23 amazing folk acts each performing an original love song for the Folk on Foot Festival of LOVE on Valentine’s Day 2021, featuring Heidi Talbot: Easter Snow; Seth Lakeman: The White Hare; Lady Nade: Sweet Honey Bee; Kris Drever: When We Roll In The Morning; O’Hooley and Tidow: Blanket; Chris Wood: The Sweetness Game; Nancy Kerr and James Fagan: Seven Notes; Bella Hardy: Redemption; Sam Lee: Sweet Girl Macree; Rachel Newton: An Hour With Thee (words: Sir Walter Scott); Eliza CarthyNight Swimming...
Feb 19, 2021•1 hr 43 min•Season 6Ep. 59
23 amazing folk acts each performing a traditional love song for the Folk on Foot Festival of LOVE on Valentine’s Day 2021, featuring Nancy Kerr and James Fagan: The Streams of Lovely Nancy: Heidi Talbot: The Blackest Crow; Seth Lakeman: Portrait of My Wife; Lady Nade: Good Looking/Hank Williams; Kris Drever: Westlin’ Winds; O’Hooley and Tidow: Lullabies for Flynn; Chris Wood: A Cornish Young Man; Bella Hardy: Low Down In The Broom; Sam Lee: Blanafanen; Rachel Newton: For Love; Eliza Carthy: Bot...
Feb 17, 2021•1 hr 52 min•Season 6Ep. 58
23 amazing folk acts each performing a cover version of a love song for the Folk on Foot Festival of LOVE on Valentine’s Day 2021, featuring Heidi Talbot: I Love You/Tom Waits and Allelujah/First of a Million Kisses/Fairground Attraction; Seth Lakeman: Beeswing/Richard Thompson; Lady Nade: I Remember Everything/John Prine; Kris Drever: Michelle/The Beatles; O’Hooley and Tidow: Teardrop/Massive Attack; Chris Wood: I Second That Emotion/Smokey Robinson; Bella Hardy: And I Love You So/Don Maclean; ...
Feb 15, 2021•1 hr 55 min•Season 6Ep. 57
Come with us to the back garden of a house in the Peak District village of Grindleford. There, in a magical atmospheric workshop with fiddles, banjos and drying gourds hanging from the ceiling, we find the Rheingans Sisters and their Dad Helmut, who makes all their instruments. Rowan and Anna Rheingans grew up surrounded by music – and are now one of the most innovative and talented duos on the folk scene. In this episode they tell us about their creative childhood, describe how they have been i...
Jan 22, 2021•58 min•Season 6Ep. 55
The legendary guitarist and songwriter Richard Thompson takes Matthew Bannister for a walk around the areas of London where he grew up, began playing the guitar, formed Fairport Convention (inventing English folk rock) and joined the vibrant music scene of the 1960s. On the steps of his old school in Highgate Richard sings “Man With Money” by the Everly Brothers. In Highgate Woods he sings his classic lament for lost love and the travelling life: “Beeswing” as well as a new song written during l...
Dec 18, 2020•1 hr 7 min•Season 6Ep. 53
Belinda O’Hooley and Heidi Tidow have an uncanny ability to move you to tears one moment then have you roaring with laughter the next. In summer 2020 they were planning to capitalise on the new found fame caused by having their song “Gentleman Jack” as the theme tune of the hit BBC TV drama based on the life of Anne Lister. But the lockdown put paid to all the touring they’d planned. So they stayed at home in the beautiful Colne Valley, taking full advantage of the opportunity to enjoy watching ...
Oct 22, 2020•54 min•Season 5Ep. 49
The multi award winning Dorset duo Ninebarrow take Matthew Bannister for a walk in the glorious countryside of the Isle of Purbeck. Their exquisite harmonies ring out across the Bronze Age burial mounds at Nine Barrow Down (which gave the band its name) as they savour the spectacular view of Poole Harbour, Swanage and the Isle of Wight. They end up in St James’s Church in the village of Kingston where Jon and Jay sing “Row On” in the wonderful acoustic of this special building. Hosted on Acast. ...
Oct 08, 2020•52 min•Season 6Ep. 48
In our first post lockdown episode, actor and musician Johnny Flynn takes Matthew Bannister for a walk on the Hackney Marshes, a huge expanse of public land which has no fewer than 88 football pitches alongside a nature reserve which has grown up in disused gravel pits. As well as singing his distinctive, haunting songs, Johnny relates his near miss with a bear on the Camino to Santiago, reflects on discovering the music of Bob Dylan as a teenager and talks about his friendship with the nature w...
Sep 17, 2020•56 min•Season 5Ep. 47
Another extraordinary Bank Holiday Monday virtual Festival from Folk on Foot, this time re-uniting musicians who couldn’t play together during the lockdown. The Breath; Eliza Carthy and David Delarre; Johnny Flynn and his band; Julie Fowlis, Éamon Doorley and Duncan Chisholm; Karine Polwart, Steven Polwart and Inge Thomson; Kris Drever, John McCusker and Phil Cunningham; Lady Nade, Kit Hawes and Aaron Catlow; Nancy Kerr, Martin Simpson and Andy Cutting; Peggy Seeger, Neill and Calum MacColl; Rac...
Aug 31, 2020•2 hr 8 min•Season 5Ep. 46
The award winning singer, songwriter and guitarist Chris Wood has lived in Kent all his life. “If you keep moving around, how much can you trust your judgement?” he asks. “If you stop where you are, the world does eventually come to you.” Since the Brexit referendum and election of 2019, Chris has been in challenging mood. On this walk with his dog Dancer and Matthew Bannister, Chris performs his song “Take Back Control” and contrasts the commuters on the London-bound platform at 6 every morning...
Aug 06, 2020•58 min•Season 5Ep. 45
Kitty Macfarlane is known for her pure voice, poetic song writing and passion for the natural world. On this unexpectedly sunny January walk, she and Matthew Bannister climb the historic Burrow Mump Hill. Here she sings a song inspired by the view, “Man Friendship”. As they walk along the nearby river, Kitty stops to sing her song about migration: “Glass Eel”. Then it’s off to her favourite bird sanctuary where they observe many different species and she sings her song about witnessing a murmura...
Jul 23, 2020•53 min•Season 5Ep. 44
Frank Turner is a man of contrasts: the old Etonian who became a punk; the heavy metal fan who became a folk-influenced singer songwriter. On this walk through his old haunts on the Holloway Road in North London he reveals the inspiration for his change in musical direction, calling in at the venue Nambucca where ""the scales fell from my eyes"" and he discovered the power of ""three chords and the truth". In the empty venue he plays the songs he wrote about the creative scene there, before head...
Jul 09, 2020•53 min•Season 5Ep. 43
On Monday 25th May – Spring Bank Holiday in the UK – we staged the Folk on Foot Front Room Festival 2 with an astonishing line up of artists. The show lasted for eight hours – but we have distilled it down to two hours of highlights, featuring: Cara Dillon and Sam Lakeman, Chris Wood, Duncan Chisholm, Eliza Carthy, Frank Turner and Jess Guise, Gwilym Bowen Rhys, John Smith, Johnny Flynn, Kate Rusby and Damien O’Kane, Kathryn Tickell, Kitty Macfarlane, O’Hooley and Tidow, Richard Thompson and Zar...
May 25, 2020•2 hr•Season 4Ep. 40
Jarlath Henderson has been described as the “Jimi Hendrix of the uilleann pipes”. He is also a fine singer and accomplished player of the whistle. At the age of 17 he became the youngest ever winner of the Radio 2 Young Folk award. He comes from Northern Ireland but has now made his home in Scotland where he combines his musical career with working as a doctor in emergency medicine. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
May 07, 2020•31 min•Season 4Ep. 39
Su-a Lee is a classically trained cellist who loves breaking down musical barriers. With the group Mr McFall’s Chamber she’s played contemporary classical music in night clubs and she regularly collaborates with Scotland’s leading folk players. She is also a keen walker and bagger of Munros. Sitting on a rock by the river at Sligachan, she tells Matthew Bannister the poignant story of climbing Ben Nevis with her cello on her back to pay musical tribute to her late husband shortly after he died. ...
Apr 30, 2020•32 min•Season 4Ep. 38
The Edinburgh-born harpist, fiddle player and singer Rachel Newton sings in both English and Gaelic and is a member of The Shee, The Furrow Collective and the Lost Words Spell Songs. We walked with her on the Isle of Skye in November 2019 where she was taking part in the wonderful Festival of Small Halls, in which top Scottish musicians come together to tour the community halls of the island. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Apr 23, 2020•51 min•Season 4Ep. 37
On Easter Bank Holiday Monday, April 13th 2020, we organised the Folk on Foot Front Room Festival - seven and a half hours of wonderful folk music from 15 top artists playing in their front rooms, linked by Matthew Bannister from his. Bella Hardy, Beth Porter and the Bookshop Band, Jon Boden, Julie Fowlis and Éamon Doorley, Karine Polwart, Kerry Andrew/You are Wolf, Kris Drever, Lisa Knapp, Martin Simpson, Nancy Kerr and James Fagan, Peggy Seeger, Rachel Newton, Sam Lee, Seth Lakeman and Steve K...
Apr 14, 2020•2 hr 13 min•Season 4Ep. 36
The singer, songwriter and fiddle player Bella Hardy takes Matthew for a rain-sodden walk through the majestic countryside of the Edale Valley in the Peak District where she was brought up and has now returned to live. Undaunted by the weather, they go to the Penny Pot café, the 1811 Methodist Chapel where Bella teaches a singing group and on to her mother’s cottage where they stop for very welcome tea, biscuits and songs, including a local Castleton carol and Bella’s own compositions “Sleeping ...
Mar 12, 2020•44 min•Season 4Ep. 35
After a life on the road, folk legend Peggy Seeger has settled in the village of Iffley on the outskirts of Oxford. In this episode she talks poignantly about her mother, a talented composer who died when she was fifty-three and Peggy was just eighteen. Peggy recites a poem called “My Mother is Younger Than Me”. She sings old union songs, including “The Miner’s Prayer”, recalls her time on the Greenham Common protests, shows us a piece of the wire fence she keeps on her mantelpiece and sings a s...
Feb 13, 2020•55 min•Season 4Ep. 34
The guitarist, singer and songwriter Kris Drever was born and brought up on Orkney, the archipelago off the Northern coast of Scotland which is steeped in history. The walk starts in the main town of Kirkwall with its huge sandstone cathedral commemorating St Magnus who came to an untimely end. In the graveyard Kris sings “Winter Moon”. Then they head off to the shores of the great natural harbour at Scapa Flow where Kris performs his powerful song about the scuttling of the entire German navy t...
Jan 16, 2020•50 min•Season 4Ep. 33
In search of the festive spirit of Christmas – and bearing gifts - we travel to the Peak District and Sheffield to hear the area’s unique local carols. Along the way we collect music from Jon Boden, Bella Hardy, The Melrose Quartet and the singers of the villages of Dungworth and Hathersage. We hear how the traditional carols written and sung by working people were thrown out of the church – and had to find a new home in the village pubs. Put on your Santa hat, reindeer antlers or Christmas jump...
Dec 12, 2019•57 min•Season 4Ep. 32
This episode has by far the largest cast of walkers we’ve ever assembled – and the most musicians. The lead singer of Oysterband John Jones started walking from gig to gig and singing on the way long before our podcast was invented. He’s done it all over the country and he’s usually accompanied by a bunch of fans who call themselves the Reluctant Ramblers. On a scorching hot summer’s day, we join them for a walk over Old Winchester Hill, along part of the South Downs Way and the Meon Valley to t...
Nov 14, 2019•43 min•Season 4Ep. 31
For twelve years, the singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Nancy Kerr lived on a narrow boat, travelling the length and breadth of England’s inland waterways. As she walks on the towpath with Matthew Bannister, she tells how the experience inspired many of her songs – and performs two of them: “Queen of Waters” and “Tiller Song”. Nancy explains that folk music was part of her upbringing, with her mother Sandra Kerr a well-known performer and her father a Northumbrian pipe player. Did she...
Oct 17, 2019•51 min•Season 4Ep. 30
Martin Simpson performs some of the songs from his new album “Rooted” and talks to Matthew Bannister on the Big Barn stage at the BBC Countryfile Live event in the grounds of Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Aug 29, 2019•46 min•Season 3Ep. 27
Sandwood Bay, at the far North Western tip of Scotland near Cape Wrath, is one of the most beautiful beaches in the UK. This wild, isolated place inspired the Scottish fiddle player and composer Duncan Chisholm’s album “Sandwood”. He takes Matthew on the four-mile walk from the nearest road to experience the stark beauty of white sand, ancient rocks and rolling waves, telling stories of storms, hauntings and the remains of a Viking longship hidden under the beach. Then it’s out with the fiddle t...
Aug 09, 2019•43 min•Season 3Ep. 26
The singer and fiddle player Lisa Knapp takes Matthew to the south London borough of Tooting where she was born and brought up. She performs songs with links to the area and tells how she stumbled across the Tooting Tragedy – a story of neglect and ill treatment at a local children’s home in Victorian times that led to hundreds of deaths and caused an outcry led by Charles Dickens. Lisa uncovered a haunting ballad about the story and sings it in the graveyard where many of the children are burie...
Aug 02, 2019•50 min•Season 3Ep. 25
John Smith is known for his delicate and intricate guitar work, honey-and-gravel voice and songs of lost love. He was born in Essex, but brought up in the seaside town of Brixham in Devon. Struck down by illness as a child, he took up the guitar and practiced obsessively in his attic bedroom overlooking the sea. In this episode, he takes Matthew to the harbour wall to sing “Salty and Sweet” and up onto the cliffs where he found peace and solitude as a teenager to sing his own compositions “Save ...
Jul 26, 2019•49 min•Season 3Ep. 24
Every winter, Rachael and Becky Unthank and their extended families invite their fans to join them for singing weekends in their native Northumberland. Some fifty people stay together at a bunkhouse where pianist/producer Adrian McNally does the cooking, and Rachel and Becky lead singing workshops. The weekend includes a session in the atmospheric local pub, where Matthew joins the group for a singalong. Then Rachel takes him for a walk on her favourite beach at Low Newton By The Sea, where she ...
Jul 19, 2019•50 min•Season 3Ep. 23
Regularly voted one of the world’s greatest guitarists, Martin Simpson has been nominated for an astonishing 23 Radio 2 Folk Awards – and won artist of the year twice. He was brought up in the North Lincolnshire steel town of Scunthorpe and takes Matthew on an emotional journey back to his childhood home, explaining how he hid from his formidable mother in the apple tree in the garden, went on imaginary expeditions through a pile of maps he found under a work bench in the garage and was introduc...
Jul 12, 2019•54 min•Season 3Ep. 22
The beautiful Lost Words book by artist Jackie Morris and writer Robert Macfarlane has become a cultural phenomenon, raising awareness of the importance of nature words in our lives. It has also spawned the Spell Songs project featuring some of our top folk artists. In this special edition of Folk on Foot, Matthew walks with Jackie and the singer, cellist and ukulele player Beth Porter (The Bookshop Band) on the hill near Jackie’s cottage in Wales. Beth sings and plays as Jackie creates an otter...
Jul 05, 2019•1 hr•Season 3Ep. 21
