Folk on Foot

Matthew’s guest this month is the great Martin Simpson who is celebrating 50 years since the release of his first album with a brilliant new one called “Some Kind of Jubilee”. There’s also music from Richard Thompson, Stornoway, The Wran, Lady Nade, Izzie Walsh, Sairie and Sam Sweeney and Grace Smith. Lucy Shields has the album release and gig news and Matthew reveals the legendary performer who will be joining him on Folk on Foot’s 100th walk.

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Enjoy this classic episode from November 2018.

Seth Lakeman is the Mercury Music Prize nominated singer, fiddle player and guitarist who will forever be associated with Dartmoor. He grew up in the village of Buckland Monachorum with his two brothers Sean and Sam who are also key players on the folk scene. In this episode Seth takes Matthew to the village church to re-create his 2004 recording “Cape Clear”, to the local school to sing “An Educated Man” and to the hills above the Burrator Reservoir where he performs “Kitty Jay”, “The White Hare” and “The Courier”. Along the way he reflects...

Suntou Susso, the griot and kora player from Gambia, now lives in Devon. On a glorious sunny day he takes Matthew for a walk through the beautiful gardens at Dartington Hall, explaining that this place often inspires him to compose new music. Suntou talks about the griot tradition handed down from generation to generation of his family, demonstrates how to play the West African harp - the kora - and sings his uplifting songs against the backdrop of flowers, trees, birds and insects. We also hear about the extraordinary history of Dartington Hall - set up as an experimental...

This month’s show features music from Spell Songs, The Mary Wallopers, Elanor Moss, Rusty Shackle, Gilroy Mere, Colin Stetson and Brighde Chaimbeul, Andy Irvine and Blind Yeo. Lucy Shields previews forthcoming album releases and live music and Matthew Bannister reveals the next episode of Folk on Foot.

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Enjoy this classic episode from October 2019.

For twelve years, the singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Nancy Kerr lived on a narrow boat, travelling the length and breadth of England’s inland waterways. As she walks on the towpath with Matthew Bannister, she tells how the experience inspired many of her songs – and performs two of them: “Queen of Waters” and “Tiller Song”. Nancy explains that folk music was part of her upbringing, with her mother Sandra Kerr a well-known performer and her father a Northumbrian pipe player. Did she ever fall in to the canal? “Yes, about once a month!”...

Join us on a spectacular walk with the band Stornoway in the glorious Gower Peninsula. Lead singer Brian Briggs is an ornithologist who - when he’s not touring with the band - works in a nature reserve in this beautiful area of South Wales. He guides us through woodland rich in bird life to a salt marsh and then on to the beach. Along the way, Brian, Jon and Oli’s voices blend seamlessly as they perform unique acoustic versions of their nature-inspired songs.

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This month’s show features music from Gwenifer Raymond, Cinder Well, Robyn Hitchcock, Arun Sood and Angeline Morrison, Nick Parker and the False Alarms, Joshua Burnside and Dove Ellis. Matthew Bannister reveals the next episode of Folk on Foot and Lucy Shields previews forthcoming releases and gigs.

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Enjoy this classic episode from July 2019.

Regularly voted one of the world’s greatest guitarists, Martin Simpson has been nominated for an astonishing 23 Radio 2 Folk Awards – and won artist of the year twice. He was brought up in the North Lincolnshire steel town of Scunthorpe and takes Matthew on an emotional journey back to his childhood home, explaining how he hid from his formidable mother in the apple tree in the garden, went on imaginary expeditions through a pile of maps he found under a work bench in the garage and was introduced to the natural worl...

Come for a wild and windy walk in the Scottish borders with the brilliant guitarist Jenn Butterworth. We visit the remote farmhouse where she grew up, the pub where she worked as a teenager, the otter statue commemorating Gavin Maxwell and the ancient archaeological site which dates back to 397 AD and the founding of Scotland’s earliest Christian community. There’s time for plenty of music - both traditional and original.

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On this month’s show, Kellie While joins Matthew Bannister to launch a call for entries for the 2026 Folk Album of the Year Award. There are also songs old and new from Emily Portman, Peggy Seeger, Natalie Wildgoose, Phil Odgers and John Kettle, Fink, Sam Carter and Damien Dempsey. Lucy Shields has news of forthcoming releases and gigs and Matthew announces a new episode of Folk on Foot set in the Scottish Borders.

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Enjoy this classic episode from September 2018.

The multi award winning singer Cara Dillon and her husband and musical collaborator Sam Lakeman take Matthew on a walk through the countryside around the Northern Irish town of Dungiven where she was born and brought up. Standing on an iron bridge over the River Roe, Cara sings “The Winding River Roe” with the water rippling by in the background. Then they climb the local mountain known as “The Hill of Thieves” which is also the inspiration for one of Cara’s songs. As the rain begins to fall, they take refug...

We’re going back to Neolithic times with the award winning author Rob Cowen (“Common Ground” and “North Road”) and his friend the actor and singer Johnny Flynn. For two thousand years the Thornborough Henges in what is now Yorkshire were used as ceremonial spaces and later became Bronze Age burial grounds. As we walk through these enormous circular monuments, Rob explains why he’s fascinated by their history and Johnny sings songs of burial and deep time. The pair reflect on their approach to creativity and shared passion for music.

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This month's show features music from Adam Ross, Clementine Lovell, Ryan Young, Laura Cannell, Karine Polwart and Pippa Murphy, Teddy Thompson, Frankie Archer and Tide Lines. Lucy Shields previews forthcoming releases and Matthew Bannister announces the next episode of Folk on Foot.

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Enjoy this classic episode from October 2018.

The former Bellowhead lead singer takes Matthew on a walk near his home on the outskirts of Sheffield. This landscape inspired his 2009 album “Songs from the Floodplain”, which creates a vision of a post apocalyptic future when industrial architecture is decaying and people are returning to a more rural way of life. As they walk down the valley, Jon sings “Going Down to the Wasteland”; by a whirlpool in the River Loxley, he performs "April Queen." Next we visit a disused brick factory - where empty kilns and rusting girders are being...

Folk Album of the Year nominee Joshua Burnside takes us for a walk near his home in East Belfast, singing songs from his latest album “It’s Not Going To Be OK” along the way. He talks movingly about his friend Dean Jendoubi’s death from a drugs overdose - which inspired the album - and also about growing up in a divided city. We end up admiring the dramatic statues of characters from Narnia in C.S. Lewis Square and walking down the Bloomfield Road, as Joshua sings his song “Ghost of the Bloomfield Road” - which captures his reaction...

This month’s show features music from Natalie Wildgoose, Anna McLuckie, Lady Maisery with Jimmy Aldrige and Sid Goldsmith, Lemoncello, The Longest Johns, Chris Brain, Ladylike and Jim Moray. Lucy Shields has a bumper edition of the album preview and gig news and Matthew Bannister will be announcing the next episode of Folk on Foot.

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Enjoy this classic episode from June 2023.

Angeline Morrison’s “The Sorrow Songs - Folk Songs of Black British Experience” was one of the most significant albums of recent times. On this walk near her home in North Cornwall, Angeline talks about her deep love for traditional music and her determination to chronicle in song the experiences of black Britons through history. By the grave of the master and slave who are buried together she sings “Slave No More” and on the beach where she first composed it, she performs “Unknown African Boy, (died 1830)”. There’s also time for a beaut...

We’re in Sherwood Forest on the trail of Robin Hood in the company of Guy Hayward, founder of the British Pilgrimage Trust and former Cambridge choral scholar. As we head to the Major Oak and beyond, Guy shares many theories about the Robin Hood legends, sings ballads about his adventures and extols the joys of pilgrimage. He even dives into a river in search of Robin Hood’s cave.

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Kris Drever is Matthew’s guest on this month’s show, talking about the inspiration behind his new album “Doing This For Love”. There’s also music from Laura Marling, Joshua Burnside, Seafret, Spencer Cullum, Pictish Trail, the Marsh Family and Jenn Butterworth. Lucy Shields has the album release and gig news and Matthew unveils the next episode of Folk on Foot.

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Fairport Convention founder member Simon Nicol joins Matthew Bannister on stage at the Indoor Festival of Folk at Cecil Sharp House to review a musical career lasting over 60 years. Simon talks about teaming up with Ashley Hutchings and Richard Thompson to start Fairport, tells how the band got its name from his family home and gives an emotional account of the motorway crash that killed drummer Martin Lamble and Richard Thompson’s girlfriend Jeannie Franklin. Then he recounts the making of the legendary album Liege and Lief and explains how the band still survives and thrives despite countless line up...

Nearly eight years after they first appeared on Folk on Foot, that irrepressible trio The Young’Uns are back – with Sean Cooney, David Eagle and Michael Hughes performing songs new and old as we climb the Teesside landmark Roseberry Topping. The conversation ranges from learning to laughs – especially given David’s impeccable comic timing. We discuss the challenges of writing songs about living people, hear about the music inspired by the industrial transformation of the area and find out how David used an accordion to contact his Dad in the early hours of the morning. Join us for an upliftin...

Re-live the musical highlights from the spectacular Folk Album of the Year Award Gala at Rochdale Town Hall, with performances from Barry Kerr, Cynefin, Edith WeUtonga, Grace Stewart-Skinner, The Gigspanner Big Band, Joshua Burnside, Peggy Seeger, Poor Creature and Spafford Campbell.

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Katherine Priddy is Matthew’s guest on this month’s show, telling the personal stories behind the songs on her beautiful new album “These Frightening Machines”. There’s also music from Mumford and Sons, Hen Ogledd, Catrin Finch, Lucy Kitchen, Hedera and Georgia Shackleton. Lucy Shields previews forthcoming album releases and gigs and Matthew reveals the next episode of Folk on Foot.

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Enjoy this classic episode from September 2021.

Olivia Chaney wrote many of the songs for her critically acclaimed second solo album whilst living alone without electricity or mains water at her family’s remote and crumbling farmhouse on Hawnby Moor in North Yorkshire. On a hot summer’s day, she takes Matthew Bannister back across the Moor, singing and playing along the way, circled by curlews and lapwings, to share the atmospheric isolation that brought her inspiration.

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We’ve been trying to get Lady Maisery to walk with us on Folk on Foot for ages, so when Matthew heard they were playing a gig in the town of Petworth near where he lives in West Sussex, he invited them to join him in the spacious grounds of Petworth House. With the stately home and the Capability Brown designed landscape in the background, Hazel Askew, Hannah James and Rowan Rheingans brought harp, accordion, fiddle and banjo and added their soaring vocal harmonies. A fascinating insight into the talented musicians who make up one of our finest folk tr...

This month’s show features music from Madra Salach, Ye Vagabonds, Tessa Rose Jackson, Rant, Eliza Marshall, Seth Lakeman and Miniseries. Lucy Shields has the album and gig news and Matthew announces the next episode of Folk on Foot.

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Enjoy this classic episode from January 2024.

The beloved baggy cloth cat Bagpuss is fifty years old in 2024. We celebrate his birthday by visiting Sandra Kerr at her home in the Northumberland village of Warkworth. Sandra co-wrote and arranged the music for the series and provided some of the voices. In her cosy music room she shows us her Bagpuss souvenirs, reflects on the show’s enduring appeal and sings one of the songs. Then, on a walk along the River Coquet, Sandra looks back to the folk revival of the 1960s, recalling working as a nanny fo...

Join the Brothers Gillespie and their devoted fans on a walk across the sands from the Northumberland coast to Holy Island. As we follow in the footsteps of centuries of pilgrims, the Brothers' beautiful harmonies ring out across the waves and we hear stories of Saints Cuthbert and Aiden and King Oswald’s miraculous silver encased arm.

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This month’s show features music from Eliza Marshall, Quinie, Lisa Knapp and Gerry Diver, James Yorkston and Johanna Soderberg, Nina Nesbitt, Martyn Joseph, The New Eves and Nathan Evans and SAINT PHNX. Matthew announces the winners of tickets to the Folk Album of the Year Award Gala and Lucy Shields previews forthcoming gigs and album releases.

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Join us on a walk around the unassuming village of Pathhead, Midlothian, just south of Edinburgh, which is home to a whole galaxy of Scottish musicians.

We start with singer songwriter Karine Polwart, who takes us to meet pianist Dave Milligan and his partner the harpist Corrina Hewat. Then it’s round the corner to see singer and multi-instrumentalist Inge Thomson, her partner Martin Green (of Lau) and their son Ewen, who plays mandolin. They hand us on to bass player Tom Lyne who also creates music using the sounds of the natural world. After a walk wi...

When Alex Merry of Boss Morris, artist Ben Edge, actor Charlie Cooper, singer and naturalist Sam Lee and broadcaster and author Zakia Sewell met in the spectacular Devon countryside to decide which folk projects should receive a share of a £50,000 grant from the organic perfume company Ffern, we couldn’t resist going along. We gathered these amazing talents around a campfire for a song from Sam. Then began a wide ranging discussion about why young people are increasingly fascinated by this country’s folk music and customs and why this connection matters. (Includes vivid descriptions of The Abbots Bromley Horn...

On this month’s show, Matthew reveals how you can win exclusive tickets to the Folk Album of the Year Award gig at Rochdale Town Hall on March 17th. There’s also music from Kate Rusby, The Magpie Arc, Laura Cannell, St. Agnes Fountain, Skinny Lister and Michael McGovern. Lucy Shields previews Celtic Connections and brings news of the latest releases.

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Enjoy this classic episode from December 2022.

A festive episode featuring the Wexford Carols sung by the beautiful voice of Caitriona O’Leary. The carols came out of the persecution of Catholics in Wexford in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and were written by Bishop Luke Waddinge and Father William Devereux. Caitriona takes Matthew Bannister to the Franciscan church where Bishop Waddinge is buried and to St Aidan’s Cathedral in Enniscorthy where the area’s most famous carol was collected. We also meet the retired fisherman Dixie Devereux whose father sang the carols every Christmas for 62 years...

Throw another log on the fire, pour yourself a cup of something hot and cheering and come with us in search of Winterfolk in West Yorkshire. With Santa hat firmly in place, we walk with Katie Spencer in Golcar, meet up with Maddie Morris on their way to a Lefty Christmas gig and end up at a gorgeous Christmas homecoming concert with O’Hooley and Tidow in “The Cathedral of the Colne Valley” - St Bartholomew’s Church, Marsden. On the way we reflect on the meaning of Christmas, spare a thought for those without family and friends at this tim...

The Turnstone is an inquisitive bird that, as it name suggests, likes to overturn stones and seaweed in its search for food. That’s how the members of the Gigspanner Big Band see their hunt for the finest traditional songs to re-arrange, burnish and present for our delight. In this conversation with Matthew Bannister, the band’s Peter Knight, Hannah Martin and John Spiers share the stores behind the songs on their Folk Album of the Year nominated work “Turnstone”- and revel in the musical chemistry which allows the band to improvise much of their free flowing music.

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“Our first gig together was a benefit for a greyhound” The dog loving trio who make up Irish band Poor Creature are husband and wife Ruth Clinton (of Landless) and Cormac Macdiarmada (of Lankum) - plus Cormac’s brother, Lankum’s live drummer John Dermody. In this conversation with Matthew Bannister they reveal a passion for unusual vintage synthesisers, tell how Cormac breaking his back during the pandemic lockdown inspired the sound of one of the tracks on the album and share insights into working with legendary Dublin producer John “Spud” Murphy.

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Born in Zimbabwe - but now resident in the UK - Edith WeUtonga is known as Mama Bass - because that’s the instrument she has made her own. She’s also an acclaimed singer, songwriter, and campaigner for musicians' rights. In this conversation with Matthew Bannister, she tells how the death of her beloved grandmother inspired her to write the songs that make up her Folk Album of the Year nominated work “Varipasi”.

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"My first kiss with Irene was behind some wheelie bins in Penge." As she celebrates her ninetieth birthday, the legendary Peggy Seeger unpacks her current feelings about “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” - written for her by her late husband Ewan MacColl, but now also embracing her other passionate loving relationship. She revisits the song on her final album “Teleology”, nominated as one of the Folk Albums of 2025. In this special episode Peggy and her son, producer and musician Calum MacColl, tell the story behind the album as she reflects on a musical career lasting over seven de...

An old recording of her grandfather reciting a poem in the Scots dialect of the little Black Isle fishing village where he lived inspired the clarsach (Scottish harp) player Grace Stewart-Skinner to create her Folk Album of the Year nominee “Auchies Spikking Auchie”. She mixed recordings of the dialect with her own music to create the evocative album. In this episode, she tells Matthew Bannister the story behind the album and also reflects on living with cerebral palsy - and her mixed feelings about being called “an inspiration”.

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Recorded in a former office space in Belfast City Centre, Joshua Burnside’s Folk Album of the Year Nominee “Teeth of Time” was inspired by his experience of becoming a father for the first time. He tells the story behind the album and plays tracks from it in this conversation with Matthew Bannister.

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