A Beginner's Guide
The Unthanks: Beginner's Guide
Tim Cumming assembles an anatomy of melancholia as he speaks to Tyne and Wear’s finest folk-singing sisters about their career and catalogue
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Features
Gaelynn Lea: “If a venue doesn’t have a ramp for the stage, I’m playing on the floor”
Ian Brennan speaks to Gaelynn Lea, a musician and disability advocate from America’s heartland, about her 21st-century folk music
Features
Rokia Traoré: “You cannot know how jail is if you have not been there. These people are human too”
Robin Denselow speaks to Malian singer and musician Rokia Traoré, who is finally able to return to performing after a custody battle that led to her imprisonment in several countries
News
Leyla McCalla's new album: 'The Capitalist Blues'
The soulful singer and cellist returns with her third album, featuring music from Louisiana and Haiti
Features
Lubomyr Melnyk's My World interview: “I could feel the continuous energy pouring through my body and arms and hands”
Russ Slater Johnson speaks to a classically trained pianist whose music is faster, louder and more transcendent than anything else out there
Features
Fatoumata Diawara: “We have created something, a fusion, a music that I would say is totally new”
Fatoumata Diawara adds collaboration to the mix on an album of reconciliation and largesse. “It’s time for me to invite you… into my world,” she tells Lucy Hallam
Features
Jackie Oates interview: “There are so many confessions within traditional songs… it makes you wonder why they have survived in this medium”
Folk singer and fiddle player Jackie Oates explores the confessional nature of folk song on her new album, Gracious Wings
Features
Elaha Soroor interview: “Modesty is part of the identity of Afghan women and if you don’t have that identity you don’t exist”
Afghan singer Elaha Soroor talks to Simon Broughton about her role in a play that mirrors her own flight as a refugee and the fate of her family back home since the Taliban’s return to power
Features
Lido Pimienta interview: “When you realise that you don’t actually have to please other people, your life gets better”
It’s been a tough road for Colombian-Canadian artist Lido Pimienta, but she’s finally having her moment. She speaks to Russ Slater about her music and activism
Features
Landless: “We don’t spend time trying to sound the same as each other… we each have our own accents”
Irish vocal group Landless follow-up their much-loved debut album with a new set of songs focused on female protagonists. Emma Rycroft finds out its harmonious story
Best New Albums
The Best New Albums from Around the World (May 2024)
Our Top of the World – the best new albums reviewed in the May 2024 issue of Songlines
News
February/March 2026 Issue Is Out Now!
Steve Martin & Alison Brown’s bluegrass friendship, Yasmine Hamdan returns, Imarhan’s desert soul, Slow J on fado, calypso great Mighty Sparrow, Bebel Gilberto and AI in Music
Live reviews
Sevdalini's plaintive sevdah parables enchant at Swedish self-catering summit
Nostalgia and longing suffuse an impassioned night of bewitching Bosnian blues at Malmö's Viktoria Teatern
Features
“The music takes me over. I dive in so deep that I go into a trance… Music is who I am” | Rokia Koné interview
The new voice of Mali, Rokia Koné, teamed up with producer-to-the-stars Jacknife Lee for an album sure to go down as a classic. Jane Cornwell catches up with this seemingly improbable, though quite inspired, pop partnership. Photography by Karen Paulina Biswell
Features
Interview: Macedonia comes to the UK in music and dance
A soulful show of Macedonian music and dance celebrates the country's rich culture and uncovers its Balkan, Turkish, European and Romani elements. We spoke to the show's creator ahead of their UK dates.
