Alan Bearman Music
The Music Base
Kings Place
90 York Way
London
N 1 9AG
Te l: 020 7014 2821
www.alanbearmanmusic.co.uk
The Furrow Collective
Nominated ‘Best Group’ & ‘Best Traditional Track’
BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards 2015
Rachel Newton, Lucy Farrell, Emily Portman and Alasdair Roberts
Voices, guitar, harp, viola, concertina, saw and banjo.
This acclaimed collective brings together four of the finest, award winning
musicians on the UK folk scene and delves into the obscure world of balladry at
its darkest and quirkiest. Each singer airs lesser-known gems from their traditional
repertoire with an eclectic backing of harp, guitar, viola, concertina, banjo,
musical saw and rousing harmonies. With a bold, improvisatory approach, their
common focus is to capture the raw edges and fleeting magic of ballads, with
storytelling taking centre stage. Emily and Alasdair are both known for their
original, folklore-influenced songwriting, and, often finding themselves on the
same bills they struck up a musical friendship, sharing stages and collaborating on
each others albums. Lucy and Rachel are both bewitching solo artists in their own
right as well as being sought-after session players and long-time collaborators with
Emily Portman in her trio.
Their 2014 debut release, At Our Next Meeting’ received widespread critical
acclaim, and a new album is planned for release in late 2015.
‘…a quietly triumphant set’ **** 4 stars The Guardian
'A mouth-watering collaboration' **** 4 Stars Mojo
'One of the finest collaborative albums of the past few years' Folk Radio UK
Individual biographies:
Alasdair Roberts is a critically-acclaimed musician (primarily a singer, guitarist,
writer/composer of songs and interpreter of traditional ballads) raised in rural
Perthshire and now based in Glasgow, Scotland.
Between 1995 and 2000 he fronted the avant-folk ensemble Appendix Out and since
2000 he has released several albums of music under his own name featuring a wide
array of collaborators, on the Drag City label of Chicago, Illinois, with whom he has
a long-standing working partnership. He has also collaborated with film makers,
poets and puppeteers and has toured is music widely internationally (in UK,
Europe, North America and Australia).
Described by music journalist Colin Irwin as 'one of Britain's most singular and
original talents', he is perhaps the only musician to have graced the front covers of
publications dedicated to folk/traditional music (fRoots) and experimental/avant-
garde music (The Wire), the latter of which described his most recent release A
Wonder Working Stone as 'the sound of new music and new myths being hewn from
folk's stone.'
Emily Portman is a singer, writer and concertina player originating from
Glastonbury and hailed ‘one of the new British folk scene’s most beguiling
presences’ (Uncut).
Her BBC Folk award-winning album ‘Hatchling’ is described as “Marvellous” (The
Observer) ‘Eerily magnificent’ (fROOTS) and “One of the year’s most distinctive
folk releases” (Songlines). With her debut album ‘The Glamoury’ also gaining her
two BBC Folk Award nominations, Emily is fast gaining a reputation for her
‘remarkable and original’ songwriting (The Observer) that draws on fairytales,
ballads and folklore.
Not only has her music propelled Emily onto the front cover of fRoots, she has
received widespread international radio-play and tours the UK extensively
alongside Lucy Farrell (viola) and Rachel Newton (harp).
Rachel Newton, singer,harpist and fiddle player with The Shee and The Emily
Portman Trio, is a highly sought-after musician, known for her prowess on both the
acoustic and the electric harp and her singing in both Gaelic and English.
Nominated for 'Album of the Year' in Scots Trad Music Awards, Newton’s debut‘The
Shadow Side’ showcases Rachel’s own compositions alongside an original selection
of ballads and contemporary songs.
Lucy Farrell began lulling the folk scene with her rich and honeyed voice when she
left her Kent home to study the Folk and Traditional Music course in Newcastle in
2004.
Since then, her exploration of traditional and contemporary song has touched the
hearts of audiences well beyond the folk world, her beguiling and crystal clear
singing style crafting stories with spellbinding skill. Her talent for song writing is
also gaining recognition; her melancholic and heartbreaking To The Boy, which she
recorded with duo partner Jonny Kearney on The North Farm Sessions EP, featured
in Ian Fitzgibbon's 2011 film Death of a Superhero. With Kearney, Farrell has been
nominated for two BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards. A versatile musician on fiddle, viola,
and musical saw, Farrell is in popular demand as a session player, and can be seen
performing regularly in The Emily Portman Trio.
www.thefurrowcollective.co.uk
www.alanbearmanmusic.co.uk