Folk on Foot

The trans pipe and fiddle player Malin Lewis grew up on a magical island off the West coast of Scotland. There were no roads or cars and their family were the only permanent residents. Home schooled till the age of seven, Malin had an idyllic childhood roaming the forests, building dens and splashing in the shallows on the white sand beaches. In this episode this rising star of the Scottish folk s...

Joe Boyd and John Wood were the producer and sound engineer behind some of the greatest folk rock albums of the 1960s and 70s. They worked with Pink Floyd on their first single Arnold Layne, with Fairport Convention on Unhalfbricking and Liege and Lief and with Nick Drake on Five Leaves Left, Bryter Later and Pink Moon. John produced John Martyn’s Bless The Weather and Solid Air while Joe worked w...

Come with us to the glorious Mountains of Mourne in Northern Ireland to meet the band TRÚ. Taking their name from a mythological trio of poet-musicians from ancient Ulster, Zach Trouton, Dónal Kearney and Michael Mormecha combine Irish nationalist, Ulster-Scots and British-Ukrainian heritages, crossing boundaries which have often divided Northern Irish communities in the past. In this beautiful ep...

The beloved baggy cloth cat Bagpuss is fifty years old in 2024. We celebrate his birthday by visiting Sandra Kerr at her home in the Northumberland village of Warkworth. Sandra co-wrote and arranged the music for the series and provided some of the voices. In her cosy music room she shows us her Bagpuss souvenirs, reflects on the show’s enduring appeal and sings one of the songs. Then, on a walk a...

This year’s seasonal episode takes us to the village of Mallwyd in mid Wales to join the ancient tradition of the plygain carols. On a dark, cold night, local people gather in the warm and welcoming St Tydecho’s Church to sing Welsh language carols which have been handed down through successive generations of their families. They’re joined by Gwilym Bowen Rhys who unearthed his carol in a second h...

Come to “The Edge of the Land” with the wonderful singer, songwriter and guitarist Katie Spencer. She was born and brought up in East Yorkshire. In this episode she takes us to one of her favourite places: Spurn Point, a narrow spit of land that stretches three miles out into the sea. As we head for the lighthouse at the end, she sings some of her gorgeous songs on the beach and talks about her mu...

Jon Wilks is singlehandedly bringing folk music to a wider audience, through his excellent TradFolk website and Old Songs Podcast and of course by singing and playing the music itself. In this episode, he takes us for a walk around the stomping grounds of his youth in the centre of Birmingham, sharing his fascinating insights into the history of music making in the city and performing songs on the...

When the Scottish Burmese sound artist Fiona Soe Paing discovered that one of her ancestors was a traditional singer, she resolved to make a contemporary electronic album reflecting the music and folk tales of her home county of Aberdeenshire. On this walk up Bennachie and then along the coast, she sings some of the songs on the very spot where they were inspired, including John Hosie’s Well (said...

On August 4th 2023, Folk on Foot host Matthew Bannister set off on his biggest walk yet. Over two weeks, he covered 186 miles from Wickham Festival in Hampshire to Folk East in Suffolk, raising thousands of pounds for the charity Help Musicians. Every evening he was met (in a pub, of course), by some of the folk world’s finest musicians. This bonus episode treats you to the musical highlights that...

On 4th August 2023, Folk on Foot host Matthew Bannister set off on his biggest walk yet: from Wickham Festival in Hampshire to Folk East in Suffolk. Over two weeks, he covered 186 miles, took 465,137 steps and raised thousands of pounds for the charity Help Musicians. Each evening, he was joined in the pub by some of the folk world’s finest musicians, who sang and played to revive his flagging spi...

This is our highest ever episode. We climbed to the top of Yorkshire’s tallest peak - Whernside - with the singer/songwriter Johnny Campbell and the fiddle player Mikey Kenney to help Johnny record a track for his forthcoming album “True North”. He’s recording each track at the summit of one of the highest peaks in the North of England. Along the way we discuss his passion for Northern folk music,...

Angeline Morrison’s “The Sorrow Songs - Folk Songs of Black British Experience” was one of the most significant albums of recent times. On this walk near her home in North Cornwall, Angeline talks about her deep love for traditional music and her determination to chronicle in song the experiences of black Britons through history. By the grave of the master and slave who are buried together she sin...

The Fife based singer/songwriter James Yorkston and the Cardigans lead singer Nina Persson teamed up with the Swedish Second Hand Orchestra to make the gorgeous album “The Great White Sea Eagle”. On this atmospheric walk through Tentsmuir Forest on the Scottish coast just north of St Andrews, James explains why he comes to the forest to find calm and space. Nina recalls her hectic time as a pop st...

Katherine Priddy grew up in the village of Alvechurch in the West Midlands, writing songs as a teenager which eventually ended up on her beautiful debut album “The Eternal Rocks Beneath”.  On a walk in the nearby countryside, she sings two of them before we move on to Tanworth in Arden where Nick Drake is buried. Katherine is part of a stellar line up of artists who’ve been invited to re-interpret...

Why do rivers play such a vital role in our lives, culture and folklore? In this glorious episode, the nature writer Amy-Jane Beer, author of “The Flow”, joins the Welsh singer and songwriter Owen Shiers (also known as Cynefin) on a walk up the beautiful River Clettwr in Ceredigion. There are songs and stories aplenty and even a game of Pooh sticks. --- We rely entirely on support from our listene...

Freedom To Roam is a music and multi-media project dreamed up by the flautist Eliza Marshall as a response to many of the pressing issues facing us right now. On this walk climbing the glorious Malvern Hills she is joined by Catrin Finch (harp), Andrew Morgan (percussion) Donal Rogers (piano, guitar and more) and Jackie Shave (violin) to share the exquisite music they’ve created to tell a story of...

“The snow it is lying on Bewcastle Fell And the wind strips the skin from my face. The bare bones of a tree give some shelter to me But still it’s a draughty old place.” Come to “the least populated area of the least populated county in England” and take shelter from the elements in the warm welcome of Stones Barn where Maddy Prior of Steeleye Span and her daughter Rose-Ellen Kemp are hosting one...

A festive episode featuring the Wexford Carols sung by the beautiful voice of Caitriona O’Leary. The carols came out of the persecution of Catholics in Wexford in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and were written by Bishop Luke Waddinge and Father William Devereux. Caitriona takes Matthew Bannister to the Franciscan church where Bishop Waddinge is buried and to St Aidan’s Cathedral in Enni...

Ahoy there! A folk supergroup – The Sea Song Sessions - playing and singing on board a tall ship in Fowey Harbour in Cornwall as the water laps the hull. A discussion of the role of seafaring music in our island history. And a tour of the good ship Anny of Charlestown from her skipper. Shiver me timbers – it’s a great listen! --- Delve deeper into the Folk on Foot world and keep us on the road by...

Come for a wild, wet and windy walk on the beach at Aberdaron on the Llyn peninsula in Wales with the singer and songwriter Gwilym Bowen Rhys. Then join us in the local church where  Gwilym demonstrates his musical versatility, accompanying himself on the guitar, fiddle, harmonica and organ and throwing in a whistling solo for good measure. He sings a song about a local shipwreck and shows us the...

What is the multi-award-winning Folk on Foot all about? The Telegraph calls it “a restorative breathing space in sound”.  In this sampler, host Matthew Bannister shares beautiful extracts from episodes featuring Karine Polwart on Fala Moor, Eliza Carthy and family at Robin Hood’s Bay, Jenny Sturgeon in Shetland, Richard Thompson in Muswell Hill, Duncan Chisholm at Sandwood Bay, The Unthanks on the...

On a hot August day, scores of walkers in weird, wacky and wonderful costumes inspired by old English traditions, accompanied by morris dancers and musicians, set off to stage a peaceful and joyful mass trespass.  Led by Herne the Hunter (Book of Trespass author Nick Hayes) and singer Sam Lee, they targeted the Englefield Estate near Reading, thousands of acres owned by Lord Benyon, the government...

Singer Maddy Prior and violinist Peter Knight were at the heart of the success of folk rock pioneers Steeleye Span. In this candid interview with Matthew Bannister on stage at the Indoor Festival of Folk at Cecil Sharp House, they recall the heady days of rock n roll excess during the 1970s and movingly describe the role of music in their lives. Peter reveals he once appeared on Top of the Pops dr...

The singer, songwriter and academic Fay Hield invites us to a Soundpost Singing Weekend in the village of Dungworth on the outskirts of Sheffield. Guests include Sean Cooney of the Young’uns and Rowan Rheingans who wrote special songs for the event. But mostly we walk in the surrounding countryside with Fay and her dog, hearing her sing, learning about her life in music and debating the big issues...

Join us on a walk around the unassuming village of Pathhead, Midlothian, just south of Edinburgh, which is home to a whole galaxy of Scottish musicians. We start with singer songwriter Karine Polwart, who takes us to meet pianist Dave Milligan and his partner the harpist Corrina Hewat. Then it’s round the corner to see singer and multi-instrumentalist Inge Thomson, her partner Martin Green (of Lau...