Tag Archives: underground folk

Tanglefoot

Stan Rogers meets Van Halen” is how one fan described them, and Tanglefoot is indeed a mix of sweeping Canadiana and rampaging enthusiasm.

Perhaps best known for their exquisite vocal polish and relentless energy, they’re also a band with substantial instrumental agility and are a noteworthy group of songwriters. “Masters of the storytelling tradition, (with) elegant, sensitive musicianship and an impressive range of talent”, according to BBC Yorkshire, while Robert Reid of the Kitchener-Waterloo Record called them “Canada’s most accomplished musical mythologizers”. Their monumental acapella song “Vimy” (The Music in the Wood, 1996) led to their taking part in the dedication of the restored memorial at Vimy, France on April 9, 2007 (at the same time, the Canadian Celtic Choir was performing the same song on Capitol Hill in Ottawa)…Read More

Tanglefoot Canadian Folk Roots Band singing Seven A Side


Tinariwen

Tinariwen (Tamashek: ⵜⵏⵔⵓⵏ “empty places”) is a band of Tuareg musicians from the Sahara Desert region of northern Mali. Formed in 1982, by the early 2000s Tinariwen had gained a following in the world music community by frequently playing at international music festivals.

Amassakoul — Tinariwen from Live 8 Eden Africa Calling

Check out Music of the Resistance

O’Death

Oh, death, how you’re treatin’ me / You’ve closed my eyes so I can’t see / Well you’re hurtin’ my body / You make me cold / You run my life right outta my soul.”

Those words, most famously crooned a cappella by bluegrass legend Ralph Stanley on the song “O’Death”, begged a creeping Grim Reaper to spare him another year. The song is haunting, bare, remarkably soulful, and a guiding light for five musicians who met in the early part of the decade while attending SUNY-Purchase, a state school in the suburbs of New York City. With a hankering for Gothic roots music, the band snatched the song title as its moniker and formed in 2003. READ MORE

O’Death is:
greg jamie – vocals, guitar
gabe darling – backing vocals, ukulele, guitar, banjo, piano
davd rb – drums, whoop
bob pycior – fiddle, guitar, piano
othar the tooth collector – bass
dan sager – trombone, euphonium, keys

O’ Death @ Whelans, Dublin, 24.06.07

The Men They Couldn’t Hang

The Men They Couldn’t Hang are a British rock band whose mixture of folk and punk is not dissimilar to that of The Pogues (in fact founder member Shanne Bradley was an original female punk artist and founder of Shane MacGowan’s first band, The Nipple Erectors).

The original group consisted of Stefan Cush (Vocals, Guitar), Paul Simmonds (Guitar, Bouzouki, Mandolin, Keyboards), Philip “Swill” Odgers (Vocals, Guitar, Tin Whistle, Melodica), Jon Odgers (Drums, Percussion) and Shanne Bradley (Bass).

TMTCH MySpace Page

The Men They Couldn’t Hang – The Crest


Future of the Left

Future of the Left is an alternative rock band from Cardiff, Wales. It consists of singer/guitarist Andy “Falco” Falkous and drummer Jack Egglestone, both previously of Cardiff band McLusky, alongside singer/bassist Kelson Mathias, formerly of the Ammanford-based group Jarcrew. The band previously featured Hywel Evans, who has since gone on to start one of Cardiff’s only notable math-rock bands, Truckers of Husk – he was also a former member of Jarcrew towards the end of Jarcrew’s tenure (Evans is also credited as a writer on Fingers Become Thumbs’ B-side, The Fibre Provider). The band formed in mid-2005 after both Mclusky and Jarcrew split up.

The band’s Web Site and their MySpace page

Future Of The Left – ‘adeadenemyalwayssmellsgood’


Scary Crick

Scary Crick is the acoustic alter-ego of the progressive punk rock band, The Rubes*

Scary Crick – St Patrick’s Day 2007

* The Rubes


The Levellers

The Levellers are an English rock band influenced by punk and traditional English music. They are based in Brighton, England where they were founded in 1988. The band is outspoken about green anarchism issues and they have built up a strong and devoted fanbase, despite being nearly universally ignored by mainstream media.

The band’s MySpace page

Review: Levellers Live - Cambridge Junction 23 April 2010

One Way Live – Levellers


The Speckers

The Speckers come from the hills of southern Vermont and they play bona fide American “trad”

The Speckers – Waste My Time @ Banjo Jim’s, NYC

Back in the Day
John Specker at the Grassroots Festival 1996 (fiddle by Specker – percussion by feet)

Jason Webley

Jason Webley: A man with an Accordion

“He’s got stagecraft, he’s got a hat that walks about his head and then the stage as his set progresses and he’s got Russian drinking songs (just the thing to induce audience participation in Glasgow!). Cabaret around a gypsy campfire might describe him adequately. So would fantastic.” — The Bluesbunny Live Reviews

Jason Webley’s website

His MySpace site

Wikipedia Entry

Jason Webley “Dance While The Sky Crashes Down” – Live in LA

Winter Dream Stars

bowBarney Murray, founder of Blood or Whiskey has teamed up with ex-BOW banjo player Paul Walshe, plus guitarist brother David Walshe to release a number of songs with Winter Dream Stars. They are available completely FREE for fans to listen and download on their MySpace page

X-ref  Blood or Whiskey 2008