LUCY FARRELL (CAN)
Odd, unconventional melodies, sophisticated song-writing and bewitching clarity; Kent-born, Canada-based Lucy Farrell’s voice is made elegant with sparse, careful accompaniment on tenor guitar and occasionally viola, carving out a unique niche for an artist at the forefront of contemporary English folk music.
Finding an international audience among artists like Julia Jacklin, The Weather Station and The Unthanks, Lucy’s work as a band member and collaborator with such projects as Eliza Carthy and the Wayward Band; Gluepot; Modern Fairies; The Furrow Collective; and her duo work with Andrew Waite and Jonny Kearney, respectively, has meant a collection of her distinctive solo work had to wait until 2023’s “We Are Only Sound”.
Immersed in folk culture and traditions via her Morris-dancing, folk-club running family home in Kent, Lucy picked and chose the elements of tradition that suited her, and discarded those that didn’t in favour of sounds and methods that would support the songs. It’s as easy to imagine her ignoring ink-stained fingers from a quill as hunched over tapping lyrics into an i-phone.
There’s an ease in the deeply personal lyrical style of her own songs, as well as an effortless familiarity as she traverses material from hundreds of years ago.