BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards 2015 Announces Winners

 

The BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards 2015 were announced on Wednesday, April 22 at the Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff. The 16th annual gala was presented by Radio 2 Folk Show host Mark Radcliffe and celebrated Gaelic singer Julie Fowlis before an audience of 1,600.

The Young’uns won Best Group. Nancy Kerr was awarded the Folk Singer of the Year, and Peggy Seeger/Calum MacColl with Best Original Song.

The Rails received the Horizon Award. Best Duo winners were Josienne Clarke & Ben Walker. The award for Best Traditional Track was bestowed to The Gloaming. Sam Sweeney received Musician of the Year.

 

 

A Lifetime Achievement Award went to folk music icon Yusuf / Cat Stevens, who performed his new song, Cat & The Dog Trap, and his 1970 classic, ‘Moonshadow’. Cat Stevens acquired worldwide fame for this and other songs including ‘Wild World’, ‘Father and Son’, and ‘Morning Has Broken’, which remain classics of the folk genre.

 

 

Songwriter Loudon Wainwright III was also presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award. Loudon performed ‘I Knew Your Mother’, and ‘Double Lifetime’. Throughout his impressive career, Loudon’s songs have been recorded by a wide range of musicians including Bonnie Raitt, Johnny Cash, Kate & Anna McGarrigle, and his son Rufus Wainwright and daughter Martha Wainwright. He’s also an actor who appeared in classic US comedy M*A*S*H, and moviers by Tim Burton (Big Fish) and Judd Apatow (Knocked Up, The 40-Year-Old Virgin).

Significant folk singer Ewan MacColl was inducted into the Radio 2 Folk Award Hall of Fame. MacColl played a vital role in developing the folk song renaissance in the UK.

The 2015 Radio 2 Folk Awards gave the Good Tradition Award to paid tribute to the late Dr Meredydd Evans who passed away in February 2015 at the age of 95. This award is given to an individual who has made an outstanding contribution to UK folk music. Meredydd was a singer, historian, broadcaster and Welsh-language campaigner who was a highly respected and popular figure across Welsh culture. He recorded for the Sain label in Wales and made an album of Welsh songs for the American label Smithsonian Folkways during the 1950s. He was Head of Light Entertainment at BBC Wales and an important collector of Welsh traditional songs.

The four nominees of the BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Award, Cup O’Joe, Roseanne Reid, Talisk, and Wildwood Kin delivered performances. Talisk were the winners. Talisk features Mohsen Amini on concertina, Hayley Keenan on fiddle and Craig Irving on guitar. The trio is based in Scotland.

The event concluded with a performance of ‘Ffarwel’ by Best Album winners 9Bach, who sang in Welsh and were accompanied by the Penrhyn Male Voice Choir.

 

 

Full list of BBC Radio 2 Folk Award 2015 winners:

Folk Singer Of The Year
Nancy Kerr

Best Duo
Josienne Clarke & Ben Walker

Best Group
The Young’uns

Best Album
Tincian by 9Bach

Horizon Award
The Rails

Musician Of The Year
Sam Sweeney

Best Original Song
Swim To The Star by Peggy Seeger and Calum MacColl

Best Traditional Track
Samhradh Samhradh by The Gloaming

BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Award
Talisk

Lifetime Achievement Award
Yusuf / Cat Stevens
Loudon Wainwright III

Good Tradition Award
Meredydd Evans

Hall Of Fame
Ewan MacColl