Dispatches for the curious. Stuff that's neat.
Section: Folk and Americana
Friday, October 23, 2026

I'm With Her on stage: Goldmine on the live album Sing Me Alive

Posted by Captain Queso on Friday October 23, 2026 @3:54AM in Folk and Americana
from the three-part-harmony-in-real-time dept.

Fresh off a Grammy for Wild and Clear and Blue, the trio put out a record of what they sound like in a room, which is where three-part harmony either holds or doesn't. Aoife O'Donovan walks through the songs and her recent guest turns. A little older than our usual news, included here simply because it's lovely.

Goldmine reviews Sing Me Alive, a live album drawn from I'm With Her's 2025 concerts, with Aoife O'Donovan talking about tracks including Find My Way to You, Overland and Mother Eagle, and about guesting on records by Sierra Hull and by Alison Brown and Steve Martin.

Fraser and Haas, 25 years in: Strings reviews Meridians

Posted by Captain Queso on Friday October 23, 2026 @3:53AM in Folk and Americana
from the fiddle-meets-cello-meets-quarter-century dept.

Scottish fiddle and cello shouldn't make this much rhythm between them, but Fraser and Haas have been proving otherwise for a quarter of a century. The review singles out Haas's writing, which is worth noticing if you know her mainly as the engine under Fraser's tunes. An August review, here as a bit of decoration.

Strings Magazine reviews Meridians, the duo's seventh album and first since 2021, covering new tunes by both players, from a stirring opener by Haas to a quiet closing piece by Fraser, with medleys and dance sets in between.
Read the rest of this story (Strings Magazine)

Louise Bichan's take on the old ballad Greenwood Sidie-o, with Kris Drever

Posted by Captain Queso on Friday October 23, 2026 @2:46AM in Folk and Americana
from the murder-ballads-before-breakfast dept.

An Orkney fiddler, a grim Scottish ballad and a Boston-heavy band of players, which makes it a neat bridge between two of this feed's favourite places. Listen for how the strings carry the story while the voices stay plain. She animated the video herself, too.

Folk Alley premieres the video for Bichan's arrangement of the traditional ballad, with Kris Drever and Rachel Sermanni on vocals and a string section arranged with fiddler Katie McNally. It is the third single from her album Binnorie, due 30 October.