Today we walk with Merlin Hanbury-Tenison from his home at Cabilla on Bodmin Moor up to a bronze age stone circle. We talk about restoring ancient rainforests, planting trees with Plant One. We discuss the plans to create Europe's first rainforest research centre, Merlin's book Our Oaken Bones and we feed a pig. Join us as we walk and talk together.
Jim Ghedi joins us for natter hour. We discuss his masterpiece lp Wasteland, we talk folk, hip hop, 80s music and traditional music. We talk about life on the road, ancients sites, stone circles and the connections they create.
Mike Hankin joined us for this episode recorded within The Seaview Inn in Falmouth. We discuss The Offbeat Folk Film Club and the creation of the Folk Union. We also talk about the state of folk today, the threat of the far right, the opportunity for collaboration and about building community.
Rhys Mwyn joins us for this episdoe. We talk about archaeology and ancient sites, the power of music from Punk up today. We talk about radio, gardening and Rhy's life in the music industry.
Anjana Khatwa is today's guest and joins us to discuss her book The Whispers of Rock. We start with Anjana's earliest love of rocks and gelogy through her academic career to the author she is today. We talk about Anjana's passion for encouraging and inspiring young people as well as authors and geologists that Anjana is inspired by and works alongside. We talk about the stones used to build stonehenge, where they came from and why they might have been chosen.
Peter Ross joins us to talk about his book Upon A White Horse. A book and conversation that take us on a journey around the British Isles, exploring the ancient sites and meeting many of the people that love them, protect them, research them and carry the stories of the stones with them. We talk about Peter's process of writing, about rural and urban spaces that are home to stone circles. about music and about how Upon A White Horse forms the conclusion to his unofficial trilogy that also includ...
Manni Coe is the author of Little Ruins and co-author of brother.do.you.love.me with his brother Reuben. We talk about the idea of home and finding home. `We discuss landscape, stones and memory. We delve into painful memories as wll as talking about finding love and a place to live, walk and to write. We chat about pilgrimage and transformation.
Author Fiona Robertson is our guest today, we discuss Fiona's book Stone Lands and some of the ancient sites that inspired the book and feature in it. We chat about memory, landscape, loss and enduring love. We talk about ancient sites around the UK and the magic of the old stones.
Penny Rimbaud joins Matthew Shaw for a wide ranging conversation taking in Penny's artistic practice, gardening, baking bread, Crass, Stonehenge and returning to meditation as a practice. Contrary, boundry pushing, wise, uncomfortable at times while always promoting love, this is Penny in his unique uncensored flow.
Jeremy Deller joins Matthew Shaw for a conversation about the triumph or art, rave music, stone circles, film making, brass bands, steel bands, activism, identity and so much more. Always a joy! I't's always a pleasure to hear from Jeremy.
Today Gwenno joins Matthew Shaw for a conversation about language, landscape, culture and of course Gwenno's music across the years including her fantastic latest album Utopia.
Today our guest is Einar Selvik, musician, singer and ethnomusicologist. Einar is the founder of the band Wardruna. We talk about ancient sites, nature, wild places, landscape and Einar's life growing up in Norway. We talk about music, poetry, archaeology, playing drums in metal bands and the beginnings and evolution of Wardruna up to the present day. We also discuss Wardruna's new album Birna. From the deep woods now emerges Birna , Wardruna’s sixth studio album. Through his restless dialogue w...
Today we talk with Hayden Thorpe about Orford Ness, about the power of place, about, nature, rewilding and the creation of Hayden's new lp Ness. Hayden Thorpe is the Cumbrian solo artist, formerly of Wild Beasts. Using a process of redaction, Thorpe brings songs to life from the pages of best-selling author Robert Macfarlane ’s book of the same name. Ness is inspired by Suffolk’sOrford Ness , the former Ministry of Defence weapons development site during both World Wars and the Cold War. Acquire...
Today we talk with authors and activists Amy-Jane Beer and Lewis Winks on behalf of Right to Roam. We talk about a new report published today that is all about inaccesible ancient sites. We discuss access islands and the imortance of being able to walk freely in the coutryside. We discuss the Right to Roam movement, why it is important and how people can get involved. We talk about access to nature and the health benefits of being in nature, becoming closer to nature and being nature! "Right to ...
In today's episode we talk with aritst and writer Jackie Morris & stained glass artist Tamsin Abbott. We discuss Jackie and Tamsin's forthcoming book Wild Folk: Tales from the Stones. We discuss the ancient sites and tales that make up the book as well as the process of how the book was created. We talk about art, imagination and nature and discuss some of the authors that have influenced Jackie and Tamsin. WILD FOLK is a beautifully illustrated sequence of seven tales, marking the first boo...
Today we feature Lally MacBeth, founder of The Folk Archive and Stone Club co-founder. We chat about The Folk Archive, Lally's Magazine The Folk Review and also about The Lost Folk, Lally's forthcoming debut book which is due to be published by Faber in June 2025. We discuss folk customs, folk music Krampus and a very large snowman. Lally MacBeth is an artist, writer & curator based in Cornwall, England. Lally graduated from Central Saint Martins in 2013 with a First Class Honours in Fashion...
In this episode we talk with artist Alex Hartley about his latest artwork The Summoning Stones which features in the exhibition Dartmoor: A Radical Landscape at RAMM. We talk about Alex's practice with sculpture and photography. About walks on Dartmoor, the energy of ancient standing stones and the transfer of energy with modern technology. We discuss access to nature and climate change and Alex's artistic influences. Alex Hartley is an artist whose work destabilises ideas of both iconic archite...
In this episode we talk with archaeologist Dr Jennifer Wexler about Stonehenge, Grime's Graves, Thronborough Henges and ancient Cornish sites as well as discussing Jennifer's journey in archaeology and in curating exhibitions. Including work in Sicily and the USA. Jennifer works as a prehistorian for English Heritage and is the former Project curator of The World of Stonehenge exhibition at the British Museum. She specializes in archaeological landscapes, and the prehistoric and ancient archaeol...
We talk with Folk singer and activist Sam Lee about Songdreaming, about Folk songs, about nature and access to nature, about singing at Stonehenge and ancient sites. We talk about Pilgrimage, Wild Service and the Right to Roam movement. Sam Lee plays a unique role in the British music scene. A Mercury prize nominated singer, highly inventive and original arranger, folksong interpreter, passionate conservationist, song collector and creator of live events. Sam’s work as an artist has shaken up th...
In today's episode we talk with Philip Carr-Gomm. We chat about ancient sites, sacred spaces and nature. We talk about initiation, The Order of Bards Ovates and Druids, Alfred Watkins and Ley lines. As a very special extra feature Philip leads us on a Stone Club meditation. Philip Carr-Gomm is a writer and psychologist and the former Chief of OBOD. His online school, the Art of Living Well offers courses in sophrology, sleeping well, the Tarot and magical creativity.
In this episode we talk with Amy Grantham about her artistic practice, about developing work and ideas in relation to health. We talk about folklore, folk culture and community, about music and about the stones and sites that connect us. Amy is a self-taught artist and photographer who lives and works in New York City.
In this episode we talk with author Oliver Smith. We discuss ancient sites and modern pilgrimage. We talk about some of the folks that Oliver met and revisit some of the places that Oliver travelled to while writing On This Holy Island. Take a trip with us across the isle of Albion into ancient and modern spaces. Oliver Smith is an acclaimed travel writer working mostly for the Financial Times , The Times and Outside Magazine in the USA. For 10 years he worked for Lonely Planet Magazine .During ...
In this episode we talk with Angeline Morrison about her new album Orphelia and about ancient sites in Cornwall. We discuss Angenine's previous solo lp The Sorrow Songs and some of the stories that make up that lp as well as her contribution and collaborations with We Are Muffy and the album Grace Will Lead Me Home with Cohen Braithwaite-Kilcoyne & Jon Bickley. Recently hailed as one of MOJO's 'voices taking folk into the future', Angeline Morrison is a singer, multi-instrumentalist and song...
Today we talk with Sam K. Horton about his debut novel Gorse. we also talk about ancient sites, standing stones, the Cornish landspape, about folklore and myth and about the process of writing and creating new worlds. An author of literary fantasy, Sam lives above the moor in North Cornwall, and draws on its wild landscape, wide skies, and windblown folklore for his work. Growing up on a sheep farm near Hereford, he left for London and trained as a costume designer working in film, theatre and o...
Today we talk with songwriter musician and singer Katy J Pearson. We talk about Katy's new album Someday, Now, her remaking of The Wicker Man soundtrack, of finding places of historic interest while on the road as well as Katy's favourite artists and new music to keep an eye on. May the wind be always at your back chants Katy J Pearson over the opening seconds of her third solo record. Though lifted from the age-old Celtic Blessing, it is also disjoined, glitchy; transformed into a murky, modern...
Ruth Allen is an author, pyschotherapist and geologist. We talk to Ruth about her phenomenal book 'Weathering', about stones, about climate change, thresholds, healing and journeys through life. Ruth lives and works on the edge of the Peak District, Derbyshire, Ruth believes that we all have an ‘ecological self’ that longs to be better connected to the natural world than many of us feel day-to-day Hosted by Stone Club co-founder Matthew Shaw
Today are guests are Slomo. A band made up of members Chris (“Holy”) McGrail who recently contributed to Julian Cope’s Dope and Queen Elizabeth projects and Howard Marsden who co-runs Hebden Bridge’s already-legendary Ambient Bowling Club, where experimental music mixes with environmental sounds, low chatter and the soft clank of bowls. We discuss ancient sites around the UK, The Modern Antiquarian and Slomo's musc to date including their fifth album in 20 years, “Zen and Zennor”; their sonic pa...
Our guest today is artist and archaeologist Dr Ffion Reynolds. Join Ffion and Stone Club's Matthew Shaw as they discuss Archaeology, the arts, community and the mysterious world and connections of mycelium networks and their mushrooms!Dr Ffion Reynolds was born in Cardiff, Wales, UK. She trained as an archaeologist at Cardiff University, completing her PhD at the university, focusing on the rock art of the Neolithic passage tombs of Newgrange, Knowth and Dowth in Co. Meath, Ireland, and then bro...
In this episode we meet with visionary artist John Abell to talk landscape, mountains, ancient site, radical printmaking, changemaking and fine art. We also talk a folkloric trip to some spots along the Antrim coast with Feargal Lynn, there are ghosts, rock formations, impossible buildings and shipwrecks. Hosted by Matthew Shaw.
Today we walk and talk with film director Christopher Morris in West Penwith, Cornwall. We visit Boscawen Ros East Menhir, Tregiffian Burial Chamber and The Merry Maidens Stone Circle before returning to Christopher's house to continue our conversation out of the wind.Joining us for this episode are film producer Denzil Monk, Stone Club co-founder Lally MacBeth and fine artist Sarah Ball.Christoper and Denzil are the team behind the film A Year in a Field the story of one Cornish field told over...
