England - West and South Yorkshire

Moving onto the Holme Valley, where traditional Folk singer and bouzouki player Jack Rutter grew up.  He's relatively new on the scene, but is already making waves with his beautiful interpretations of traditional material rooted in his native Yorkshire.  Here's a song from his 2019 album Gold of Scar & Shale called The Lancashire Liar:

Folk singer Kate Rusby is sometimes known as the nightingale of Barnsley. This is the title track from her 2016 album Life in a Paper Boat:

Ian King is a dry-stone waller from Barnsley who describes himself as a punk at heart.  As far as I know he has only released the one album, Panic Grass and Feverfew, in 2010.  It's a blend of folk, rock, reggae and blues and works really well.  Since it is St. George's Day, England's national saint, here is his song By George plus other extracts from his album and an interview with him:

Moving onto Sheffield, where Fay Hield is a university lecturer for music.  She has both recorded solo as well as bringing to life exciting folk music projects such as The Full English.  This is from her 2010 album Looking Glass called The Shepherd's Daughter, showing off her beautiful voice:

Fay's project, The Full English brings together some big luminaries of the folk scene including Seth Lakeman, Martin Simpson and Nancy Kerr.  This is a song from their one album so far from 2013, called Arthur O'Bradley:

Also proudly from Sheffield are folk group The Melrose Quartet, who are very much rooted in the traditions of Yorkshire.  Staying on the St. George's Day theme, the opening track from their 2014 album Fifty Verses is called Santa Georgia:

Still in Sheffield, we meet singer-songwriter Nat Johnson.  Here's a song from her 2014 album Neighbour of the Year called I Can't See You:

Finally I can't leave Sheffield without visiting my friends Laura Stewart and Conor Nott who form the duo Salt Pinchers.  They came to stay with us in Portaferry about 3 years ago and we had a great few days together playing music, drinking wine and having fun.  They left a CD with us of their album Songs to Save a Beard.  This is a track from it called Stardust and Energy:

That's it for today.  Happy St. George's Day, even though the English don't really celebrate their patron saint, I tend to mark the day by making dandelion flower wine.  As usual you can follow my virtual journey on my tripline map.