"We play the music of our people. We sing in our own accents. We record in our kitchens and living rooms. This is our culture, our tradition."

 

Stick in the Wheel are no ordinary folk band. Their highly anticipated debut album “From Here” is made of aggressive and intentionally raw recordings, cobbled together in Essex warehouses and East London kitchens. 

The tales of everyday life feature carboot swindlers, lorry drivers and London rioters sitting seamlessly beside traditional songs of prisons, hammer-wielding blacksmiths and 18th century madhouses.

 

“We see this music as part of our culture and we’re not pretending to be chimney sweeps or 17th century dandies.”

 

The band is spearheaded by Nicola Kearey’s fierce uncompromising vocal delivery, and underpinned by sparse taut arrangements. 

'From Here’ follows a handful of acclaimed Eps and recent Static Caravan 7”, appearances on BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour, sessions on BBC6Music and Xfm, plus two BBC Folk Award 2015 nominations: 

The 2015 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards Nomination Horizon Award for Best Emerging Act and the 2015 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards Nomination Best Traditional Track for Bedlam.

 

As a fitting end to last year, the band have been awarded winners of the 2015 fROOTS Critics Poll Album of the Year. Also, they have made the short list for the FATEA Magazine Awards 2015, as nominees for Best Debut Album 2015, for their album From Here.

 

'Stick In The Wheel mix revivalism with folk-punk attack: this is an acoustic band with attitude.'

4 Stars**** - Robin Denselow, The Guardian.

 

'This is high-energy, politically switched-on folk music and it is one of the most vital recent additions to the English musical tradition.'

Thomas Blake, Folk Radio UK.