ALL SMILES TONIGHT

By By Greg

The newest gem to emerge from Ireland’s flourishing folk underground doesn’t open with the heavy, ominous tones we might expect from Lankum’s influence. Instead, Adieu Lovely Erin drifts in with a shimmering, dreamlike energy. The sound recalls Broadcast dancing around a maypole, before veering into something like the Cocteau Twins dropped into a traditional session. The airy, high-pitched vocals draw on the ornamentation of sean-nós singing, while restless, motorik-style percussion builds a mounting tension.

Poor Creature brings together three musicians with a flair for atmosphere: Ruth Clinton of Landless, Cormac MacDiarmada of Lankum, and Lankum’s live drummer John Dermody. On their debut, they weave cowboy ballads, Irish folk, Appalachian songs and more into something both playful and ghostly. “Bury Me Not,” a 19th-century lament of a sailor pleading not to be buried at sea, is sung by Clinton with a luminous innocence that makes the sadness sting all the more. MacDiarmada takes the lead on “Lorene,” a Louvin Brothers tune, where his soft delivery deepens the sense of quiet yearning as voice and guitar spiral together.

Unusual instruments lend the record a strange, childlike magic: the quirky hum of a Hohner Organetta, the cartoonish cry of an Otamatone, and the eerie swoop of a theremin. But there’s weight here, too. Doc Watson’s “Hicks’ Farewell” is reimagined through a haze of shoegaze textures, while “The Whole Town Knows” surges forward with pounding percussion and layered harmonies, bursting into a chaotic yet exhilarating finale. The result is folk music stretching toward something bold, even pop-like, without losing its roots.

The duo Lunatraktors, who blur the lines between folk, cabaret, and performance art, gather six years of work in their new anthology Quilting Points: Invitations and Open Calls 2019–2025 (self-released). The set blends reworked traditional material, archival snippets, and experimental soundplay; highlights include the synth-driven “‘Oss Girls,” inspired by Padstow’s May Day ritual, and the expansive “The Truth of Eanswythe’s Bones,” a choral piece sparked by the unearthing of a medieval saint’s remains.

Elsewhere, harpist Grace Stewart-Skinner releases Auchies Spikkin’ Auchie (self-released), a richly layered meditation on the voices and dialect of her fishing village, Avoch, blending clàrsach with field recordings, fiddle, bass, and percussion. Meanwhile, guitarist Toby Hay’s New Music for the 6 String Guitar (The State51 Conspiracy) continues his role as a sensitive, modern inheritor of John Fahey’s fingerpicking legacy.