recommend me some contemporary stuff to listen to, currently Listening to 'show of hands' after seeing them live last week, i like their up to date lyrics but with a folky sound, so anything similar would be nice

Fleet Foxes
Band of Horses

Kathryn Tickell?
Coope, Boyes and Simpson?
Chris Newman and Moira Ni Chathasaigh?

Not sure how similar, bur Mrs JA and I love 'em

I've been listening to a bit of American folky type stuff like Gillian Welch recently – very nice.

i tried fleet foxes, just couldn't get into them

Martha Tilston:

Sometimes supports her dad Steve at the Trades Club in Hebden. Well worth catching.

Listen to Mike Harding on radio 2/iplayer. He plays some very good stuff.

Lau (and anything done by it's members)

Karine Polwart

Rachel Unthank

And after Mike Harding, listen to Radcliffe & Maconie, they play an enormously varied range of music: I first heard Fleet foxes and Rachel Unthank on their show

Not modern by any stretch but while were on the subject of folk… a classic.

I like the obvious – Oysterband, Christy Moore, Richard Thompson (can you describe him as folk these days?). John Jones (singer from Oysters) new solo cd is worth a listen for some excellent vocals.

Also Great Big Sea, The Men They Couldn't Hang.

I like Show of Hands, though my wife describes it as easy listening. Suntrap is one of my favourite songs in any genre.

great big sea
flook (instr.)
peat bog fairies (inst.)

Lancashire Hotpots – 21st Century Folk for 21st Century folk!

yeah but they're called the Lancashire Hotpots, Mr S.

No matter how good they are I couldn't buy anything by them because of that excuse for a name.

I did once pick up a cd by the Red Hot Chili Pipers by mistake……

Oh and just remembered I've got a cd by 'Goats Don't Shave', purely for the name. Can't remember how good/bad it is.

Liz Green

Fionn Regan

Bonnie Prince Billy

Tunng

mosters of folk , Bright Eye's, Conor Oberst…………. all very very very very very good………………. ok i like them any way 😀

You seeing them on the tour dave?

Oh and just remembered I've got a cd by 'Goats Don't Shave', purely for the name.

that deserves a thread all of it's own, i once bought a cd just cause of the quirky looking girl on the front……it was awful

'Martin Simpson – Prodigal Son'. A good mix of styles, storytelling and superb guitar. One of the best albums of the last few years – of any genre.

you should try a bit of Grand Union – they did an excellent album a year or two ago called Through the Green Fuse.

woody

you should try a bit of Grand Union – they did an excellent album a year or two ago called Through the Green Fuse.

woody

+1 on Richard Thomson – only know about him since he did the soundtrack to The Grizzly Man.

Also, if you like a bit of whoopass, down 'n' dirty bluegrass, try Old Crow Medicine Show.

mumford and sons, london band, saw then last week an they were fantastic live

RD you amaze me "SOH" I am impressed we have seen them several times and we like em big time
There best albums are Country life and Witness

try Martyn Joesph

Anything that James Yorkston has ever done.

i am loving "the galway farmer" Andy, especially seeing it played live last week

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rocketdog/sets/72157622416301181/

review of new album here http://www.spiralearth.co.uk/news/Review-story.asp?nid=3528

Also try Jenna "barefoot and egar" she has been helped along by SOH

There is also Seth Lakeman but his songs are very much the same and once you have heard the first track you have heard them all

+1 for Martin Simpson's Prodigal son album, Have heard some good stuff from the new album too. but only on the radio.

Saw Frank Turner at reading too, more pop folk but very good all the same. seems to have a fast growing following at the moment

Another vote for Richard Thompson here, may not be "modern folk" but there's usually a good mix of just about anything

more folky end of things, Kate Rusby and Cara Dillon

Just brilliant! Jakob Dylan (son of bob) "Seeing Things"

No.

Amazon delivered Shooglenifty's new double CD today called Murmichan today

http://www.musicscotland.com/cd/shooglenifty-murmichan-2cd.html

Click the track and watch the clip, they are great live as well 😳

Should I get my coat?

Another big vote for James Yorkston from me. Would recommend catching him live.

Eliza Carthy, Laura Marling both good.

More rootsy / country perhaps, but for oddball collaborations would also recommend Robert Plant & Alison Krauss's Raising Sand album and Ballad of the Broken Seas by Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan.

I also really like Seth Lakeman's first album, Kitty Jay. Shall I get my coat now?

Try Flogging Molly. Bit like the early Pogues, but better.

+1 Mumford and Son from me too. Album on continuous repeat. Amazing.

Noah and the Whale are a folk band too (indie-folk according to wikipedia), second album just out it's also great, if a little melancholy. (Written after a break up with Laura Marling who used to be a member^^^^)

A little older and a bit americana perhaps but Midlake good too. Along same lines Bon Iver (easily best album of 2008)

Croft no 5
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ni7r0X7M-o
takes a while to get going but worth it.

Cant believe that only one other person has mentioned Kate Rusby (and she's from Barnsley, chapeaux!), also Rachel Unthank and the Winterset, and Roddy Woomble (yes, the one from Idlewild) has done some good solo stuff. The waifs (Aussie band, now based in the states) are damn good as well – try downloading 'Bridal train' – just beautiful.

Seth Lakeman, Shugglnifty, Chris Woods everyone in The Imagined Village

Cara Dillon http://www.caradillon.co.uk/

A slightly sideways rec: Beth Gibbons* & Rustin Man – Out of Season. Not altogether folky, but then my description of folk wouldn't include Band of Horses, and they are a magnificent band.

Has no-one mentioned Iron & Wine? Start at their album The Creek Drank the Cradle.

More americana: Giant Sand (and also Howe Gelb in his own right). These might lead you onto non-folky bands like Smog/Bill Calahan and the Silver Jews.

*Yes, her out of Portishead

Okay here's a bit of a left field suggestion – The Bad Shepherds. A folk outfit frotned by Ade Edmondson (yes him off the telly) that covers punk and new wave standards.