folk | Musicosity

folk

Scott Matthews

From the confinements of four bedroom walls in the West Midlands, Scott Matthews produced the music that made him the first artist to be signed to record label San Remo Records in 2004. As a Wolverhampton-born singer/songwriter Scott has captivated audiences across the Midlands and beyond. On the 2nd of October 2006 he released his debut album Passing Stranger. At seven years old Matthews aquired his first guitar, a junior-sized 'Kapok' acoustic (which he still has), although things didn’t quite go to plan.

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M. Ward

Stage name of Portland, Oregon based singer-songwriter Matt Ward. Ward grew up in Newbury Park, CA and attended Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. Ward was previously with the band Rodriguez, which included bassist Kyle Field (of Little Wings fame) and drummer Mike Funk. They recorded and released on cassette Box Plots and Cash Crops and then the album Swing Like a Metronome in 2000. Duet for Guitars #2 was released by Howe Gelb on his Ow Om record label. Ward's 2001 album, End of Amnesia, was put out by Future Farmer Records and his subsequent albums have been released on Merge Records.

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Dan Parsons

At just 21, it’s somewhat surprising that Dan Parsons has already been on the scene for a couple of years. Having made his foray into the musical world with his heritage-flavoured debut release Old Brown Shoe in 2007, Parsons continued on this path for a short time. Then after gradually being absorbed by a new musical world of peers and influences he found a new desire to make a different type of music.

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Slow Club

Slow Club are Charles Watson and Rebecca Taylor from Sheffield, United Kingdom. They sing using quirky lyrics, a variety of percussion instruments and great vocal interplay. They are currently releasing singles on Moshi Moshi Records and have been on nationwide tours with bands such as Fionn Regan, Noisettes, Hot Club de Paris, Tilly and the Wall, Jamie T and Jeremy Warmsley. The pair have released a series of EPs: Because We're Dead, Me And You, Let's Fall Back in Love, Christmas TV and It Doesn't Have To Be Beautiful. Their debut album, Yeah So, was released on 7 July 2009.

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Ups & Downs

This can refer to two different bands: 1. Brisbane band Ups and Downs
2. Norwegian downsrock band Ups & Downs from Molde 1. Brisbane band Ups and Downs played a brand of ethereal, well-crafted, jangly guitar pop that called to mind Australian post-punk icons The Church. The bands influences also extended to overseas groups like Cocteau Twins, R.E.M., and Flamin' Groovies.
Indeed, the name Ups and Downs was derived from a track on the Flamin' Groovies 1978 album, Now.

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Bon Iver

Bon Iver is a Grammy Award winning folk band from Eau Claire, Wisconsin, United States, and one of Justin Vernon's current and most notable music projects to date. The band also consists of Mike Noyce, Sean Carey and Matt MacCaughan.

The name 'Bon Iver' (pronounced "bon ee-VAIR") is a play on the French phrase 'bon hiver' meaning 'good winter'. Vernon independently released Bon Iver's debut album For Emma, Forever Ago in 2007, most of which was recorded during a four-month stay in a remote cabin in Wisconsin.

While in high school and college Vernon founded the indie-rock bands Mount Vernon and DeYarmond Edison in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, where he still resides.

According to the For Emma Songfacts, after the break-up of De Yarmond Edison, Vernon retreated to his father's log cabin, out in the woods of north-east Wisconsin to hibernate for three snowy months. There he collected his thoughts and formulated them into a suite of songs, For Emma, Forever Ago . The album was originally self-released in late 2007 in a run of 500 copies and sold out instantly.

The album garnered critical acclaim, and was picked up by the indie-rock label Jagjaguwar, which gave the album a proper release on February 19th, 2008. The album was released in the UK and Europe by iconic indie 4AD on May 12, 2008.

When released in the UK, For Emma, Forever Ago received 5/5 and "Album of the Month" reviews in both MOJO and Uncut magazines. It is currently the third highest rated album of 2008 on review-aggregator site Metacritic, with accolades from publications including The Village Voice, The Hartford Courant and The A.V. Club.

The group's second album Bon Iver, Bon Iver was released on June 17, 2011 to universal acclaim. It was named by Pitchfork Media as the best album of 2011 on their annual list. At the 2012 Grammys, the album won Best Alternative Album and the group was awarded Best New Artist, despite having debuted in 2007.

www.boniver.org Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.

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City and Colour

City and Colour is the recording alias for Canadian singer-songwriter Dallas Green, who is also the guitarist and vocalist of the St. Catharines, Ontario-based post-hardcore band Alexisonfire. He plays melodic acoustic/folk music, and is often accompanied by a rotating number of Canadian indie rock musicians, such as Daniel Romano and Spencer Burton of Attack in Black. The name City and Colour comes from his own name: Dallas, a city, and Green, a colour. His reasoning for the name was that he felt queasy "putting the album out under the name Dallas Green".

Green began releasing City and Colour songs on the Internet for fans to download in 2004. Eventually, he compiled and rewrote several of these songs to make his first album, Sometimes. The full length debut was released on November 1, 2005 to a good reception, described by one reviewer as "dynamically gentle and vulnerable". The cover art was designed by Scott McEwan, in a tattoo-esque style; Green "still may decide to have some of them inked at a later point in time". Sometimes was re-released on Vagrant Records on January 13, 2009, which was the first time the album was available in physical form in the United States.

Green's second album, Bring Me Your Love, was released on February 12, 2008 and features a wide array of instruments not used on his previous recordings (such as harmonica, banjo, drums and lap steel) giving it a more folk-influenced sound. The album also features collaborations with other musicians, such as Canadian musician Gordon Downie of The Tragically Hip on the track "Sleeping Sickness", and additional instrumentals done by Matt Sullivan and the members of Attack in Black. The lead single, "Waiting...", was released on Green's official MySpace page for the first time featuring a "making of" video. The album is named after a short story by Charles Bukowski. It is also a line sung in the closing track, "As Much As I Ever Could."

On September 26, 2008, City and Colour embarked on their first American tour, in support of Bring Me Your Love. On the tour, the band supported Tegan and Sara along with Girl in a Coma. This tour was followed by a headlining tour of the US in January 2009, with support from William Elliott Whitmore. In October 2008, Dine Alone Records announced a special 2-disc limited edition of Bring Me Your Love to be released on December 2, 2008. Only 6,000 copies are available; 5,000 in North America and 1,000 in Australia.[5] In Canada, when the record label put up the album on pre-sale on November 20, 2008, so many fans tried to pre-order it that the store's website crashed.

In January 2010, City and Colour embarked on an additional US headlining tour, again supporting Bring Me Your Love, with supporting act Lissie, and an additional UK tour in June 2010, supporting P!nk, along with Butch Walker, along with a few headlining dates. On these tours, Dallas Green performed two new songs by the titles of "Silver and Gold" and "Oh Sister", as well as a couple of never-played-before covers - "Murderer", originally by Low, and "Grinnin' In Your Face", originally by Son House.

On February 23, 2011, it was officially announced on the Dine Alone Records website that City and Colour's third album would be titled Little Hell and was set for release in June 2011. On March 23, 2011, the official track listing was posted on City and Colour's official website. On April 5, 2011, "Fragile Bird", the first single off Little Hell was released to the radio. The song had its world premiere on Australian radio station Triple J, where the band was touring at the time. The single became City and Colour's highest charting single, reaching No. 1 on the Canadian rock/alternative chart. On August 5, 2011, Alexisonfire announced their break-up. George Pettit wrote a message on the band's official website saying Dallas had been planning to leave to focus on City and Colour, as balancing the two bands had become too difficult.

City and Colour announced the release of the new album entitled The Hurry and the Harm to be released on June 4, 2013. The song "Of Space and Time" was released on March 11, 2013 prior to the announcement of the new album. The song "Thirst" was released on April 1, 2013 on City and Colour's Soundcloud page.

City and Colour announced the release of the new album entitled If I Should Go Before You to be released on October 9, 2015. The song "Woman" was released exclusively on Beats 1 station on Apple Radio on July 15, 2015 hosted by Zane Lowe.

www.cityandcolour.ca
www.myspace.com/dallasgreen Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.

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Sparrow and the Workshop

Glasgow-based dark folk trio Sparrow and The Workshop comprises of Belfast-born, Chicago-raised Jill O’Sullivan (vocals/guitar/violin), Welshman Nick Packer (guitar/bass) and Scotsman Gregor Donaldson (drums/vocals.) Their first full-length album 'Crystals Fall' was released in April 2010 by Distiller Records to critical acclaim. Clash Magazine called it "a brilliant debut album that will be hard to beat in 2010", Mojo said "ignore them if you dare", and Drowned in Sound said of the album "Everything on Crystals Fall is delivered with such an assured...

Martha Wainwright

Singer-songwriter Martha Wainwright is the daughter of Loudon Wainwright III and Kate McGarrigle, and the sister of Rufus Wainwright. She has frequently appeared on recordings by her family members, and has released several independent EPs. Her full length self-titled debut was released in 2005 by Drowned in Sound, followed in 2008 by I Know You're Married But I've Got Feelings Too.

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