Guardian Music — (Good Form Records/Proper)When Mawkin:Causley released The Awkward Recruit three years ago, it seemed they were destined to become major folk celebrities. Here, after all was an impressive group of young instrumentalists who had joined forces with Ji... more info

Guardian Music — Royal Albert Hall, LondonA Show of Hands concert at the Albert Hall is always an emotional affair, because the venue has played such a crucial role in their history. Sixteen years ago, the West Country duo of Steve Knightley and Phil Beer found it di... more info

Guardian Music — Our music team pick the songs or albums, old or new, they just can't turn offSonny Clark Sonny Clark's Conception Sonny Clark (pictured), who died of a heroin overdose in 1963 at the age of 31, was Blue Note's house pianist in the late 50s, and in o... more info

Guardian Music — (Irregular) Continuing with his no-nonsense approach to album titles (earlier releases have included Margaret Thatcher: My Part in Her Downfall and Love & Death & Politics) Robb Johnson shows once again that he is not afraid to stand up for that ... more info

Guardian Music — Information and lineups for the UK's best family festivalsAlex James Presents HarvestWhen: 9–12 SeptemberWhere: Kingham, OxfordshireWhat: Blur's Alex James hosts his own foodie festival.Who: KT Tunstall, The FutureheadsHow much: Weekend camping £1... more info

Guardian Music — Queen Elizabeth Hall, LondonMartin Carthy may have influenced Bob Dylan and Paul Simon and become a British folk legend, but he has always been an easy-going, modest performer, and that wasn't going to change just because he is about to turn 70. He s... more info

Guardian Music — English cultural life owes a great deal to Cecil Sharp's passion for music, song and danceYour article about the eight folk "stars" assembled to write a song suite about Cecil Sharp, "the great song collector … [who] helped lay the foundations of t... more info

Guardian Music — To some, Cecil Sharp is a folk hero, to others, an arch-manipulator. So, given a week to write a song suite about him, what would today's folk stars come up with?It sounds like some hideous TV reality show dreamed up by Simon Cowell and Andrew Lloyd ... more info