CD: Duncan Chisholm - Live at Celtic Connections

CD: DUNCAN CHISHOLM - LIVE AT CELTIC CONNECTIONS Widescreen musical wonders from the 'Strathglass Trilogy'

Widescreen musical wonders from the 'Strathglass Trilogy'

Chisholm was born and raised in Inverness in the Scottish Highlands, and was tutored by great fiddler player, composer and instrument maker Donald Riddell. He's a regular player with Julie Fowlis and with his own band Wolfstone, and this is a live recording of his epic Strathglass Trilogy. Originally released on the Copperfish label, the trilogy was six years in the making, and features the award-winning Farrar (2008), Canaich (2010) and Affric (2012). 

Album of the Year: John Fullbright - From the Ground Up

Sensational start from Oklahoma-born singer-songwriter

It's a happy coincidence that John Fullbright hails from Woody Guthrie's home town of Okemah, Oklahoma, but his debut album presents an artist who is far from being a mere clone of the fabled balladeer. A spin through the dozen tracks on From the Ground Up reveals traces of blues, country, gospel, folk and rock, all handled with rough-hewn earthiness.

The Waterboys, New Alexandra Theatre, Birmingham

A rousing 25th anniversary celebration of Fisherman's Blues

It’s now twenty five years since the release of the Waterboys’ most popular album, Fisherman’s Blues. To mark this auspicious occasion, Mike Scott has persuaded EMI to release a six-CD expanded version, Fisherman’s Box, which has 120-odd tracks of the type of music that, let’s not forget, did not receive universal acclaim in 1988 but has significantly grown in stature since then. He’s also called in the guys who recorded these folk, gospel, country and bluegrass flavoured tunes and has hit the road for a proper celebration of their “raggle-taggle gypsy” years.

Get Folked: The Great Folk Revival, More4

GET FOLKED, MORE4 Entertaining if unsatisfactory trawl through recent history of folk music

An entertaining if unsatisfactory trawl through folk music's recent history and current popularity

I can’t say I ever tune into More4, so I confess that I don’t know whether its arts strand is any good, or even if it has one. But I suspect that Get Folked might have made a better three-parter on BBC Four, and not just for dedicated folk-heads. As it was, it tried to pack a lot into its 50 minutes (though allowing only 10 seconds for Mumford and Sons might be seen as a blessing by some) and it did so with a lot of seasoned hyperbole.

Linda Perhacs, Kantine am Berghain, Berlin

After decades in obscurity, the enigmatic California folkie makes her first ever European performance

There's been a quiet but nevertheless palpable sense of anticipation surrounding psych-folk enigma Linda Perhacs' first-ever European tour. Comparatively low-key advance publicity certainly proved no impediment to a sold-out house for the recent opening date at Berlin's Kantine am Berghain, a somewhat drab and unprepossessing bunker in the shadow of the city's notorious techno temple.

Billy Bragg, Royal Festival Hall

BILLY BRAGG, ROYAL FESTIVAL HALL Erstwhile firebrand proves the political passions are smouldering with a new set of Americana-influenced songs

Erstwhile firebrand proves the political passions are smouldering with a new set of Americana-influenced songs

Setting bankers, Baroness Thatcher, tax-dodging multinationals and Woody Guthrie to music? These days, it could only be a Billy Bragg gig. Reports of Bragg losing his political teeth, based on slightly guarded reviews of his latest album, Tooth & Nail, are on the evidence of last night greatly exaggerated. This is a songwriter who could no more detach his ideology than his right arm, and still play his guitar.  

Volcano Choir, O2 Academy Bristol

Wisconsin band featuring Justin Vernon of Bon Iver on first European tour

It’s surprising how a singer with as little obvious presence or charisma as Justin Vernon can carry a live show, but he does. The power is in the otherworldly voice, and haunting songs with mysterious lyrics, carried on a wall of sound in the tradition of those “little symphonies for the kids” that Phil Spector pioneered half a century ago.

Just in From Scandinavia: Nordic Music Round-Up 9

JUST IN FROM SCANDINAVIA: NORDIC MUSIC ROUND-UP 9 Norway and beyond have a lot more to say than Ylvis’s 'The Fox'

Norway and beyond have a lot more to say than Ylvis’s 'The Fox'

Norway is currently attracting an uncommon degree of attention due to the absurd “The Fox (What Does the Fox Say?)” by Ylvis, the comedy duo Bård and Vegard Ylvisåker. The country’s mainstream music hasn’t been this newsworthy since a-ha conquered the world in 1985. After 150 million YouTube hits for “The Fox”, the figure is still rising.

Gwlad y Gân/Land of Song, Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff

GWLAD Y GÂN/LAND OF SONG, WALES MILLENNIUM CENTRE, CARDIFF WOMEX is welcomed to Wales by Cerys Matthews and a captivating national songbook

WOMEX is welcomed to Wales by Cerys Matthews and a captivating national songbook

When the term “world music” became a category in record stores, it’s doubtful that triple harps, cerdd dant and canu plygain would have been thought to belong under the umbrella. And yet here they were on display at WOMEX. The annual world music expo has put down roots in Cardiff this year, and to bid welcome to the delegates Cerys Matthews hosted a celebration of traditional Welsh music under the title Gwlad y Gân/Land of Song. Bar the odd burst of Under Milk Wood and a version of "Men of Harlech", very little of it was, for obvious reasons, in English.

Roy Harper, Royal Festival Hall

ROY HARPER, ROYAL FESTIVAL HALL An emotion-filled evening from a revitalised British great

An emotion-filled evening from a revitalised British great

It had to finish with “When an Old Cricketer Leaves the Crease”, the commentary on a building block of British life which marks the passing of time more acutely than anything explicitly counting the minutes which precede leaving the field, whether in sport or life. Roy Harper originally released this elegy in 1975, when he was in his 30s. As last night’s encore, it was even more poignant. Harper is now 72. There were moments when he explicitly said he might not see an audience again. He was in fine form: alive, joking, scatty and, at times, on fire.