Official Folk Albums Chart - NOVEMBER 2020
08 December 2020 - Press releaseToday, the Official Charts Company in partnership with English Folk Expo reveal the Top 40 best-selling and most streamed folk albums released in the NOVEMBER period, 23 October – 19 November 2020.
13 new releases have entered the chart with 12 being brand new recordings.
Straight in at No. 1, is Off Off On (Rough Trade Records) from Kate Stables’ This Is The Kit. Recorded just before the pandemic hit, the album is a beautifully clear distillation of Stables’ immense song-writing talent. Meticulously crafted with strong melodies and with words, lyrical but always lucid, that eerily chime with a world tilted on its axis. Richly illuminating and acutely sensitive to the pulses and currents of life, Off Off On shows This Is The Kit overflowing with ideas.
‘Off Off On’ press release and new single, ‘No Such Thing’ (wav) HERE
Guitarist Gwenifer Raymond’s second album, Strange Lights Over Garth Mountain (Tompkins Square) hits the chart at No.12. Raymond’s debut was inspired by the ‘American Primitive’ guitar genre, but here, she takes inspiration from childhood memories of growing up in Wales and it’s spooky, ominous landscape. Raymond takes, she says, “something of Welsh folk horror to make my own ‘Welsh Primitive’”. A punk rocker at heart with roots that extend to delta blues and folk, the album finds her delving into more experimental territory where lightning speed fingerpicking contrast with simpler dark guitar lines.
‘Strange Lights Over Garth Mountain’ press release HERE
Download ‘Hell For Certain’ (wav) HERE
Entering the chart at No.9 is English Folktronica band Tunng’s extraordinary new project that journeys through life, death and grief. Tunng Presents…. Dead Club (Full Time Hobby) is a contemplative album that explores the great taboos of end of life from angles both familiar and unexpected. The album features voices from Max Porter (author of Grief Is The Thing With Feathers), Tinariwen’s Ibrahim Ag Alhabib and Derren Brown (amongst others), all of whom appear on the accompanying podcast series. Focused around the piano with the addition of sweeping strings , tender songs, wry observations and unexpected humour balance an otherwise sombre, yet powerful recording.
‘Tunng Presents … Dead Club’ press release HERE
Buddies II: Still Buddies (Xtra Mile Recordings) is the is the sequel to ‘Buddies’, recorded by Frank Turner & Jon Snodgrass 10 years ago. In at No. 11, the album was recorded remotely in two countries, in just one day, during lockdown, yet perfectly captures the pair’s effusive chemistry. Like the release from Tunng, Buddies II, is more than a traditional album; part talk show, part music. It’s a funny, warm and at times poignant album that sees them explore an array of topics from travelling across the USA, Shakespeare, and weird stuff on the internet. With Snodgrass a respected figure on the US punk and Americana scene and Turner of folk-punk lineage, music is raucous and electrifying.
‘Buddies II: Still Buddies’ press release HERE
Download ‘Bad Vibes/Good Times’ (radio edit) (wav) HERE
Martin Simpson’s new album of songs recorded at home during this year’s lockdown enters the chart at No. 5. Home Recordings (Topic Records) finds Simpson, one of the world’s finest acoustic, fingerstyle and slide guitar players, recording sublime takes on songs by Bob Dylan, John Prine, Lyle Lovett and Robin Williamson amongst his beloved guitar and banjo collection and on his Peak District-facing porch.
‘Home Recordings’ press release HERE
Download ‘October Song’ (wav) HERE
Elsewhere in the chart, fiddle-singers and multi-instrumentalists, The Rheingans Sisters cement their reputation as true innovators with their album, Receiver (bendigedig), in at No. 30. Recorded in Wales and rich with European and Scandinavian musical traditions, the album’s theme is about waiting and listening to the world; of accepting things beyond our control. Songs mirror the gorgeously illustrated album artwork, born of a patient and deliberate listening to the world.
‘Receiver’ press release HERE
Download ‘After The Bell Rang’ (wav) HERE
IN OTHER NEWS
While the folk community hardly needs evidence of its enduring popularity, the launch Official Folk Albums Chart event in Manchester in September has now been viewed over 9,000 times on YouTube and around 15,000 times on Facebook and/or twitter! Meanwhile, one of UK’s most successful folk acts, Bellowhead, reunited last Saturday after calling it a day in 2016 to stream a one-off worldwide concert to mark the 10th anniversary of their 3rd album ‘Hedonism’. Recorded in strict Covid-safe conditions near Epping Forest, the concert, as of Saturday, sold 8,500 tickets (while 1000's more viewed), and, with concert passes still for sale, that figure is set to increase. And to round it all off, the gig was trending on Twitter! A Limited-Edition 10th Anniversary re-issue of ‘Hedonsism’ is released on coloured vinyl.
Submit news or a press release
Want to add your news or press release? Email Paul or Kevin
Two week FREE trial