A Beginner's Guide
Shivkumar Sharma: A Beginner's Guide
Oliver Craske profiles the man who adapted a folk instrument – the santoor – into a vehicle for Indian classical music
Search results for
The Rough Guide to World Music
The Rough Guide to World Music: Nigeria
Nigeria's best-known cultural exports – juju, Afrobeat and fuji music – barely scratch the surface of the vast and vibrant cultural topography of the nation
News
Obituary: Papa Noel (1940-2024)
Congolese guitarist and soukous innovator Papa Noël Nedule has passed, aged 83.
Features
“My whole body was shaking. I started to tremble and sing. Two songs later, I didn’t want to stop” | Natalia Lafourcade interview
The multi award-winning Mexican singer Natalia Lafourcade reveals to Catalina Maria Johnson how she found her voice in rewriting the Latin American songbook
Features
Field of Research: Ewan MacColl
On the 110th anniversary of the legendary folk singer’s birth, Allan Moore looks back at his legacy and skill
News
Listen to ‘Lady of the Lake’, the first single from Nora Brown and Stephanie Coleman’s upcoming EP
Banjo wunderkind Nora Brown unveils her new EP, in collaboration with Stephanie Coleman
Live reviews
WOMADelaide, Adelaide, March 8-11
EMEL, DakhaBrakha and Seun Kuti & Egypt 80 bring music and protest to the stage at WOMADelaide.
A Beginner's Guide
Amália Rodrigues: A Beginner's Guide
Pleasure, pain and poetry – the ‘Queen of Fado’ gave Portugal its soundtrack during a turbulent 20th century. Chris Moss looks back over Amália’s career
Essential 10
The 10 Best Folk Albums of 2020
Tim Cumming looks back over the best folk albums reviewed in Songlines in 2020, which have sustained us through this locked down year
The Rough Guide to World Music
The Music of Chile: A Rough Guide
Jan Fairley looks at the history and legacy of nueva canción – a music rooted in the guitar traditions of the troubadour that have played a part in Latin America’s political and cultural struggles
Features
Folk Round-Up (Peiriant, Threaded, Fidra, John Spillane and more)
A selection of essential releases from the European folk scene, including new albums from John Spillane, Fraser Fifield, Fidra, Threaded and Peiriant
Features
Songlines Encounters 2022: Gallery of Stars
This year's Songlines Encounters Festival, captured in pictures via the photographic lens of Miguel Santos
Features
The Rough Guide to World Music: Chile
Jan Fairley looks at the history and legacy of nueva canción – a music rooted in the guitar traditions of the troubadour that have played a part in Latin America’s political and cultural struggles
Features
Quickfire: Polly Bolton (The Trials of Cato)
Vocalist, multi-instrumentalist and one third of boundary-crossing folk group The Trials of Cato talks turning points, top albums and clandestine synth strategies
Features
Omar Sosa interview: “Music as a weapon of mass consciousness”
A prolific collaborator who has travelled extensively since leaving his Cuban homeland, Omar Sosa talks to Jane Cornwell about his fact-finding tour of East Africa and his new album, which sees him collaborate with some of the region’s leading folkloric musicians
