Listen Now

Grace Petrie is a folk singer, songwriter, and activist from Leicester, UK. She first exploded on to the national protest scene in 2010 with the emotive anthem Farewell to Welfare, which captured perfectly the spirit of the new wave of dissent in austerity Britain. Since then, she has written, recorded and toured relentlessly. Her unique takes on life, love and politics, and the warmth and wit with which they are delivered have won over audiences everywhere, and she has quietly become one of the most respected and prolific songwriters working in the UK today.

Anna Roberts-Gevalt is one half of the duo Anna and Elizabeth. They combine a deep understanding of traditional balladry with performance and visual art, experimental music, and spoken word story telling. They are currently recording their third album together.

Bush Gothic are a trio from Melbourne, Australia, reinventing Australian folk song to reclaim it as a progressive force. Jenny M. Thomas started as a solo fiddle-singer, before adding the rhythm section of Dan Witton and Chris Lewis, first as ‘Jenny M. Thomas and the System” and finally as Bush Gothic.

Jim Causley has been a fixture of British folk since the mid 2000s. He was nominated for Folk Singer Of The Year at the 2017 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards, and his albums setting the poems of Charles Causley (a distant relation) and Jack Clemo have taken him far beyond the folk scene. However, he is still a singer of traditional material at heart, and he talks about his experiences and sings a version of John Barleycorn.

Anais Mitchell is a singer and songwriter from Vermont, now resident in Brooklyn. Her album Hadestown featured Justin Vernon (of Bon Iver), Ani Di Franco and Greg Brown (amongst others) and is now a Broadway show in collaboration with director Rachel Chavkin and the New York Theatre Workshop. Her album Child Ballads (with Jefferson Hamer) is hugely influential amongst current folk UK musicians and brought a new perspective to familiar songs.

The Low Culture Podcast returns with Sam Sweeney. One of the most popular and respected folk musicians of the younger generation, he is best known for his superlative fiddle playing with Leveret, Bellowhead and Eliza Carthy’s Wayward Band. He is also a brilliant singer, no matter what he tells you. Jim and Sam had a chat while filming the BBC 3 show Class.

Jim talks to Folk Witness’ Mark Dishman in this special episode. Upcetera is released on September the 30th 2016, and is available to pre-order and download now fromhttps://jimmoray.co.uk/

Jim talks to guitarist, singer, songwriter and False Lights colleague Sam Carter about songwriting, the height of your guitar strap and his new album How The City Sings.

Writer and Performer Amy Mason won the Dundee International Festival book prize for her first novel ‘The Other Ida’ in 2014, and her shows Mass and The Islanders (with music by Jim and Eddie Argos) were produced by Bristol Old Vic, the latter winning the Ideas Tap/Underbelly Edinburgh Fringe Award.

Jim talks to Ian and Nicola from London band Stick In The Wheel. Stick In The Wheel formed in 2012 to “play the music of our people”. Their first album “From Here” was the winner of the fRoots Critics Poll and they’ve been nominated four times at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards.

Jim chats to Irish singer and bouzoukist Daoiri Farrell, and hears a song from his next album.

Jim talks to award winning singer, fiddle player and songwriter Nancy Kerr about songwriting, traditional forms, growing up in the Northumbrian tradition and diversity in song.

In this episode Jim talks to writer Tim Chipping. Tim has written for NME, The Guardian, MSN, Channel4 and, for the last three years, fRoots magazine. He has over a thousand books about Bob Dylan (probably).

This week I talk to Josienne Clarke and Ben Walker. Over the course of their first four albums they’ve steadily built their audience, while gaining critical acclaim at the same time. Newly signed to Rough Trade records, their fifth album will be released in the autumn. You can hear their music at https://josienneclarke.bandcamp.com and keep up with them at http://josienneandben.co.uk

This week I talk to Ian and Radie from Dublin band Lynched. Following on from a few talking-point appearances at UK festivals in 2015, and their appearance on BBC2’s Later With Jools Holland they’ve become everyone’s favourite new band. Watch the full length version of Lynched’s new video for Cold Old Fire here – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziqt6BJZFdQ. Listen to the album here – https://lynchedfolkmiscreants.bandcamp.com.

In episode one of the Low Culture Podcast I speak to former Bellowhead frontman and composer Jon Boden about ownership of traditional songs, creating your own style, and life after the behemoth that is (was?) Bellowhead!