New Folk Album Award Announces Distinguished Jury
Last month, The Folk Album Of The Year Award was launched to celebrate the most artistically acclaimed albums released in Britain and Ireland.
Nominees will be chosen by a distinguished panel of performers, and music and media professionals, chaired by celebrated English folk singer-songwriter and Executive Producer of BBC Radio 2’s ‘The Folk Show’ and ‘21st Century Folk’, Kellie While.
The high-profile jury, who will shortlist the albums to be revealed in November, includes:
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 Award will spotlight eight shortlisted albums released in 2025, with the overall winner unveiled at an inaugural ceremony featuring live performances from nominated artists. The live streamed event will take place at Rochdale Town Hall on Tuesday 17 March 2026.
The Folk Album of the Year Award aims to showcase the breadth and diversity of the genre's community across all four nations of Britain and Ireland, celebrating originality, artistic quality and cultural impact, regardless of commercial profile.
Submissions are now open to artists and their representatives, including labels and publishers, and will close at 23:59 on Sunday 31 October 2025.
The Award has been created by music charity Sound Roots and the award-winning podcast Folk on Foot hosted by broadcaster Matthew Bannister. Each nominated album will be spotlighted in its own album profile show on Folk on Foot as part of a special eight-part series in early December 2025.
The Award also complements the Sound Roots-commissioned Official Folk Albums Chart, which has run monthly since 2020 in collaboration with the Official Charts Company and highlights around 120 new folk releases each year.
The Folk Album of the Year Award sits within Sound Roots’ wider programme of events, including Manchester Folk Festival and English Folk Expo (EFEx) – England’s leading folk industry conference and showcase. Sound Roots also delivers a range of networking, education and commercially focused initiatives designed to support, celebrate and connect the UK’s grassroots folk community.
The Award is supported by Rochdale Development Agency and forms a key part of Rochdale’s celebrations as Greater Manchester’s Town of Culture 25-26.
Meet The Jury
Kellie While (Chair) –
Kellie While is the Chair of the Sound Roots Board and Jury Chair. The BBC/Pomona Audio radio producer’s production credits include the BBC Radio 2 Folk Show, 21st Century Folk and the Radio 2 Folk Awards, as well as myriad documentaries and specials for Radio 1, Radio 2, Radio 4, BBC World Service, Radio 5 Live, 6 Music and Sky Arts.
As a teenager, she became the youngest lead singer of The Albion Band and went on to front Anglo-African group e2K. She continues to perform with her Mum, Chris While, a project close to her heart, and each December she takes to the road with The Albion Christmas Band alongside Ashley Hutchings, Simon Nicol and Simon Care.
Jude Rogers –
Jude Rogers is an arts journalist and broadcaster, and the Guardian's folk music critic. Her book, The Sound of Being Human: How Music Shapes Our Lives, was shortlisted for Wales Book of the Year and the Penderyn Music Prize. She is also a documentary maker, writer and presenter for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Radio Cymru.
Rob Cowen –
Rob Cowen is an award-winning writer and author, hailed as one of the UK’s most original voices on nature, place and people. His new book The North Road (2025) has been described as a ‘dazzlingly inventive work of literature’ and debuted as Book of the Week in the Observer, Financial Times, Telegraph and New Statesman.
Mark Radcliffe –
Mark Radcliffe has worked in radio for well over forty years having started out at Manchester station Piccadilly in 1979. He has gone on to work for BBC Radios 1, 2, 3, 4, 4 Extra, 5, 5 Live, 6 Music and the World Service. He currently presents the Radio 2 Folk Show and weekend breakfast on 6Music with Stuart Maconie.
Sam Hindley –
Sam Hindley co-presents Thank Goodness It's Folk on Sheffield Live community radio, and his knowledge and enthusiasm have placed him at the heart of the city's folk scene. Although Sam has cerebral palsy, it rarely slows him down. For the past 11 years, he has run ‘Live at Sam's’ house concerts.
Georgia Ruth –
Georgia Ruth is a musician and broadcaster from Aberystwyth, Wales. Using folk influences to create a truly unique sound, her debut album Week of Pines won the Welsh Music Prize in 2013 and was nominated for two BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards. She presents a weekly music show on BBC Radio Cymru, showcasing the best contemporary music from Wales and beyond.
Jo Frost –
Jo Frost has over 30 years’ experience working in the music industry as a music journalist, consultant and curator. Formerly editor of Songlines magazine, Jo is now freelance and working for a variety of publications and organisations. She has a passion for music’s power to connect people and has participated in WOMEX, Showcase Scotland, Folkelarm and English Folk Expo, where she is a trustee.
Lynette Fay –
Lynette Fay is broadcaster and producer well known through her work with BBC Radio Ulster where she hosted Blas Ceoil and Folk Club. She presented the ground-breaking Fleadh TV on TG4, co-hosted Blas Ceoil and has made many TV music documentaries. She has been on judging panels for BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards and the RTÉ Folk Awards.
Alexandria Carr –
Alex Carr is the Contemporary Music Programmer for the Southbank Centre in London, where she works on bespoke festivals like Meltdown. She is also a freelance radio broadcaster and the Programme Producer for Jazz & Emerging Talent for B:Music, the charity responsible for Birmingham’s Town Hall and Symphony Hall.
Anna Massie –
Equally at home as accompanist or melody player, Anna Massie is one of the trad world’s foremost guitarists. As well as being a skilled multi-instrumentalist and singer renowned for her work with Blazin’ Fiddles and RANT, she also presents BBC Radio Scotland’s award-winning flagship trad music programme, Travelling Folk.
Philip King –
Philip King is a versatile figure in the arts, known as a curator, film director, writer, musician, broadcaster and commentator. He gained acclaim for producing the groundbreaking series 'Bringing It All Back Home', which won a Primetime Emmy award in 1987. Most notably, he co-created Ireland’s beloved music and arts festival, Other Voices, now in its 24th year.
Becky Marshall-Potter –
Becky Marshall-Potter is the Director of FolkEast, the annual Folk and Arts Festival in Suffolk now in its 13th year. She also leads Jackalope Arts CIC supporting artists in creating and developing new, collaborative work and community projects.
John McCusker –
John McCusker is Scotland’s foremost fiddle player, who began playing whistle and fiddle as a child and joined the legendary folk outfit Battlefield Band aged 17. John is renowned for his skill at transcending musical boundaries, and as a live and studio guest he has shared stages with Mark Knopfler, Paul Weller, Paolo Nutini, Graham Coxon and Eddi Reader.
