About the Show
Foolkiller Folk
The Foolkiller Folk collective explores the storytelling, cultural, and protest power of folk music from as far back as the Child Ballads through as current as released today.
"When one becomes enlightened one kills the fool within" -Jack Conroy
Mark & Val with Mailbag Redux – we have another Mailbag (new to us) sho for you today, and yes, we’re still focusing mostly on relatively new releases from the British Isles. You’ll be hearing another round from Purcell’s Polyphonic Party; Lori Watson; Frander; Altan; Adam Agee & Jon Sousa; The Rheingans Sisters; and Christy Moore, and we’ll be adding Will Pound; Ross & Ali; Mawkin; Dàimh (pronounced ‘Dive’); John Doyle, John McCusker, and Mike Goldrick; The Misshaped Pearls; and Bryony Griffith; The Fretless; and Alasdair Roberts, Amble Skuse & David McGuinness. If you liked last week’s show, you’ll like this week’s. Tune In!
Altan is an Irish folk band formed in County Donegal in 1987 by lead vocalist Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh and her husband Frankie Kennedy. Primarily influenced by traditional Gaelic songs from Donegal. Altan was the first traditional Irish group to be signed to a major label when they signed with Virgin Records in 1994 and have sold over a million records to date. We’ll be hearing from their 2018 recording The Gap of Dreams.
Two of Colorado’s most sought-after traditional Irish musicians, Adam Agee and Jon Sousa have been journeying together through the Irish idiom on fiddle, guitar, and tenor banjo, enchanting listeners on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean since 2004. Adam and Jon have put down musical roots in County Clare, where they lived together, and now make frequent visits.
Purcell’s Polyphonic Party is John Dipper, a respected and established performer, composer, teacher and instrument maker, on viola d’amore, concertina; Vicki Swan holder of the Zorn Bronze Award for the traditional playing of Swedish bagpipes on nyckelharpa, bagpipes, and flageolet; and Jonny Dyer on spinet, accordion, and gandola.
Christy Moore – Irish folk singer, songwriter, and guitarist – was one of the founding members of Planxty and Moving Hearts, and was named as Ireland’s greatest living musician in RTÉ‘s People of the Year Awards.
Winners of the 2016 BBC Radio 2 Folk Award for ‘Best Original Track’, The Rheingans Sisters make bold, playful and innovative contemporary music that is anchored in folk traditions without being bound by them. Audiences across the world have been captivated by their performances, each one an authentic invitation to participate in an intuitive musical conversation between two musicians at the height of their powers.
Frander (meaning kinsman) is a family band from Sweden formed in 2015. We’ll be hearing from their first album, released in 2017.
Lori Watson is the first Doctor of Artistic Research in Scottish Music, an authority on contemporary traditional music practice in Scotland and a BBC Scotland Young Traditional Musician finalist in 2002 / 2003. Drawing on her strong roots in the rich creative tradition of the Scottish Borders, she has become a leading interpreter of Scottish folk music and Scots song
One of the finest harmonica players of his generation, Will Pound has been nominated 3 times for the BBC Radio 2 Folk Musician Of The Year Award in 2012, 2014 and 2015, has won FATEA Magazine Instrumentalist Of the Year 2013, 2014 and also was nominated for Songlines Magazine best newcomer. Will’s Arts Council Funded current project, Through the Seasons, has him join forces with Benji Kirkpatrick (Bellowhead, Faustus, The Transports) and Ross Grant (Inlay) to celebrate the music of morris and folk dance.
At the forefront of a very exciting new wave of UK folk, seven piece Mishaped Pearls have received outstanding reviews. Their adventurous song combination of the ancient and the new finds an echo in their musical make up – banjo, saz baglama, bodhran, violin and mandolin mix with acoustic guitar, keyboards, electric bass and drums, all led by the mezzo-soprano voice of Manuela Schuette. Their music’s roots in tradition expands into progressive folk and rock, eastern modal music and shows elements of contemporary classical influence
There’s a long-standing, productive and impressive partnership behind Ross Ainslie and Ali Hutton‘s first album as a duet, Symbiosis (from which we’ll be hearing). The partnership began when Ross and Ali, both pipers from a very young age, met at the age of 12 in the Vale Of Atholl Pipe Band. Encouraged and mentored by the late Gordon Duncan, his virtuosity and passion rubbed off on the lads, spurring them both on to success with, among others, Old Blind Dogs, Salsa Celtica, Dougie MacLean, Shooglenifty and Capercaillie; as well as inspiring them to form the musical powerhouse that is Treacherous Orchestra in 2009.
In 2015 Mawkin delivered their self-produced and critically acclaimed album ‘The Ties That Bind’ (from which we’ll be hearing). Their ‘unapologetically energetic’ approach and DIY ethic surprised critics, fans and welcomed new audience members describing them as a ‘modern day Fairport’.
Taking their name from the Gaelic word for kinship, “The Gaelic Super Group” Dàimh (pronounced dive) are based entirely in the West Highlands of Scotland. 2014 saw the group win the “Eiserner Eversteiner” European Folk Music Award in the 23nd German Folkherbst competition and nominated for Folk Band of the Year in the Scots Trad Music Awards.
Bryony Griffith is an English fiddle player and singer, specializing in English traditional songs and tunes. She is best known for her work with the Demon Barbers and an a cappella quartet Witches of Elswick.
The Fretless is the Canadian fiddle foursome. Starting with their debut album in 2012, the band has steadily pushed further into the public eye, winning Instrumental Album of the Year at the Western Canadian Music Awards and Instrumental Group of the Year at the Canadian Folk Music Awards and in 2016, The Fretless took home a Juno™ award for Instrumental Album of The Year for its full-length Bird’s Nest.
To work well in folk music, you have to be an industrious soul, and there are few more industrious in the field than Alasdair Roberts. The Scot, who grew up around traditional song in a hamlet near Stirling, has been performing without pause for more than 20 years, releasing more than 15 albums since he was a teenager. We’ll be hearing a song from his collaboration with early music scholar David McGuinness and electronic sonologist Amble Skuse which we found on Froots 69 – 2018.
We’ll also be hearing from the recording The Wishing Tree, the first studio recording by the redoubtable trio of John Doyle, John McCusker and Mike McGoldrick who started out following their first Transatlantic Sessions together in 2007 – a project all three continue to be involved in.
