Music from the UK - Links

Across the Pond
Journalist Paul Castle's monthly feature at this site includes extensive tour schedules for London and the rest of the UK, a treasury of interesting URLs, and other extras including interviews, reviews. He has provided most of the info for this site's UK links.

Artist Pages
Browse my links to the websites of Britain's top folk artists (below).

Ayepod.net
Scottish music downloads, instrument teaching, live concerts, sessions, podcasts.

Fingerstyle Guitar Legends: The Other British Invasion
Balladtree reviews a trio of classic re-releases from the 70's. Davey Graham, Dave Evans and U.S. expatriate Duck Baker helped revitalize the art of fingerstyle guitar.

Ministry of Rock
OK, it's not folk, but it has a section on Brit singersongwriters and the rock scene there has had broad and deep influence on popular music everywhere. Check it out. (02/07)

Thompson, Richard - Interview
Thompson talks about his performance at the recent Joni Mitchell tribute concert in NYC in the June 2000 issue of 'Across the Pond.'

UK Folk Index
Listing of over 300 Folk Clubs, Folk Dance Clubs and other Music Clubs in the United Kingdom.

English Folk Dance and Song Society
A huge site by an organization that's really serious about its folk music. Site includes a comprehensive directory of folk song clubs in the UK listed by county as well as an online magazine, information on CD collections and more.

Acoustic London
A venue guide for acoustic music in the capital. An invaluable directory, listed by area: North/South/East/West.

Acoustic Revolution
Devoted to the new generation of emerging British artists.

BBC Radio 2
Two folk/americana shows: 1) Mike Harding on Wednesdays from 3-4pm -- U.S. Eastern Time 2) Bob Harris on Thursdays from 2-3pm -- U.S. Eastern Time.

Bodmin Folk Club
Bodmin Folk Club is situated in Cornwall, SW England. It meets every Friday; alternate Fridays are guest nights.

Firefly Productions
Scottish festival, event and artist management company.

FizGig
Tom and Ali run this site for concert and event listings in Lincolnshire, England. Artists can post gigs, fans can find them.

Folk Music - EntsWeb Directory
Folk music and related information such as the artists, events and club listings.

Folk On Tap
The Magazine for the Southern Counties Folk Federation (of Great Britain).

Folk Roots - Festival Schedule
This page on the venerable magazine's website gives information for most UK festivals.

Heart Of Lincolnshire Folk, Roots & Blues Club
Lincolnshire club with a monthly concert series featuring up and coming traditional artists and songwriters.

More Music - Directory of UK Record Shops
A comprehensive guide to internet Record shops in the UK, looking for British Pressings, start here.

Morris Dancing - Trigg Morris
Situated in Bodmin, Cornwall UK, Morris dancing is one of England's oldest customs.

Musicport
This organization puts on regular concerts as well as a World Music festival in September on the Yorkshire coast.

New Acoustic Movement
A guide to the contemporary English scene.

Scottish Folk Directory
Online index of clubs, performers and other folk-related services in Scotland. Pretty much the Scottish phonebook.

Simply Scottish
Scottish resource and information website.

The Unsigned Guide
Up-to-date music industry contact information for the UK including record labels, publishers, management companies, venues and promoters.

Webfeet
An index, jumping off point etc. for English Ceilidh and English Folk dance bands, gigs, recordings and so on.

Artists

Albion Band
World-renowned British Band.

Aly Bain & Phil Cunningham
Legendary ambassadors of Scottish traditional music.

Barker, Les
Maker of hysterically funny verses full of terrible puns and wise insights.

Benachally Ceilidh Band
Out of Perthshire, Scotland, this Scottish Ceilidh Band features former members of Silly Wizard, Capercaillie and The Dougie MacLean Band. Site includes schedule, bios, sounds, MP3s, and sales.

Bragg, Billy
Billy Bragg's official site. Heir to John Lennon and Woody Guthrie. And Brecht.

Bragg, Billy
Best Bragg site for the afficionado- content over style. Contains lyrics, chords and tabs for all his songs.

Carthy, Martin
British guitar legend and venerated keeper of the tradition.

Collins, Shirley
A pivotal figure in the 60's & 70's English folk song revival, Shirley's beautiful singing style has earned her accolades such as "the first lady of folk."

Collister, Christine
More from England.

Coope Boyes & Simpson
More.

Denny, Sandy
German fansite for England's great singer includes brief biography, pictures lyrics and chords, albums, extensive interviews, with links to related websites and mailing lists.

Fairport Convention
The classic British folk-rock group that started the new traditional movement.

Fisher, Archie
Scottish songwriter of strongly regional and historical songs.

Flook!
"..the most magical of experiences." - Irish Post, London

Fox, Allie
Contemporary Scottish singer-songwriter.

Game, Ivor
Young London-based singer-songwriter with a bit of McCartney in him. He has a couple of MP3s here.

Gaughan, Dick
Fine, well-written political songs.

Harper, Roy
Prolific English singersongwriter with 25 albums since 1966. Poetic lyrics, evocative fingerstyle guitar. Unfairly overlooked.

Henry Marten's Ghost - Belfast Ireland. Contemporary Irish band.

Jansch, Bert
Legendary Scottish fingerstyle guitarist with an inimitable sense of rhythm and modality. Founder of Pentangle. Minimal site has a biopage, with links to discography and tour schedule.

Jones, Nic
Fingerstyle guitarist famous for his highly original arrangements of traditional tunes, which have been stolen by Dylan, among others.

Leven, Jackie
Recording and touring originally as "John St. Field" and formerly in the rock group Doll by Doll Jackie Leven is worth a listen. And there's an extensive page of 40 tracks from live shows here to listen to.

Lissauer, Kate - Currently in Somerset, UK. Highly regarded exponent of American old-time country music. (T,B,P,S,$)

Lowe, Jez
Jez Lowe and the Bad Pennies play straightforward originals in the North East England/Geordie tradition. Site includes sounds, lyrics, tour schedule.

McTell, Ralph
Best known as writer of the classic "Streets of London."

Morton, Pete
Skilled contemporary folk-rock songwriter.

Oysterband
Legendary British trad/trad-rock band.

Pentangle
Legendary British trad-rock-jazz fusion band featuring John Renbourne, Richard Thompson, Burt Jansch and Jacqui McShee. McShee keeps this site with pages on the past and the concept's present incarnation - Thyme.

Phoenix. Essex, England. English country dance band with rock inflection.

Poozies, The
Karen Tweed's accordion and Kate Rusby's singing with the traditional Scottish Gaelic songs and tunes of harpists Patsy Seddon and Mary MacMaster.

Renbourne, John
A fine resource for this seminal figure.

Kate Rusby
A young, startlingly refreshing English phenom. Rusby is a sensational singer with a rare connection to the spirit of the old traditional songs.

Show of Hands
A mystery.

Simpson, Martin
OK, so all England's guitarists are legendary....

The Strawbs
Originally formed as The Strawberry Hill Boys in the early 60's, the band included Sandy Denny for a short while in 1967, went electric in 1970 when Rick Wakeman joined and achieved a hit with 'Part of the Union.'

Tabor, June
British singer. "One of the most stunning solo voices in folkdom." - The Times Recently she's joined with the Oyster Band to make some great albums.

Tannahill Weavers
One of Scotland's premier traditional bands, started by Roy Gullane and Phil Smillie back in 1976, the Tannahills have a diverse repertoire that spans the centuries with instrumentals, topical songs, and original ballads.

Tarras
Very young English group from the Borderlands, their debut release on Rounder mixes English, Celtic and modern influences with elan and intelligence. Excellent musicianship and songwriting.

Tawney, Cyril
Traditionalist full-time singer-songwriter for over 40 years, writer of "Sally Free and Easy" & "Grey Funnel Line." Site includes bio, discography, selected gigs & order/booking info.

Taylor, Jeremy. Wales. Singer-songwriter notable for anti-apartheid songs that got him banished from South Africa.

Thompson, Richard
Legendary folk-rock guitarist and songwriter was a founding member of Fairport Convention.

Ukelele Orchestra of Great Britain
Funk, swing, rock and roll, classical warhorses and even diabolical folk music. Impossible to describe, but if you've been once, youíll go again.

Wrigley Sisters
Traditional guitar/fiddle duo from the Orkney Islands. Artistic, up-to-date site.