The Furrow Collective and Stick In The Wheel are the new folk for Band Room

"The Furrow Collective are four giants of modern folk music, Rachel Newton, Lucy Farrell, Emily Portman and Alasdair Roberts, whose latest work, Wild Hog, reminds us of the dark, quirky, exotic songs of two all-time Band Room favourites: The Handsome Family and Michael Hurley," says Nigel.

"Essentially they're four fine soloists sharing a mutual love of traditional songs, from both sides of the English and Scottish borders, and backing it up with exquisitely inventive, boundary-defying musicianship."

Released last November on Hudson Records, Wild Hog was produced by Andy Bell, as was its 2014 predecessor, At Our Next Meeting. "The latest album reveals a quantum leap in the group's sound and style and also features brilliant guest contributions by Alex Neilson, from Trembling Bells, on drums and Stevie Jones, from Sound Of Yell, on double bass," says Nigel.

Wild Hog spans such subjects as swan murder on Polly Vaughn, ghosts, sex and defilement on Willie's Fatal Visit and rape, defiance and childbirth on Prince Heathen in a series of re-worked, revitalised traditional songs with death, magic and darkness at their heart.

Stick In The Wheel

Stick In The Wheel will arrive in the North York Moors on May 20 to make their Band Room debut. Should you need an introduction, this is what they say of themselves: "We play the music of our people. We sing in our own accents. We record in our kitchens and living rooms. This is our culture, our tradition."

"If this incendiary live band isn't the hottest new band in folk, we don't know what is," says Nigel. "We wanted to see 'the band that makes Mumford & Sons sound like Roger Whittaker' at Whitby Rifle Club last September but couldn't make it, so we invited them to our place instead to play 'the shed that rocks'.

"Winners of awards too numerous to mention, Stick In The Wheel are folk revivalists with punk attitude whose 2015 debut album, From Here, received four-star reviews in Mojo, the Guardian, the Observer, Record Collector and Songlines."

Lead singer Nicola Kearey and guitarist Ian Carter have curated, recorded and produced a new album for release on March 17, made with a who's who of folk luminaries. Entitled From Here: English Folk Field Recordings, it features new recordings by Jon Boden; John Kirkpatrick; Martin Carthy; Spiro; Eliza Carthy; Fay Hield; Sam Lee; Wolf People's Jack Sharp; Men Diamler; Bella Hardy; Stew Simpson; Lisa Knapp; Peta Webb & Ken Hall; Sam Sweeney and Rob Harbron, along with Stick In The Wheel's Kearey and Fran Foote.

"We set out to make a collection of live recordings – a snapshot of English folk music right now," says Nicola. "We wanted to capture performances that were immediate and intimate. You feel like you’re in the room with them, hearing a continuation of a tradition which is very much alive, and evolving.

Eliza Carthy

"We didn’t know most of these people, being new to the folk scene, but we could see across the breadth of England what a wide range of music and styles there were. When we approached the artists, most of them said yes without question, and trusted us with their art.

"We were welcomed into private and personal spaces, in down-time and between gigs. Often we were done within the hour, then packed away in the boot of the car, and on to the next one."

Whether in a stone cottage in Edale, a London bank vault, a Bristol back room, a Robin Hood's Bay garden at dusk or a Bedford kitchen, each artist was asked to ponder what "From Here" meant to them. "It could be by way of place or geography, as a way of looking back to musical origins, or simply where they are at this very moment in time: ‘here’s what I am, this is where I’m from’," says Nicola. "Then we just recorded them live, in situ, two stereo mics, no overdubs. Exactly as if you were right there."

Could Stick In The Wheel repeat this creative process in the future? "Of course there are people we don’t know about, or couldn’t get," says Nicola. "There is always next time."

Tickets for The Band Room's 7.30pm concerts at Low Mill, Farndale, near Kirkbymoorside, are on sale at thebandroom.co.uk or on 01751 432900.