Folk on Foot

The Turnstone is an inquisitive bird that, as it name suggests, likes to overturn stones and seaweed in its search for food. That’s how the members of the Gigspanner Big Band see their hunt for the finest traditional songs to re-arrange, burnish and present for our delight. In this conversation with Matthew Bannister, the band’s Peter Knight, Hannah Martin and John Spiers share the stores behind the songs on their Folk Album of the Year nominated work “Turnstone”- and revel in the musical chemistry which allows the band to improvise much of their free flowing music.

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“Our first gig together was a benefit for a greyhound” The dog loving trio who make up Irish band Poor Creature are husband and wife Ruth Clinton (of Landless) and Cormac Macdiarmada (of Lankum) - plus Cormac’s brother, Lankum’s live drummer John Dermody. In this conversation with Matthew Bannister they reveal a passion for unusual vintage synthesisers, tell how Cormac breaking his back during the pandemic lockdown inspired the sound of one of the tracks on the album and share insights into working with legendary Dublin producer John “Spud” Murphy.

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Born in Zimbabwe - but now resident in the UK - Edith WeUtonga is known as Mama Bass - because that’s the instrument she has made her own. She’s also an acclaimed singer, songwriter, and campaigner for musicians' rights. In this conversation with Matthew Bannister, she tells how the death of her beloved grandmother inspired her to write the songs that make up her Folk Album of the Year nominated work “Varipasi”.

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"My first kiss with Irene was behind some wheelie bins in Penge." As she celebrates her ninetieth birthday, the legendary Peggy Seeger unpacks her current feelings about “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” - written for her by her late husband Ewan MacColl, but now also embracing her other passionate loving relationship. She revisits the song on her final album “Teleology”, nominated as one of the Folk Albums of 2025. In this special episode Peggy and her son, producer and musician Calum MacColl, tell the story behind the album as she reflects on a musical career lasting over seven decades.

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An old recording of her grandfather reciting a poem in the Scots dialect of the little Black Isle fishing village where he lived inspired the clarsach (Scottish harp) player Grace Stewart-Skinner to create her Folk Album of the Year nominee “Auchies Spikking Auchie”. She mixed recordings of the dialect with her own music to create the evocative album. In this episode, she tells Matthew Bannister the story behind the album and also reflects on living with cerebral palsy - and her mixed feelings about being called “an inspiration”.

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We rely on support from our listeners to keep this show on the road. If you like what we do please either...