Features
LEAF Festival
Amid the Blue Ridge Mountains, the latest edition of North Carolina's biannual gathering prepares to bring together diverse musical artists from across the globe
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Features
David Attenborough – The World Music Collector
To celebrate the two-year anniversary of the release, Julian May, producer of 'David Attenborough – My Field Recordings from Across the Planet', explains how this extraordinary album came about, with photos courtesy of David Attenborough
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Peggy Seeger on the art of songwriting: “Make them laugh before you make them cry”
The irrepressible Peggy Seeger talks to Julian May about dealing with the inevitability of ageing and her unique and very candid approach to songwriting
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“A sound full of country funk and spiritual joy” | Introducing Changüí, the music from Cuba’s sugarcane fields
As the world celebrated the anniversary of Buena Vista Social Club, a compilation showcasing another traditional Cuban sound, changüí, snuck under the radar. Garth Cartwright reports on this syncopated dance music
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Folk Calendar 2025-26
Spencer Grady plots out the next twelve months of folk happenings, bringing you essential festivals from across the British Isles as well as a selection of some of our most unusual cultural traditions
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Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan: “He remains an enigma, to this day…what was that magic?”
Jameela Siddiqi plots the unprecedented international success of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Pakistan’s ‘King of Kings of Qawwali’ and, for many, one of the greatest singers of all time
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Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino: "We wanted to fit our style, and pizzica, into the idea of a Western pop song"
Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino perform the vibrant pizzica music of southern Italy. Ciro de Rosa speaks to bandleader Mauro Durante about how they brought this rhythmic tradition into the 21st century
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Harp of Darkness: “If I expose the bin-baja harp, something will have to die”
Patrick Jered ventures into Madhya Pradesh in India to unearth the legendary bin-baja harp, widely considered as a pariah instrument
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Mariza’s World
Mariza won the Best Artist category in the Songlines Music Awards 2016. Following the release of her first album in five years, Mariza makes sure fado is not a limitation. Mundo, she tells Gonçalo Frota, is her way of saying these are happy times
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Cimarrón: embracing and upending Colombian musical traditions
The death of their co-founder and lead harpist, Carlos Rojas, gave Colombian joropo group Cimarrón cause to reflect on musical roots and gender roles. Chris Moss talks to dynamic frontwoman Ana Veydó about their new album, La Recia
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Meeting Abel Selaocoe: “I find the threads that bind African music and classical music together”
Abel Selaocoe has made a name for himself as an innovator who straddles the worlds of Western classical and South African heritage. Jo Frost catches up with the cellist to talk about his debut solo album
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10 Years of Uganda’s Nyege Nyege Festival
As Uganda’s Nyege Nyege Festival celebrates a 10th anniversary which once seemed highly unlikely, Erin Cobby dives deep into an event that has put its local artists on the map. “We spent our life savings”, she finds out
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Albums of the Year 2024: Songlines Recommends...
Looking back over the past 12 months at the albums that have made the biggest impression
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Music Industry vs. Climate Crisis: A New Songbook For A Dying Planet
Writers, musicians, producers and festival programmers are trying to find new ways to communicate the enormity of the climate crisis. Chris Moss talks to them about folk song, farming, ice, industry, wonder and awe
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What Can Musicians and Music Lovers Do During a Climate Crisis?
With the earth passing 1.5 degrees celsius of heating in 2024, and recent natural disasters exacerbated by climate change, we asked artists and researchers how to play and enjoy music while respecting and helping the planet
