The shortlist for the inaugural Folk Album Of The Year Award is out.
The award was announced in August, and 146 albums were submitted for consideration.
The nine albums were selected by a jury of music and media professionals and a winner will be announced, in a live event with some of nominees performing, in Rochdale, Greater Manchester on Patrick’s Day March 17th 2026.
The nine nominated albums are:
Folk Album Of The Year Award 2025 shortlist:
- All Smiles Tonight – Poor Creature
- Teleology – Peggy Seeger
- Auchies Spikkin’ Auchie – Grace Stewart Skinner
- Curlew’s Cry – Barry Kerr
- Teeth of Time – Joshua Burnside
- Shimli – Cynefin
- Tomorrow Held – Spafford Campbell
- Turnstone – Gigspanner Big Band
- Varipasi – Edith WeUtonga
Jury panel:
- Mark Radcliffe (BBC Radio 2)
- Jude Rogers (The Guardian)
- Rob Cowen (Author of The North Road, Common Ground and The Heeding)
- Anna Massie (BBC Scotland / Musician)
- Lynette Fay (Broadcaster / Producer)
- Becky Marshall-Potter (FolkEast Festival)
- John McCusker (Musician)
- Jo Frost (Journalist)
- Georgia Ruth (BBC Cymru / Musician)
- Sam Hindley (Thank Goodness It’s Folk)
- Philip King (Other Voices)
- Alexandria Carr (Southbank Centre)
The panel is chaired by English folk singer-songwriter and Executive Producer of BBC Radio 2’s ‘The Folk Show’ Kellie While.
The Award has been created by music charity Sound Roots and the podcast Folk on Foot, hosted by broadcaster Matthew Bannister.
Each nominated album will be showcased in a nine-part Folk on Foot series, published daily from 3rd–11th December 2025.
Live event
The eventual Award winner will be unveiled at a ceremony at Rochdale Town Hall on Tuesday 17 March 2026. The live-streamed event will feature performances from nominees who will play to an invited audience of 200 musicians and industry professionals, as well as viewers around the world. Fans can sign up to the Sound Roots newsletter to keep updated on Folk Album Of The Year Award news. Instructions on how to livestream next year’s Award ceremony will be announced soon.
The Folk Album Of The Year Award is supported by Rochdale Development Agency and forms a key part of Rochdale’s 2026 Town of Culture celebrations.
The shortlist includes All Smiles Tonight from Dublin’s Poor Creature, which exists in a world shared with Lankum and Landless. Released on Rough Trade’s pioneering folk imprint, River Lea, the three-piece’s debut blends spectral textures and subtle electronics, continuing to tread new paths for Irish trad music.
At 90 years old, folk legend Peggy Seeger’s philosophical, spirited and characteristically bold album Teleology also makes the shortlist. She remains a monumental folk icon on both sides of the Atlantic, with countless international awards to her name. Touted to be her final solo album, it’s not only a fitting tribute to an illustrious seven-decade career but also an exceptional record in its own right.
On the other end of the age spectrum, 25-year-old Highland clàrsach player Grace Stewart-Skinner offers an extraordinary debut in Auchies Spikkin’ Auchie. By weaving fisher-folk conversations from her home village of Avoch with new compositions, the album forms an intimate ethnomusicological portrait of place, language and community.
Barry Kerr’s seventh album, Curlew’s Cry, gets a nod for its powerful blend of original and traditional material, grounded in Irish folklore, memory, and the natural world. A multi-instrumentalist and award-winning composer, Kerr continues to broaden the expressive possibilities of Irish trad music.
East Belfast’s Joshua Burnside delves into themes of family, trauma and existence on Teeth of Time, nominated for its boundary-pushing folk sound that fuses electronica with found-sound collage.
Cynefin, the pseudonym of Welsh musician Owen Shiers, is recognised for breathing new life into farmer traditions of Ceredigion on his second album, Shimli. Named after the post-harvest gatherings of rural Wales, the music draws from deeply researched Welsh language songs, poems and stories that have hummed through the valleys for centuries.
Violinist Owen Spafford and guitarist Louis Campbell are nominated for Tomorrow Held, the London instrumental duo’s debut album as Spafford Campbell. Released on Peter Gabriel’s Real World Records, the album brings a new generational take to English folk music that combines jazz, chamber and folk influences with remarkable fluency.
Bringing together some of the most respected musicians in the British folk-roots scene, six-piece ensemble Gigspanner Big Band gets a nod for their accomplished third album, Turnstone. An inventive and richly textured record which blends a deep knowledge of roots traditions with technical brilliance and fearless reinterpretation.
Finally, Zimbabwean-born and UK-based vocalist, bassist and composer, Edith WeUtonga is shortlisted for her forthcoming album Varipasi, which is out on 9th December. A major figure in Southern African music, her blend of Afro-jazz and traditional Zimbabwean roots enriches the shortlist with a bold and dynamic international perspective.
About Sound Roots
Sound Roots is a registered charity that helps the independent music sector to thrive and grow. As the Arts Council of England’s leading organisation for providing career pathways into the folk, roots and acoustic music commercial industries, it supports the sector through a variety of projects, including the annual Manchester Folk Festival and its parallel industry showcase, English Folk Expo (EFEx). EFEx is the country’s biggest conference of the global folk music scene, connecting 170+ industry specialists from 20+ countries who bring an estimated £10m market value. Sound Roots also runs an Artist Mentoring Pathway, collaborates with export organisations worldwide on initiatives including Global Music Match and produces The Official Folk Albums Chart with The Official Charts Company. In September 2024, Sound Roots launched Sound Roots Connect, a unique online community for artists and music industry personnel.
To find more information about Sound Roots, please visit: www.soundroots.uk
About Folk on Foot
Folk on Foot is the multi-award-winning podcast hosted by the broadcaster Matthew Bannister. Described by the Telegraph as “a restorative breathing space in sound”, in each episode Matthew goes walking with a leading British or Irish folk artist in a landscape that has inspired them – and they sing and play on location. With more than 80 episodes available, the list of artists taking part reads like a Who’s Who of contemporary folk and the locations range from mountain tops to riverbanks and from crowded city streets to deserted white sand beaches. Folk on Foot also hosts the Official Folk Albums Chart Show, counting down the best-selling and most streamed folk albums on its YouTube channel and podcast on the first Tuesday of each month.
To find more information about Folk on Foot, please visit: www.folkonfoot.com
Niall Byrne is the founder of the most-influential Irish music site Nialler9, where he has been writing about music since 2005. He is the co-host of the Nialler9 Podcast and has written for the Irish Times, Irish Independent, Sunday Times, Totally Dublin, Cara Magazine, Red Bull and more. Niall is a DJ, co-founder of Lumo Club, event curator, Indie Sleaze club promoter, and producer of gigs and monthly listening parties & events in Dublin.
