The BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards are now in their 19th year, with the 2017 edition proving the genre is as healthy as ever, says PRS for Music’s biggest acoustic fan Michael Hingston.
The terrific show last week was a celebration of the skill of contemporary folk music, with a packed Royal Albert Hall attesting to its popularity.
The awards, hosted by DJ and presenter Mark Radcliffe and Scottish folk singer Julie Fowlis, were presented by a varied bunch of musicians and media personalities, some revealing surprising links with folk music.
For example, who knew that Tony Blackburn fronted a group in the early sixties called Tony Blackburn and the Swinging Bells, which included Al Stewart on guitar?!
Singer and musician Daoirí Farrell, who was little known outside Ireland until a year ago, walked off with the Horizon and Best Traditional Song accolades, in addition to being nominated in the Folk Singer of the Year category.
The Scottish guitarist, singer and songwriter Kris Drever received two awards: Best Original Track and Folk Singer of the Year.
The award presentations were interspersed with fabulous performances that aptly demonstrated the diversity of the music.
Afro Celt Sound System fuse African and Celtic music in an exciting melange, there was a rare UK performance by guitar legend Ry Cooder, Billy Bragg sung a Woody Guthrie song to mark Guthrie’s entrance to the Hall Of Fame and Al Stewart performed On The Border from his classic 1976 album Year Of The Cat.
Elsewhere, the collaborative project The Ballads of Child Migration brought together an impressive bunch of folk artists with a choir of children dressed in period dress.
Daoirí Farrell and the young Scottish female foursome Fara put in excellent performances as did veteran English folk singer Shirley Collins.
Jim Moray closed the show with a big band that included drums, strings, oboe and bass clarinet.
Read about all the winners
The terrific show last week was a celebration of the skill of contemporary folk music, with a packed Royal Albert Hall attesting to its popularity.
The awards, hosted by DJ and presenter Mark Radcliffe and Scottish folk singer Julie Fowlis, were presented by a varied bunch of musicians and media personalities, some revealing surprising links with folk music.
For example, who knew that Tony Blackburn fronted a group in the early sixties called Tony Blackburn and the Swinging Bells, which included Al Stewart on guitar?!
Singer and musician Daoirí Farrell, who was little known outside Ireland until a year ago, walked off with the Horizon and Best Traditional Song accolades, in addition to being nominated in the Folk Singer of the Year category.
The Scottish guitarist, singer and songwriter Kris Drever received two awards: Best Original Track and Folk Singer of the Year.
The award presentations were interspersed with fabulous performances that aptly demonstrated the diversity of the music.
Afro Celt Sound System fuse African and Celtic music in an exciting melange, there was a rare UK performance by guitar legend Ry Cooder, Billy Bragg sung a Woody Guthrie song to mark Guthrie’s entrance to the Hall Of Fame and Al Stewart performed On The Border from his classic 1976 album Year Of The Cat.
Elsewhere, the collaborative project The Ballads of Child Migration brought together an impressive bunch of folk artists with a choir of children dressed in period dress.
Daoirí Farrell and the young Scottish female foursome Fara put in excellent performances as did veteran English folk singer Shirley Collins.
Jim Moray closed the show with a big band that included drums, strings, oboe and bass clarinet.
Read about all the winners
