I first heard Andy Cutting with the wonderful Blowzabella at The Brewery, in Kendal, in the mid-1990s, and thought at the time how young he looked to be such an accomplished musician.  I last saw him in 2017 when he was playing with the differently wonderful Leveret, and thought... how young he looked for such an accomplished musician.....

The chances are that anyone attending a folk festival this summer will probably have seen Jack Rutter making an appearance somewhere along the line. Perhaps best known as the final name in the young traditional and mainly instrumental group, Moore Moss Rutter, this is the year that Jack has progressed from being well-known as a guitar player and one third of a group, to a multi-instrumentalist solo artist with a CD of his own and a string of bookings. There have also been a number of collaborations that has meant that, at times, he seems to have been everywhere all at once.

Rowan Piggott is the fiddle-playing and singing son of Charlie Piggott of De Danann fame.  He is currently making a name for himself around the folk scene in England as a solo musician and also as a member of the Georgia Lewis Band and as half of a duo with Rosie Hodgson.  He is the next generation, not just of a family of musicians, but he is also part of the next generation of folk musicians, festival and club goers, working in the scene and making it their own.

Not many people who are known primarily as a folk artist can claim to have played on a number one record in the charts. Even one nominated three times for the coveted BBC Folk Awards ‘Musician of the Year’. However, Will Pound played the opening harmonica riff on one such record. He Ain't Heavy He's My Brother, by the Justice Collective, was recorded to raise money for the various charities associated with the Hillsborough families. It reached the highly coveted Christmas Number One spot in 2012.

Although they have both been singing professionally for over 40 years, this married couple has only just released a first album together that covers their performing career and beyond.  Readers of The Living Tradition might recognise Alan’s name from the many reviews he’s written for the magazine over the years.  Nigel Schofield decided to find out why it’s taken them so long to get around to their much-anticipated debut release.

Dublin is one of those cities that just hits you.  From the minute you arrive, you know you are in the capital: the iconic sights, sounds and smells; the creamy pints; the many bridges crossing the Liffey; the thick accents.  When you arrive in Dublin, you just know you couldn’t be anywhere else.  Just as distinctive is some of the music emanating from its inhabitants and, at the moment, perhaps none more so than Lankum (formerly Lynched).