Now resident in Scotland, the respected Geordie songwriter performs with his band The Daintees. For Martin Stephenson, it’s not a career, it’s a lifetime calling, and his restless troubadour spirit has now amassed an extraordinary catalogue of 40 albums.

Nick Harper is one the UK's best kept musical secrets. Those who have witnessed the spellbinding, one-man show will tell you this. A childhood growing up surrounded by the musical prowess of some of the 60's most revered songwriters & musicians, not to mention being son of Roy Harper, along with 20 years of crafting songs & touring the land has spawned a truly one-off, original guitarist & songwriter who stands alone as a UK great, to be cherished & revered. For over two decades, he has been dazzling audiences, reviewers & fellow artists alike with his heady mix of virtuosity, boyish charm, showmanship & sheer bravado. An imagination bursting with ideas has seen Nick release 11 solo albums to critical acclaim, earning a Number 1 spot in the charts with the seminal hit 'Blue Sky Thinking'.

Niall McNamee is an Irish singer-songwriter and actor known for his own passionate, thoughtful and full-blooded songs. He has starred opposite Pierce Brosnan, fought with Jackie Chan and now is starring as the leading role in numerous feature films. Niall moved to London at 17 years old working on building sites whilst growing a devoted fan base playing gigs in pubs and music venues across London. He began his acting career on London’s West End as Romeo in ‘Romeo and Juliet’ before moving into film and tv and even having a major fight scene with Jackie Chan in ‘The Foreigner’.

BBC Radio Young Folk Awards Nominee, UKE Magazine Best Newcomer winner and now English Folk Expo Mentor Scheme participant, Amelia Coburn is a truly stunning solo performer who bears comparisons to Kate Bush and Nick Drake with beguiling original folk and jazz influenced songs (many of which have received national airplay on 6music, BBC Radio 2 and RTE1 in Ireland - she can count Mark Radcliffe and Tom Robinson as big fans) who has performed at Cambridge Folk Festival, Costa Del Folk in Ibiza and numerous other national and international events including sell out solo shows in her native North East and elsewhere as well as supporting a diverse range of artists including The Wedding Present, Steve Harley and the late folk legend Vin Garbutt.

An idiosyncratic, challenging and richly lyrical singer/ songwriter, Junior Brother is the pseudonym of Co. Kerry, Ireland singer Ronan Kealy. Chosen as The Irish Times’ Best Irish Act of 2019 and nominated for the 2019 Choice Music Prize for Album of the Year, Junior Brother has built a rabid following thanks to unmissable live shows, and music both excitingly forward-looking and anciently evocative. His strange stories unfold with reckless abandon upon a distinctive guitar and foot tambourine accompaniment, influenced as much by the avant-garde as music from the Middle Ages and his home place in rural Ireland.

Award-winning British songwriters, composers and multi-instrumentalists Chrissy Mostyn and Rick Pilkington are The Blackheart Orchestra. One of the must-see bands pioneering folktronica duo blend musical styles seamlessly sidestepping boundaries to create music huge enough to fill a cathedral. Always producing something beyond all easily marketed genres, their multi-instrumental sonic landscapes have always been too unpredictable and adventurous for the mainstream. Fusing acoustic fragility and pulsing electronica, The Blackheart Orchestra bring together stringed instrument dexterity with 80's synthesisers and clear classical influences. Often mistaken for an eight-piece band on first listen, they are found on stage continuously changing from electric and acoustic guitars, bowed guitar, piano, organ, bass and electronic percussion to vintage synthesisers, omnichord and melodica in a complex choreographed weave of musical moods and textures. One moment their sound is minimal and molecular, the next a mountain-like wall of sound with vast symphonic climaxes. Their four critically acclaimed albums and mesmerising live shows have won them obsessive worldwide fans, plaudits from musical giants and placements on TV commercials and films. Chrissy Mostyn's haunting vocals, the Mike Oldfield-like multi-instrumental playing of Rick Pilkington plus their fearless combination of conventional and unconventional all reflect their self-created universe where art meets sound and words paint pictures that take you with them on their deep musical journey into the human psyche.

One of the most lauded singer-songwriters of her generation, Dar Williams has been captivating audiences with her sheer elegance and honesty in her folk-pop songwriting since the early '90s. As documented on her last album, the 2012 In The Time Of Gods,, Williams’ growth as an individual over her almost two-decade-long career has gone hand-in-hand with her evolution as an artist. She has toured with such distinguished artists as Joan Baez, Patty Griffin, Ani DiFranco, and Shawn Colvin. Lucy Wainwright Roche opens the show. "Dar Williams, one of America's very best singer-songwriters… Her songs are beautiful. Some are like finely crafted short stories. They are, variously, devastatingly moving, tenderly funny, subtle without being in any way inaccessible, and utterly fresh—not a cliché or a clunker in her entire songbook." -The New Yorker "Known for her lyrical, evocative songwriting and singing…Ms. Williams has been a leading figure in the folk-rock world for nearly 20 years." -Wall Street Journal "Seasons change, but Williams remains both ambitious and pleasingly plainspoken." -Rolling Stone "A new generation of pop-folk enthusiasts lauds her as one of the genre's central figures." -Paste "One of our most thoughtful singer-songwriters." -New York Daily News

CHRIS COHEN was always a quiet kid. In fact, this introversion was one reason he began playing music as a toddlerto communicate without speaking to identify with others without the direct representation of words. It has worked, too, with Cohen's terrific stint in the mighty Deerhoof and his own captivating art-rock act The Curtains, preceding production and session work for the likes of Weyes Blood, Kurt Vile, Le Ren, and Marina Allen. Somewhere along that long way, Cohen started writing lyrics. He found that, though it didnt come naturally, the process offered a new sense of self-discovery and reckoning, a way to see himself and the world from unexpected angles. His three twilit albums of casually complicated pop during the last decade radiated these epiphanies: handling family strife, navigating advancing age, and understanding social woes. But Cohen has never had as much to sing so directly as he does on Paint a Room, his first album in five years and his debut for Hardly Art. If Cohen's meanings have previously lurked inside the tessellated musical layers he built alone, they are newly clear and resonant here, animated and underscored for the first time by a band playing in real time. There is the endless miasma of state violence on the subversively melodious opener Damage, the existential exhaustion of modernity on the horn-traced jangle Laughing. With Paint a Room, Cohen's music feels like a warm spring breeze, easy to love and gentle to feel. But it's often carrying something heavy, as if blowing in from some unseen storm cloud.

John Otway and his hard hitting band attack his favourite set list with gusto, leaving plenty of room for anarchy, fun and acrobatics that are his trademark. The Big Band are Richard Holgarth (lead guitar), Seymour (bass guitar), Murray Torkildsen (guitar, songwriter), Adam Batterbee (drums).

The trio plays folk/blues rock with rich harmonies, and a soulful sound in its rawest form.

Stick in the Wheel are a multi-award winning young five-piece folk band from London.

Jackie-O Motherfucker's music draws from a variety of subgenres including various folk musics of the world (American folk and blues, Traditional English folk ballads, etc.), drone, free jazz, psychedelia, and noise rock , and is heavily improvisational in its nature. Because they are a collective, rather than a consistent band or group, the sound of their music can change from performance to performance. Jackie-O Motherfucker began as a duo consisting of multi-instrumentalist Tom Greenwood and saxophonist Nester Bucket. The group has had more than forty members drawn from the U.S. experimental scene, notably Natalie Mering, who now records under Weyes Blood, briefly on bass; the core of the group is founding member Greenwood. The group has had recordings released by Fire Records, Ecstatic Peace, Feeding Tube Records, ATP Recordings and their own U-Sound Archive and has been on several international tours including performances at All Tomorrow's Parties Festivals. In collaboration with the band, Fire Records will be reissuing one of their albums this summer - the first official vinyl reissue of ‘Flags Of The Sacred Harp’ with restored original artwork and a download card featuring unreleased extras and rarities. Presented by Melting Vinyl. Under 16s accompanied by an adult

British Birds is a DIY melancholic psych-pop band from Chorley, England, characterized by catchy hooks, lullaby-like melodies, and a sobering melancholy. They are known for their collaboration and DIY ethic, drawing inspiration from artists like Neutral Milk Hotel, The Vaselines, and Ty Segall. The band's music is described as a blend of wistful acoustic psych and pop beats, resulting in a beautiful and nostalgic trip.

Singer-songwriter Scott Matthews who grew up listening to Led Zeppelin, Joni Mitchell and Bob Dylan, got his first guitar when he was seven and knew then that music was his future. His first album Passing Stranger caught the attention of Janice Long, Mark Radcliffe and Lauren Laverne and won him the Ivor Novello award for the single Elusive. He’s toured with the Foo Fighters, Robert Plant and Rufus Wainwright and his folk, blues and rock fusion continue to attract a devoted band of supporters.

Lily Seabird’s life has been in perpetual motion, spending nearly half of that time on the road performing her own music and as a touring bassist. While she thrives in transit, back home she is anchored by ‘Trash Mountain’, a pink house surrounded by other artists situated on a decommissioned landfill site at the back of Burlington’s Old North End.

Colorado songwriter Emily Scott Robinson beckons to those who are lost, lonely, or learning the hard way with American Siren, her first album for Oh Boy Records. With hints of bluegrass, country, and folk, the eloquent collection shares her gift for storytelling through her pristine soprano and the perspective of her unconventional path into music.

No Joy formed in November 2009 when guitarist/vocalist Jasamine White-Gluz was living in Los Angeles and guitarist/vocalist Laura Lloyd was living in Montreal. The pair wrote songs as long-distance collaborators until White-Gluz moved to Montreal and they could play shows together.

SLIDE guitarist & songwriter Dave Arcari’s alt.blues sounds owe as much to trash country, punk and rockabilly as they do pre-war Delta blues and have been showcased via six internationally-acclaimed solo album releases.

Anna Phoebe McElligott is a London-based violinist, composer, and broadcaster who performs in musical genres including contemporary classical, rock, folk, jazz, Celtic, and Middle Eastern music.

Here's something fabulous. Davy Henderson's mercurial post-Fire Engines project collected for the first time including three Boards Of Canada productions. Our copies come on orange vinyl with an exclusive flexi-disc and are signed by Davy. The Fire Engines place in things is 100% assured but what came next is just as good, better in places. First of all there was Davy's highly conceptual pop group, Win, then Nectarine No. 9 and then Sexual Objects, a glorious re-imagining of T. Rex for the 21st Century. Like T. Rex, Sexual Objects specialise in the 45, the 7 single God's own format. If Nectarine No 9 were all about ideas packed albums the Sexual Objects were (at first) all about singles. The initial impulse was write a song, rehearse a song, record a song, release a song. A thrilling debut single, Full Penetration, was released by Creeping Bent label followed by singles on the Aufgeladen Und Bereit / Aktion Und Spass labels in Hamburg and Say Dirty in Glasgow. This run was compiled by Creeping Bent and Aktion Und Spass as Cucumber, long out of print. If youve ever spent any time with Davy youll know he's got a mischevious mind and the next Sexual Objects move was a complete volte-face the singles idea was abandoned for something new the Cream Split Up mini-album followed by the unique manufacture of only one vinyl copy of the Marshmallow album, a legendary act. If youve got time you can read an excellent account of the conceptualisation of Marshmallow by Neil Cooper at The Quietus. The only copy of the original Marshmallow LP was auctioned for £4,213. We here at Monorail were thinking of bidding but, you know, funds I have so much respect for Davy Henderson, he's an original. The Sexual Objects is probably the incarnation of his Ive seen the most. It's odd, old school, cranky sometimes (like Subway Sect) they dont have a guitar tuner. Sometimes it's slightly showbiz, sometimes it's a bit self-sabotaging. But there's always some kind of magic in there, a spark, an energy. I really think theyre a brilliant group actually Simon Smeeton, Ian Holford, Douglas MacIntyre, Graham Wann and Davy Henderson theyre a great collective bunch. I have to say that the creation of Orangutang is probably as much down to his excellent cohort, Douglas MacIntyre, who is currently bringing the curtain down on his Creeping Bent label in fine style. More, much more to come on this. Orangutang is a beautiful thing musically and visually (artwork by Davy Henderson and Andrew Divine). It features 3 rare Boards of Canada productions and highlights across its 10 tracks why the Sexual Objects are so revered. Very proud to present an exclusive edition of this amazing record. https://monorailmusic.com/product/orangutang/ Stephen Pastel

On the 4th of October, Dublin-based experimental ambient pianist Jasmine Wood will play an intimate show live at the Glad Café. Supports TBA.

A varied evening of exciting and beautiful original music by four female artists based in Scotland. All four were selected by the Hen Hoose songwriting collective to benefit from their mentorship scheme. CLAIR TIERNEY combines sensitive vocals with delicate guitar work, firmly rooted in contemporary folk music. Expect disarming, magical folk songs from her albums Of The Deepest Dye and Inside A Story. Graceful and emotive" according to the Westmorland Gazette. LESRYS writes candidly about personal loss, family and ill-fated romance, bringing these memories to life with her earthy and grounded voice. As an emerging artist, you can look forward to original songs and covers of her greatest influences, including Ethel Cain and Hozier. MAAIKE SIEGERIST writes story-telling songs about travels, remarkable people, animals, and recently, space. BBC Radio 6's Tom Robinson praised her "delicate vocal" and "gorgeous chord changes." Immerse yourself in atmospheric space songs with a touch of jazz from her new EP, Starbound. Described as having a "voice of visceral power", MIWA NAGATO-APTHORP draws on Japanese and Scottish folk traditions to explore multicultural understandings of history, climate, gender and home. Expect achingly beautiful folk songs from her debut EP, Noren. No one will be turned away for lack of funds. Message one of the artists if you require a free ticket.

In this absurd musical comedy, Tiia Sorjonen sings songs silly about the difficulty of finding your words, tells absurd stories about growing up in a small, Finnish village, and how they ended up becoming a quartz glassblower. Above all odds, even God (your choice which) gets involved in this malarkey.

Glasgow launch for spectral folk savant Faith Eliott's new album 'dryas' - out now on Lost Map records