Click here to find out about the Winners and the Night
As many of you will be aware, the BBC Folk Awards take place this Wednesday 22 April in Cardiff, we’re really looking forward to attending again this year as we’ve featured many of the artists who have been nominated, so this a great opportunity to meet them all.
The event will be hosted by Radio 2 Folk Show presenter Mark Radcliffe alongside Scottish Gaelic singer Julie Fowlis who will also be performing on the night.
The evening will feature a whole host of star guests and will see legendary performer Yusuf / Cat Stevens headlining. Also confirmed to perform live on the night are Grammy Award-winning artist Loudon Wainwright III whose album I Haven’t Got The Blues (Yet) was a Featured Album here on FRUK. Other performers on the night include Kami Thompson and James Walbourne, best known to most of you as The Rails who are nominated in the Best Album for their debut release Fair Warning and Horizon Award category for the best emerging act. London based duo and long-time favourites on FRUK Josienne Clarke and Ben Walker will also be performing. The duo are nominated in the Best Album category for Nothing Can Bring Back the Hour which was a Featured Album of the Month here on FRUK. The pair have also been nominated in the Best Duo category. Another FRUK Featured Album of the Month was TINCIAN, the long awaited follow-up from Welsh folk band 9Bach who will be taking to the stage on the night as will English folk singer Kate Rusby whose album Ghost was also a Featured Album of the Month.
Star guests who will be handing out some of the gongs on the night include 6 Music’s Cerys Matthews, Gavin and Stacey and Stella actress Ruth Jones and singer songwriter Billy Bragg.
The evening will also see singer, songwriter, record producer, playwright, actor and political activist Ewan MacColl inducted into the Radio 2 Folk Award Hall of Fame. MacColl played a vital role in instigating the folk song revival in Britain and is perhaps best known for his much covered songs ‘Dirty Old Town’ and ‘The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face’. Throughout his career MacColl produced around 300 songs and scores of albums and 2015 marks the centenary of his birth.
The BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards will be broadcast live from 7.30pm-10pm on Radio 2 and will also be simulcast on BBC Radio Wales. From 10pm to 11pm, BBC Radio Wales will be broadcasting the official after show programme presented by Frank Hennessy. The interval will feature performances from the nominees for the Young Folk Award 2015.
Highlights of the awards will be shown at a later date on BBC iPlayer and on Red Button.
Below, you can find a list of all the nominees. Those we have reviewed during 2014 have links.
BBC RADIO 2 FOLK AWARD NOMINEES
Folk Singer of the Year
Cara Dillon (read our review of A Thousand Hearts)
Julie Fowlis
Nancy Kerr
Jez Lowe
Best Duo
Josienne Clarke & Ben Walker (read our review of Nothing Can Bring Back the Hour)
O’Hooley & Tidow (read our review of The Hum)
Greg Russell & Ciaran Algar (read our review of The Call)
Chris While & Julie Matthews
Best Group
Bellowhead (read our review of Revival)
The Furrow Collective (read our review of At Our Next Meeting)
The Gloaming (read our review of The Gloaming)
The Young’Uns (read our review of Never Forget)
Best Album
(Voting now closed)
Album titles linked to reviews on FRUK
Fair Warning – The Rails
Nothing Can Bring Back The Hour – Josienne Clarke & Ben Walker
Sweet Visitor – Nancy Kerr
The Moral Of The Elephant – Martin & Eliza Carthy
Tincian – 9Bach
Horizon Award
Ange Hardy (read our review of The Lament of the Black Sheep)
Maz O’Connor (read our review of This Willowed Light)
Stick In The Wheel (read our review of Bones EP)
The Rails (read our review of Fair Warning)
Musician of the Year
Martin Green (read our review of Crows Bones)
Will Pound (read our review of Haddo – Borderlands)
Sam Sweeney (read about Made in the Great War)
Kathryn Tickell (read our review of Kathryn Tickell and The Side)
Best Original Song
Swim To The Star – Peggy Seeger/Calum MacColl (performed by Peggy Seeger)
The Necklace Of Wrens – Michael Hartnett (performed by The Gloaming)
The Pitmen Poets – Jez Lowe
The Spider And The Wolf – Paul Simmonds (performed by Naomi Bedford) Read our review of A history of Insolence.
Best Traditional Track
Bedlam – Stick In The Wheel
Handsome Molly – The Furrow Collective
Manus Mo Rùin – Cruinn
Samhradh Samhradh – The Gloaming
BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Award
Cup O’Joe
Roseanne Reid
Talisk
Wildwood Kin
BBC Folk Awards 2015 (2CD)
Don’t miss the Double CD Proper Music Distribution featuring 27 tracks including the Young Folk Award Nominees.
