Second Cousins returns to FolkEast — and gets experimental!
Last year, my Second Cousins stage introduced the story of London's legendary Les Cousins folk club to FolkEast for the first time. For those who weren't there: Les Cousins was the basement club at 49 Greek Street, Soho, that became the crucible of the British folk revival in the late 1960s — the place where Bert Jansch, John Renbourn, Sandy Denny, Al Stewart, Nick Drake and dozens of others found their feet and their audience. Our tribute stage brought that history to life through performances, talks and exhibitions, and it became one of the festival's most talked-about events.
Legendary guitars on the Second Cousins Stage at FolkEast, 2025. L-R: Andy Matheou’s Yamaha (as used by John Martyn on his ‘Bless the Weather’ album), Bert Jansch’s Yamaha, Sandy Denny’s guitar (I’m unsure of the make), Nick Drake’s Martin 000-28.
This year it's back, and this time I'm taking the spirit of that basement somewhere altogether more unpredictable.
Les Cousins was always at its best when nobody quite knew what was going to happen next: when a singer-songwriter might dissolve into psych-blues, or a folk set might veer into jazz or avant-garde noise. Last year, we saw some of that spontaneous collaboration in the way that Sam Grassie pulled people on stage, in the myriad impromptu collaborations that John Altman took part in, and in some of the performances I enjoyed with luminaries such as Bridget St John (see the video below). That experimental energy is what this year's stage is built around.
When I put this line-up together, I kept asking myself one question: would Andy Matheou have booked them? Andy ran Les Cousins, and he was one of the great unsung tastemakers of 1960s London — a man with a questing, questioning mind and no patience for the gatekeeping that fenced folk music in (I’m currently writing a book about Les Cousins and the work he did). I think he'd have had every one of these artists down those stairs.
Huge props to Becky and John who run FolkEast. They’re as passionate about this annual project as I am. I’m incredibly lucky. I just give them a list of all the people I want to see and they pull it all out of a magic hat. I feel well and truly spoilt.
The Line-Up
The Waeve are, in their fullest form, a cinematic, orchestral force — but for Second Cousins they've agreed to do something different: a stripped-back, psych-folk duo set that I think is going to be genuinely special. I had the pleasure of making music with Graham Coxon on the Martin Carthy tour recently, and getting to know Rose Elinor Dougall has been one of the unexpected delights of the last year. She's a wonderful songwriter with deep folk roots — a huge Anne Briggs fan, among other things — and I suspect a lot of people are going to discover that for the first time when she takes the stage. The barn is going to be rammed. I'd put money on it.
Jim Ghedi is someone I've been watching and admiring from a distance for years without ever quite managing to cross paths with. His music is rooted in the English landscape and the folk tradition, but his latest album Wasteland pushes into electronics, drone and contemporary classical — dark, brooding and unafraid. I'm genuinely excited to finally see him in action.
Emily Portman is, hands down, one of my favourite folk singers and songwriters working today. Her music is spellbinding, her knowledge of traditional song vast and deeply felt, and I've been trying to get her to play on this stage for a few years now. She arrives fresh from the release of her new album Dominion of Spells, and I'm delighted we've finally made it happen.
Gwenifer Raymond is, frankly, a six-string superstar — and it still feels slightly mad that we've managed to get her to play somewhere this intimate. The Cardiff-born virtuoso channels the mysticism of the Appalachian fingerpicking tradition through something entirely her own: a style she calls Welsh Primitive. Don't miss her.
Spitzer Space Telescope is the project of London-based Michigan songwriter Dan MacDonald, who I first came across as a visual artist. When we needed a pub onstage at the Martin Carthy tribute concert, Dan was the man who built the whole thing, single-handedly. His singing turns out to be just as extraordinary — bellowing and barnstorming, drawing on Clancy Brothers stomp, Dylanesque balladry and shape-note hymning in the same breath. A genuine all-rounder.
Cara Elin is someone I've had the pleasure of gigging with several times over the last year, and she is the absolute beating heart of the young folk scene growing in Brighton right now. She brings the Mabinogion to life through originals and traditional verse — music rooted in mist and myth — and her energy and passion for the tradition she grew up in excites me in the way I felt when I first heard what Broadside Hacks were doing. One to watch doesn't quite cover it.
I can't think of a better day out this summer. Come and find out what happens when folk music stops worrying about what it's supposed to be.
Tickets are available now via FolkEast.
Second Cousins takes place on Saturday 22nd August at FolkEast, Sotterley Estate, Suffolk, 21–23 August 2026.
