Luke Daniels

Such is Luke Daniels' unquenchable inquisitiveness that, since his landmark solo statement What's Here What's Gone in 2014, he's put down several more markers on the musical map. Revolve and Rotate had him transporting the 19th century's closest thing to hi-fi, the giant steel discs of the polyphon, to modern transcription. All of this, as longtime admirers noted, in the context of a career that already had 20 years on the clock, playing melodeon for the great and the good such as Ian Anderson and Riverdance, as a regular in Cara Dillon's band and a soloist on the soundtracks for The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit.

True to Daniels' DNA, his music is founded upon the finest folk traditions, but he is nothing if not a 21st century troubadour. It's that mixture of the time-honoured and the timely that is at the heart of his ability to connect with fans across a broad spectrum of forebears, from Fairport Convention to Randy Newman to XTC. Featured on Folk Radio UK as “classic contemporary folk” and ???? in Songlines magazine for his “topical innovative songwriting.” Frontiersman is not too strong a word.