Various Artists - Les Caravanes (Self Release)

*** This blog post first appeared in TSMM's May 7th Newsletter, where you can get all the tips (and more) first ***

One more quick recommendation from me, or else I’ll never get this newsletter out. Sam Grassie might ring a bell as I tipped his last single in a recent newsletter. Well apart from being a seriously accomplished guitar player he’s something of a serial collaborator and turning into quite the folk community enabler as well.

To launch his latest project, Les Caravanes - a travelling folk club that will apparently be coming to a town near you soon, he’s just released this eye opening snapshot of the British folk underground, and when I say underground I mean it. Only Daisy Rickman rang a bell, and when I thought I’d go through the compilation and follow the artists on Tidal a fair few of them don’t even have a streaming profile or any releases. Don’t let that deter you though this compilation is of the highest order.

The artists are on the whole firmly rooted in British folk tradition with little thought to electronic augmentation, and despite all the tracks being recorded at home the sound quality is great, partly due I’m guessing to Grassie, who also mastered the release.

There’s an unfailing purity to the selection, whether vocal and instrumental tunes, some genuinely great playing and show stopping new voices to discover, the quality really is ridiculously high. Sign up to your local folk venue mailing list and watch out for the live shows. Oh yeah and all proceeds to the compilation go to Migrant Offshore Aid Station, a worthy cause if ever there was one.

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Playlist Companion

For more great roots and alt-folk head over to the Slow Folk Playlist.