“The music is transcendent, the sense of place is transporting and if you need escape...it’s a restorative breathing space in sound.”
Olivia Chaney wrote many of the songs for her critically acclaimed second solo album whilst living alone without electricity or mains water at her family’s remote and crumbling farmhouse on Hawnby Moor in North Yorkshire. On a hot summer’s day, she takes Matthew Bannister back across the Moor, singing and playing along the way, circled by curlews and lapwings, to share the atmospheric isolation that brought her inspiration.
Question: What do you get when you go walking with the nature writer Robert Macfarlane and the actor and musician Johnny Flynn on a scorching hot summer's day in Wandlebury?
Answer: A Neolithic track, an Iron Age fort, a Roman road, a holm oak, cow pats, a mighty avenue of sun-dappled beech, a buzzard, a grasshopper orchestra, a dragonfly, the stories of a mysterious white horse and a dread augury and countless busy, buzzing bees. Oh, and no fewer than six extraordinary songs performed along the way.
The Official Folk Albums Chart Show from Folk on Foot features a beautiful live track by Cara Dillon, special performances by Alex Rex and Alasdair Roberts and music by Jim Ghedi, John Francis Flynn, Josienne Clarke, Jamie Webster and the late, great Jackie Leven.
Folk on Foot on Film is an amazing – and growing – archive of more than 100 unique performances of songs filmed on location during our walks, featuring many of the artists showcased in our podcasts.
The four Folk on Foot Festivals have raised an astonishing £327,000 for musicians during the COVID 19 lockdowns. Half the money has been donated to the charity Help Musicians and the rest was divided equally between the scores of performers who took part.
Listen to the highlights