couldn’t resist going along. We gathered these amazing talents around a campfire for a song from Sam. Then began a wide ranging discussion about why young people are increasingly fascinated by this country’s folk music and customs and why this connection matters. (Includes vivid descriptions of The Abbots Bromley Horn Dance, The Padstow 'Obby 'Oss and the Flaming Tar Barrels of Ottery St. Mary).

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We rely on support from our listeners to keep this show on the road. If you like what we do please either...

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Find out more about the Ffern Folk Guild at https://ffern.co/folk-foundation

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On this month’s show, Matthew reveals how you can win exclusive tickets to the Folk Album of the Year Award gig at Rochdale Town Hall on March 17th. There’s also music from Kate Rusby, The Magpie Arc, Laura Cannell, St. Agnes Fountain, Skinny Lister and Michael McGovern. Lucy Shields previews Celtic Connections and brings news of the latest releases.

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We rely on support from our listeners to keep this show on the road. If you like what we do please either...

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Subscribe to the Folk Forecast to explore all the gigs and album news we ran through in the show: https://thefolkforecast.substack.com/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Enjoy this classic episode from December 2022.

A festive episode featuring the Wexford Carols sung by the beautiful voice of Caitriona O’Leary. The carols came out of the persecution of Catholics in Wexford in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and were written by Bishop Luke Waddinge and Father William Devereux. Caitriona takes Matthew Bannister to the Franciscan church where Bishop Waddinge is buried and to St Aidan’s Cathedral in Enniscorthy where the area’s most famous carol was collected. We also meet the retired fisherman Dixie Devereux whose father sang the carols every Christmas for 62 years – and who is now passing on the tradition to his own son. A fascinating story with gorgeous music creating an atmospheric, seasonal experience.

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Find out more about The Wexford Carols at https://thewexfordcarols.com/

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Throw another log on the fire, pour yourself a cup of something hot and cheering and come with us in search of Winterfolk in West Yorkshire. With Santa hat firmly in place, we walk with Katie Spencer in Golcar, meet up with Maddie Morris on their way to a Lefty Christmas gig and end up at a gorgeous Christmas homecoming concert with O’Hooley and Tidow in “The Cathedral of the Colne Valley” - St Bartholomew’s Church, Marsden. On the way we reflect on the meaning of Christmas, spare a thought for those without family and friends at this time of year and hear seasonal songs old and new. A warm glow is guaranteed.

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We rely on support from our listeners to keep this show on the road. If you like what we do please either...

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Find out more about Katie at https://www.katiespencer.net/, Maddie at https://www.maddiemorrismusic.co.uk/ and O'Hooley & Tidow at https://ohooleyandtidow.com/

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The Turnstone is an inquisitive bird that, as it name suggests, likes to overturn stones and seaweed in its search for food. That’s how the members of the Gigspanner Big Band see their hunt for the finest traditional songs to re-arrange, burnish and present for our delight. In this conversation with Matthew Bannister, the band’s Peter Knight, Hannah Martin and John Spiers share the stores behind the songs on their Folk Album of the Year nominated work “Turnstone”- and revel in the musical chemistry which allows the band to improvise much of their free flowing music.

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We rely on support from our listeners to keep this show on the road. If you like what we do please either...

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“Our first gig together was a benefit for a greyhound” The dog loving trio who make up Irish band Poor Creature are husband and wife Ruth Clinton (of Landless) and Cormac Macdiarmada (of Lankum) - plus Cormac’s brother, Lankum’s live drummer John Dermody. In this conversation with Matthew Bannister they reveal a passion for unusual vintage synthesisers, tell how Cormac breaking his back during the pandemic lockdown inspired the sound of one of the tracks on the album and share insights into working with legendary Dublin producer John “Spud” Murphy.

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We rely on support from our listeners to keep this show on the road. If you like what we do please either...

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Keep up to date with the Folk Album of the Year Award: https://www.folkonfoot.com/award

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Born in Zimbabwe - but now resident in the UK - Edith WeUtonga is known as Mama Bass - because that’s the instrument she has made her own. She’s also an acclaimed singer, songwriter, and campaigner for musicians' rights. In this conversation with Matthew Bannister, she tells how the death of her beloved grandmother inspired her to write the songs that make up her Folk Album of the Year nominated work “Varipasi”.

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We rely on support from our listeners to keep this show on the road. If you like what we do please either...

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Keep up to date with the Folk Album of the Year Award: https://www.folkonfoot.com/award

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"My first kiss with Irene was behind some wheelie bins in Penge." As she celebrates her ninetieth birthday, the legendary Peggy Seeger unpacks her current feelings about “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” - written for her by her late husband Ewan MacColl, but now also embracing her other passionate loving relationship. She revisits the song on her final album “Teleology”, nominated as one of the Folk Albums of 2025. In this special episode Peggy and her son, producer and musician Calum MacColl, tell the story behind the album as she reflects on a musical career lasting over seven decades.

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We rely on support from our listeners to keep this show on the road. If you like what we do please either...

Become a member and get great rewards: patreon.com/folkonfoot

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Keep up to date with the Folk Album of the Year Award: https://www.folkonfoot.com/award

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.