Stick in the Wheel
Follow Them True
Release Date: Jan 26, 2018
Genre(s): Folk
Record label: Stick in the Wheel
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Album Review: Follow Them True by Stick in the Wheel
Excellent, Based on 2 Critics
Based on rating 4/5
Stick In The Wheel's much-lauded first album, From Here, pulled up some trees in the folk community on its release in 2015. Their unadorned, spiky delivery seemed to owe as much to thinking-persons punk bands like The Stranglers or The Raincoats as it did to your usual trad fare. The band stick fiercely to their East London working class roots and in doing so draw parallels between folk and punk by situating them both as communal musics, reflecting the daily privations, misadventures and rituals of everyday people.
Based on rating 4/5
T raditional folk in 2018 feels urgent and fascinatingly new, thanks to bands who channel the raw rage in old folk songs and present it unvarnished. Stick in the Wheel's 2015 debut, From Here, felt like a rallying cry, as did last year's collaborative follow-up, From Here: English Folk Field Recordings, marshalling well-known and contemporary singers (Martin Carthy, Lisa Knapp) to sing about place and identity. Follow Them True marches forward.
'Follow Them True'
is available now