Folk Album Of The Year Award
2025
Pictured: The Longest Johns at New Century Hall for Manchester Folk Festival 2025, Photo credit: Mark Lear
The Folk Album Of The Year Award has been launched to celebrate the most artistically acclaimed folk, roots and acoustic albums in Britain and Ireland. Discover more about the spotlighted nine albums released in 2025 below.
The overall winner will be unveiled at an inaugural ceremony featuring live performances from nominated artists. The event will take place at Rochdale Town Hall on Tuesday 17 March 2026 and will be available to live stream.
Fans can sign up for the Sound Roots newsletter to stay updated on Folk Album of the Year Award news, including instructions on how to livestream next year’s ceremony, HERE.
Meet The Nominees
The artists behind each project range in age, geography, background and style - a vital snapshot of folk’s eclectic community, where traditional storytelling, contemporary composition and cross-genre experimentation sit side by side. While the Award originally intended to nominate eight albums, the shortlist has been extended to nine in response to the remarkable depth in quality of the submissions.
All Smiles Tonight - Poor Creature
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.
Teleology - Peggy Seeger
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.
Archie's Spikkin’ Auchie - Grace Stewart-Skinner
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.
Curlew’s Cry - Barry Kerr
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.
Teeth of Time - Joshua Burnside
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.
Shimli - Cynefin
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.
Tomorrow Held - Spafford Campbell
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.
Turnstone - Gigspanner Big Band
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.
Varipasi – Edith WeUtonga
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.
In our first year, we’ve been amazed by the remarkable range of submissions from all over Britain and Ireland. We received 146 entries in total. Explore all Folk Album of the Year Award 2025 submissions at our Folk Releases Hub HERE.
The Award has been created by Sound Roots and the award-winning 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.
The shortlist was selected by a jury of distinguished performers, music and media professionals, chaired by English folk singer-songwriter and Executive Producer of BBC Radio 2’s ‘The Folk Show’, Kellie While. Meet the jury members HERE.
The Award is supported by Rochdale Development Agency and forms a key part of Rochdale’s 2026 Town of Culture celebrations.
The Award also complements the Sound Roots-commissioned Official Folk Albums Chart, which was launched in 2020 in collaboration with the Official Charts Company and provides monthly charts highlighting around 120 new folk releases each year.
David Agnew, Chief Executive and Artistic Director of Sound Roots, said:
"In our inaugural year, we’ve been bowled over by the incredible breadth of submissions from across Britain and Ireland. As we look ahead, we're already planning how to celebrate even more exceptional folk releases. For now, we're excited to present these outstanding works to the world and to gather in Rochdale Town Hall this March to celebrate the vibrant folk community."
Kellie While, Chair of the Sound Roots Board and Jury Chair, added: “We are so grateful to our jury who have worked tirelessly and with passion over the last two weeks. It was an incredibly difficult job as there were a huge number of albums considered that very much deserve recognition. The nine albums show how vibrant and exciting this year has been for folk music in Britain and Ireland and we cannot wait for new audiences to discover these brilliant releases.”
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