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 Intro: Fairport Convention - Medley: The Lark in the Morning/Rakish Paddy/Fox Hunter's Jig/Toss The Feathers - Liege & Lief - A&M Records


Show Of Hands - Breme Fell At Hastings - Long Way Home - Hands On Music www.showofhands.co.uk/
Sarah Hayes - The Trees They Grow Tall - Woven  - www.sarahhayes.net/woven/
Julie Fowlis - Puirt-A-Beul Set: Ribbinnean Riomhach - Gach sguel(Every Story) - Machair Records www.juliefowlis.com/

Jon Brooks - Madeline - Delicate Cages - borealis records www.jonbrooks.ca/
Chris Isaak - Please Don't Call - First Comes The Night - Vanguard Records www.chrisisaak.com/
I Draw Slow - Springtime - White Wave Chapel - Pinecastle Records idrawslow.wordpress.com/
Gabrielle Papillon - Come And Gone - The Tempest Of Old - www.gabriellepapillon.com/

Show Of Hands - Keep Hauling - Long Way Home - Hands On Music www.showofhands.co.uk/
Sarah Hayes - When Fortune Turns The Wheel - Woven - www.sarahhayes.net/woven/
Julie Fowlis - Smeorach Chlann Domhnaill - Gach sguel(Every Story) - Machair Records www.juliefowlis.com/

Jon Brooks - People Don't Think Of Others - The Smiling & Beautiful Countryside - borealis records www.jonbrooks.ca/
Chris Isaak - Reverie - First Comes The Night - Vanguard Records www.chrisisaak.com/
I Draw Slow - Hide And Seek - White Wave Chapel - Pinecastle Records idrawslow.wordpress.com/
Gabrielle Papillon - Ain't No Bitter - The Tempest Of Old - www.gabriellepapillon.com/
Show Of Hands - Walk With Me (When The Sun Goes Down)   - Long Way Home - Hands On Music www.showofhands.co.uk/

Show Of Hands: "Steve Knightley and Phil Beer are widely acknowledged as the finest acoustic roots duo in England. Knightley, who writes most of their inspired material and Beer, a dazzling multi instrumentalist, have built up a huge following which has seen them sell out the Royal Albert Hall three times, headline major festivals from Glastonbury to WOMAD and playing all over the world, from Europe to America, Australia and India. Voted Best Live Act by the public at the 2004 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards, the jury is still out on just what kind of music they play. A genre defying mix of rock, roots, blues, country and trad, and often influenced by the music of other countries, it is played out on an array of instruments from slide guitar to fiddle, mandolin to South American cuatro." - artists' website

Sarah Hayes: This is Sarah Hayes – one of the most respected and sparklingly gifted singers and musicians on the UK folk scene. Although she’s better known as a multi-instrumentalist with Glaswegian anthemists Admiral Fallow, there’s much more to know. Growing up in Northumberland, Sarah was blessed with exposure to the rich musical traditions of the borders. You can hear it in her pure and unaffected voice and the timeless tone she instils in her flute and whistle playing. But her music goes much further than the passing on of old tunes. With a Masters in Music Performance from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, Sarah brings a classical intellect and sophistication to her arrangements and original compositions. In 2014 she received a Celtic Connections New Voices commission (the unique series of concerts that have been the catalyst for acclaimed records by the likes of Patsy Reid, Rachel Newton and Duncan Lyall amongst others.) The 45-minute work Sarah produced has since taken on new life in the studio, and is now her first LP. Described by The Scotsman as “ambitiously conceived and beautifully realised”, Woven is a continuous piece that explores the relationship between experience and identity. Setting traditional words to new tunes, new tunes to traditional forms and tying them together with recurring composed themes; Woven demonstrates why the music of the people endures and connects. You wait years for this former BBC Young Folk Award finalist to make an album and, in addition to her solo debut, along comes the self-titled debut by Wildings; a collaboration between Sarah, Orkney pianist Jennifer Austin and Skye fiddle player Fiona MacAskill. Wildings is a rush of songs and tunes, ancient and modern in which Sarah’s characterful talents as a flautist and singer are to the fore. There’s yet another new band in the shape of Northlands, which reunites her with former musical partner Ian Stephenson (KAN, Baltic Crossing), alongside Sophy Ball (Bottle Bank Band, 422) and internationally recognised concertina master Alistair Anderson, to create music with a distinctly North East flavour. And as if that wasn’t enough, Sarah is also a member of the Glasgow New Music Expedition – a classical chamber ensemble dedicated to performing music by living composers. She plays in Flutes en Route and Northern Lights Wind Quintet; she contributed to Inge Thomson’s brilliant Da Fishing Hands album; collaborated with Lahore singer Sara Kazmi; performed recent solo support slots for Aidan O’Rourke, Eliza Carthy and Anais Mitchell, and continues to tutor at Tinto Summer School and Folkworks. Sarah’s contributions to Admiral Fallow’s third album Tiny Rewards saw the band make bold developments in their approach to songwriting. Their 2015 record was hailed as “a glorious rebirth” by influential music blog Drowned In Sound. Sarah Hayes is a singer, musician and composer of dazzling versatility. And there’s still so much more to know, and hear." - artist's website

Julie Fowlis: "is a multi-award winning Gaelic singer who is deeply influenced by her early upbringing in the Outer Hebridean island of North Uist. With a career spanning ten years and four studio albums, her 'crystalline' and 'intoxicating' vocals have enchanted audiences around the world. An artist with a genuine curiosity to explore other traditions and natural ability to cross genres, Julie has collaborated, recorded and performed with artists such as violin virtuoso Nicola Benedetti, and acclaimed singers Aled Jones, Grammy-Award winning James Taylor and Mary Chapin Carpenter. Her passion for folk culture, song and music is exemplified in her collaborations in 2015 such as with the celebrated Québécois band Le Vent du Nord, her Vocal ConneXions project in Summer 2015 with singers from Bulgaria, Brittany, Finland and Norway and her continued musical friendship with Irish singer and musician, Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh. Nominated as 'Folk Singer of the Year' at the 2015 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards, and 'Best Artist' at the Songlines World Music Awards 2015, Julie is a warm and engaging live performer who has graced stages around the globe, from village halls in the Highlands to theatres in Paris and Vienna, London and New York, to singing live at the opening ceremony of the Glasgow XX Commonwealth Games in 2014, to a TV audience of over 1 billion people. She will forever be recognised for singing the theme song to 'Brave', Disney Pixar’s Oscar, Golden Globe and BAFTA winning animated film, set in the ancient highlands of Scotland. The track was recorded when Julie was eight months pregnant with her second child, and has since been a worldwide smash hit, and was indeed long listed for an Oscar nomination in 2013. - artist's website

Jon Brooks: making his Little Rock Folk Club debut on Sat Dec 7th 2015 (tho not his Little Rock debut having played a brilliant house concert ~14 months ago) Canadian singer/songwriter and guitarist Jon Brooks is a powerful performer with a catalog of songs from his 5 CDs capturing the human condition in all its brilliance and squalor with unflinching descriptors not for the faint-hearted or those who like musical wallpaper.

"Delicate Cages takes its title from the Robert Bly poem, TAKING THE HANDS:
Taking the hands of someone you love/You see they are like delicate cages...

Delicate Cages aims to reveal the complicit natures of good and evil, love and fear, and freedom and imprisonment. The DELICATE CAGES we live within are forms of enslavement - and not all 'cages' are necessarily bad. On his latest and most urgent and accessible collection of songs, Jon Brooks promises freedom to all who choose love over fear. Delicate Cages was released by Borealis Records in May 2012. The album earned Jon his third ‘Songwriter of the Year’ nomination in 5 years from The Canadian Folk Music Awards. Like its predecessors, Delicate Cages’ songs were inter-woven by themes of love and fear; and freedom and imprisonment. The idea was inspired by the Robert Bly poem, Taking The Hands: ‘Taking the hands of someone you love,/you see they are delicate cages.’ Also consistent with Jon’s albums, the song subjects were as wide ranging as they were topical and controversial: the Alberta tar sands (Fort McMurray); Bill 101 and Quebec’s language laws (Hudson Girl); Palestinian suicide bombers (Son of Hamas); Bosnian child soldier turned Canadian mixed martial arts fighter (Cage Fighter); and so-called ‘Honour Killing’ (The Lonesome Death of Aqsa Parvez). Morally and politically ambiguous, Delicate Cages, offered what Jon has since called, “necessary and alternative understandings of ‘hope’ and ‘grief’ that are neither sanitized, dumbed down, nor degraded by the modern lie of ‘closure.'”" - artist's website


Chris Isaak: "And for First Comes The Night -- Isaak’s stunning first album of new material in six years -- this gifted singer-songwriter and bandleader is bringing us a bumper crop of strong and intriguing songs from which to choose. “There was no mission for this album other than to follow the songs,” Chris Isaak explains, and in terms of songwriting, the floodgates really opened this time. “My last release was Beyond The Sun -- my tribute to Sun Records with a lot of covers -- so this time around I had a lot of new material that I was thrilled to record. My manager always tells me, `We need more songs.’ This time, even she realized she’s creating a songwriting monster, and had to beg me to stop.” First Comes The Night fittingly represents a number of firsts for Chris Isaak, who recently signed on to become a judge for the first time on The X Factor Australia. Of his new television gig Down Under, Isaak explains, “I love Australia, and if you’re going to look for stars, I can’t think of a more beautiful place on Earth to start looking.” As for First Comes The Night, this is the first time that Isaak has written and recorded so much in Nashville, Tennessee, a change in location he explored partly upon the suggestion of his friend Stevie Nicks. ”Somehow even I had some misconceptions about Nashville,” confesses Isaak. “You’d think a music guy who’s been in the business as long as I have would know better. I’m a huge fan of country music since I grew up listening to Hank Williams, Ernest Tubb and Buck Owens, and I know my country history well, but even I somehow forgot Nashville is --- and always been -- about more than just country.” Indeed, in Nashville, Isaak found himself working with a number of new producers who helped show him how exciting a place to make music Nashville could be. “I worked on the album in Los Angeles along with Mark Needham who’s done great work with me over the years. Then I took some time to write and record in Nashville. I had the misconception that a producer in Nashville would be bringing in banjos and asking me what songs I had that were pure country. The truth is that great producers are great producers, and Nashville is so full of brilliantly talented people. I worked with Paul Worley who is a great producer, period, and he can go anywhere in the world and make great records like he’s done with the Dixie Chicks or Lady Antebellum. The same was true when I worked with Dave Cobb who’s been doing amazing work lately with Jason Isbell and many others. Their backgrounds are so deep and they’re into so much music, there was no reference I could make they would not know and respond to in a heartbeat.” Similarly, in the Nashville tradition, Isaak also did more co-writing than usual, including working with some of the town’s talented songwriters. Before long, Isaak fell in love with the tremendous musical energy of Nashville. “It’s Music City – not just country city,” Isaak says. “At first you think of all the classic country artists, at least I do, but then you realize how many great records Roy Orbison, Elvis Presley and the Everly Brothers made there too. Great Rock & Roll came out of Nashville and great Soul music too. I think I bumped into more musicians in Nashville of every kind than anyplace else ever, and that gives you the feeling that music is alive and well. In Nashville, people are still excited to be playing and making records, as they should be. Literally, my cab driver was a drummer. The guy who sold me a shirt at Macy’s was a singer-songwriter. The guy at the health food store was a bass player. And I went to breakfast one morning, and saw Robert Plant. Everywhere you look is another potential bandmate.” Yet for all this exciting collaboration, First Comes The Night is very much a great Chris Isaak album that features him at his best. For all the firsts, there’s a strong through-line that continues from Isaak’s earlier triumphs like Silvertone (1985), Chris Isaak (1986), Heart Shaped World (1989), San Francisco Days (1993), Forever Blue (1995) and Always Got Tonight (2002). “I guess you can make a drink with many ingredients, but if one is very strong, that’s what you taste,” says Isaak with a laugh. “For better or worse, I have a tendency to dominate because I have a big voice and some twisted ideas.” - artist's website

I Draw Slow: "Dublin roots band I Draw Slow have been drumming up enthusiastic reviews in Ireland since the release of their top 10 selling second album, Redhills. Irish national broadcaster RTE made Redhills album of the week and Redhills has been welcomed to the playlists of stations across the country. However, their impact abroad is redrawing the map for these Irish/Americana songwriters. I DRAW SLOW’s soon to be released 3rd album, WHITE WAVE CHAPEL is a creative progression for I DRAW SLOW. The sound is rooted in the style of the Appalachian Mountains and draws on the traditions of Irish music while incorporating all that’s great about modern Americana.  I DRAW SLOW have created a whole new songbook of stories and melodies with this album. It features tales of dark and light, of debauchery and love, of trouble and joy that are sure to become firm favourites with their growing fan base at home and abroad. They have been described in the UK press as “American top league equivalents” destined “to blow the opposition away”, drawing favourable comparisons with Gillian Welsh and Alison Krauss. The band has played to audiences in the UK, Germany, Denmark and Belgium and started 2012 with a performance with the Legendary Béla Fleck and the Flecktones and an appearance at the Celtic Connections Festival in Glasgow Scotland. I Draw Slow is a five-piece outfit comprising vocals, guitar, fiddle, banjo and double bass. Holden siblings Dave (guitar) and Louise (vocals) have been writing together for two decades. In 2008 the pair teamed up with Violinist Adrian Hart, Claw hammer banjo player Colin Derham, Double bassist Konrad Liddy to form I Draw Slow The Sound: Alt-country, folk, roots, old-time, Americana The five have created a new sound, rooted in the old time style of the Appalachian Mountains, drawing on Irish traditional music and modern Americana. However, this is a whole new songbook of stories and melodies. These are dark tales of debauchery and trouble swinging from the kind of well-crafted melodies that survive." - artists' website

Gabrielle Papillon: "Hailed as “one of finest new songwriters in Canada,” (Tom Power, CBC) singer-songwriter Gabrielle Papillon sings stories real and imagined. Words, melancholy melodies, and lush harmonies are her currency. In 2001 Papillon released her first album ‘Songs for a Rainy Day’ before taking an eight year hiatus from music to complete her BA and MA degrees in English Literature and History. Papillon released ‘The Wanderer’ in January 2010 and ‘The Currency of Poetry’ in October 2011, which hit a number of “Best Of” lists and landed in !Earshot’s Top 20 National Chart for Folk/Roots. Her fourth album, ‘Little Bug’, was nominated for a 2013 ECMA for Folk Recording of the year, and three Music Nova Scotia Awards (SOCAN Songwriter of the Year, Folk Recording of the Year, and Female Artist Recording of the Year) after spending three months in the national Earshot charts. Little Bug was also named one of the Top 12 Albums of 2012 on CBC Radio’s Atlantic Airwaves and Papillon was a Mountain Stage Newsong Regional finalist in 2012 for the song ‘Go Into the Night.’ Her music has been featured on CBC’s Deep Roots, Vinyl Café, and Drive and her songs have also appeared in film and television in Canada, Australia, and the United States. Produced by multiple award-winner Daniel Ledwell, Papillon’s fifth offering ‘The Tempest of Old’ is big and dark, orchestral and defiant. Rife with a purposeful swampy, gothic underpinning, her new album was released in March of 2015.

The Tempest of Old (Spring 2015)

Steeped in a swampy, gothic underpinning, The Tempest of Old is big, orchestral, and defiant. Setting the mood with a bold and haunting piece that channels the sepia-soaked, cinematic drive of the Last of the Mohicans soundtrack, “Got You Well” is a striking album opener. Embracing the grandiosity of tones and textures, Papillon continues the beautifully dramatic disposition on tracks such as “Come and Gone,“ “Brother, Throw Down,“ and “Kentucky in the Dark.“
Recorded at Echo Lake in Halifax, NS with multiple award-winning producer Daniel Ledwell (Jenn Grant, In-Flight Safety), the album marks a growth from the simplicity and gentle quality of Papillon’s previous work. On The Tempest of Old, her ear for compelling hooks and her lyrical craftmanship remain steadfast, blended this time with sonic landscapes that revel in visceral storytelling. The album masterfully captures Papillon’s outstanding live performances, gleaming with her charm and personality.The Tempest of Old also features a host of musicians who are no strangers to the Canadian music scene. Jenn Grant, Sean MacGillivray (Classified, Jenn Grant), Michael Belyea (Jenn Grant, Snailhouse, Paper Beat Scissors), Catriona Sturton (Plumtree, Al Tuck), Kinley Dowling (Hey Rosetta!, Jenn Grant), the late Fleur Mainville (MacKeel), and producer Daniel Ledwell (Kathleen Edwards, The Weakerthans, In Flight Safety), all contributed to the record." - artist's website

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