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Julie Fowlis beat off sterling competition from the likes
of Jez Lowe, Kate Rusby and Martin Simpson, to scoop the
prestigious 'Folk Singer Of The Year Award'
John Tams & Barry Coope took 'Best Duo',
singer and musician John Tams has been a guiding light of
the British folk community for over thirty years. Barry
Coope is one-third of ace acapella trio Coope Boyes and
Simpson, his engaging vocal and keyboard skills making him
the perfect duo partner for Tams.Local folk heroes LAU walked
off with 'Best Band'. The teaming of Kris Drever (guitar
and vocal), Martin Green (piano accordion) and Aidan O’Rourke
(fiddle) has fused three of the most innovative exponents
of modern traditional music on today’s scene.
Seeing off competition from 'Rachel Unthank
& The Winterset' - Martin Simpson's 'Prodigal Son' took
'Album Of The Year', so confident with the blues that some
assume he’s American, yet an equally superb interpreter
of English traditional music, Martin Simpson is no stranger
to award nominations and successes. Simpson also picked
up the award for 'Best Original Song' for 'Never Any Good.
'Best Traditional Track' was Cold Haily
windy Night by 'The Imagined Village', a former Dave's Angle
(and indeed angle of the year). With its top-rank line-up
(including Billy Bragg, Martin and Eliza Carthy, Paul Weller,
Benjamin Zephaniah et al) and brave arrangements, Simon
Emmerson’s project to reinvent the traditional British
music for a multi-cultural 21st century received much critical
acclaim.
The prestigious 'Horizon Award' went to
'Rachel Unthank & The Winterset. With their debut scooping
Mojo magazine’s Folk Album of 2005 and their 2007
follow-up causing a sensation with its original and empathic
arrangements, the Northumbrian quartet have already established
themselves in the folk hierarchy.
'Musician Of The Year' was Andy Cutting's,
Bellowhead took 'Best Live Act', and the Lifetime Achievement
Award went to another local artist, John Martyn - a unique
character on the British music scene for more than forty
years. From his straightforward folk work as the first white
artist signed to Island records, through his recordings
with then wife Beverley, to his more muscular jazz experiments
and beyond, his heartfelt performances have either suggested
or fully demonstrated an idiosyncratic genius. In a special
message, Eric Clapton described Martyn as, "so far
ahead of everything, it's almost inconceivable."
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