The first-ever Folk Album of the Year Award shortlist was announced earlier this week and is supported by Rochdale Development Agency forming a key part of Rochdale’s 2026 Town of Culture celebrations.
Inspired by the tried-and-tested Mercury Prize the Award follows a Mercury-style format and spotlights nine of the most artistically merited folk albums released across Britain and Ireland this year.
All Smiles Tonight – Poor Creature (reviewed by The Guardian): Teleology – Peggy Seeger (interviewed by The Guardian and BBC Oxfordshire); Auchies Spikkin’ Auchie – Grace Stewart Skinner (featured on BBC Scotland); Curlew’s Cry – Barry Kerr; Teeth of Time – Joshua Burnside; Shimli – Cynefin (reviewed by The Guardian); Tomorrow Held – Spafford Campbell; Turnstone – Gigspanner Big Band (reviewed by Unicorn Folk) & Varipasi – Edith WeUtonga
There is some encouraging early news about Cambridge Folk Festival 2026 and Frank Turner, Suzanne Vega and Richard Thompson with Zara Phillips have been announced as the headliners. It seems that there is a plan to have more events taking place in Cambridge itself around the time of the festival and tickets go on sale on Wednesday 3rdDecember at 10am. More information can be found on the festival website HERE.
We are fast approaching the festive season and St Agnes Fountain will be on the road again in December (see Gigs & Tours Listing on the main Unicorn Folk website) though you will be lucky if you can get tickets for most of the gigs which are already sold out including our most local venue Hitchin Folk Club. To compensate you can listen to their just released new album, Flakes & Flurries, on Spotify though at the time of writing it didn’t seem to be quite yet available on the St Agnes website.
On the subject of festive gigs, the Unicorn Diary has just been updated to include 40 plus gigs which are taking place in the region, and a little further afield, during December. If you would like yours included as a FREE listing in the Unicorn Diary then just email info@unicornfolk.uk with the details. The Diary will be updated soon for the new year so any details/listings of events at clubs and other venues will also be very welcome.
Three of those festive gigs involve a combination of Honey and the Bear & Kyson Point performing under the title of Wintersong (see Featured Events on the main Unicorn Folk website) and I have been quite impressed by the latter’s new debut album Underwater Sky. You can hear a couple of tracks from that album on the latest Filby’s Folk podcast which I hope to complete and have loaded under Podcasts on Unicorn Folk by the end of today or Monday 1st December at the latest. The following edition of Filby’s Folk coming mid-December will be a Christmas edition and feature some of the best ‘folky’ Christmas songs you are likely to hear anywhere.
In the meantime do consult the Unicorn Diary in the top menu Listings on the main Unicorn Folk website and enjoy the festive gigs at your local clubs and venues.