The singer, songwriter and academic Fay Hield invites us to a Soundpost Singing Weekend in the village of Dungworth on the outskirts of Sheffield. Guests include Sean Cooney of the Young’uns and Rowan Rheingans who wrote special songs for the event. But mostly we walk in the surrounding countrysi...

Join us on a walk around the unassuming village of Pathhead, Midlothian, just south of Edinburgh, which is home to a whole galaxy of Scottish musicians. We start with singer songwriter Karine Polwart, who takes us to meet pianist Dave Milligan and his partner the harpist Corrina Hewat. Then it’s ...

“My city, my people, my heart” – Jamie Webster loves his home city of Liverpool – and Liverpool loves Jamie Webster. The young singer and songwriter started out performing chants for fans of Liverpool FC, which led to a gig in front of 60,000 at the Champions League Final and a meeting with manag...

Raynor Winn’s best-selling book “The Salt Path” tells how she and her husband Moth became homeless just as he was diagnosed with a terminal neuro-degenerative disease. Despite this, they set off to walk the 630 challenging miles of the South West Coast Path which stretches from Minehead in Somers...

Grace Petrie sometimes introduces herself on stage as “a socialist, feminist, lesbian protest singer”. Her acutely observed songs range from political and passionate to personal and profound.  She’s also been known to turn her hand to comedy. In this walk through her home city of Leicester she te...

The drummer Johnny Kalsi (The Dhol Foundation, Transglobal Underground, Afro Celt Sound System, Imagined Village) takes us for a walk round Southall - an area of West London known as “Little India”. We visit a Sikh temple, marvel at the sumptuous fabrics and glittering jewellery in the bridal sho...

We’re back on the glorious Shetland Isles for this episode and who better to show us around than the renowned local fiddle player Maurice Henderson (of Fiddlers Bid) and his friend the luthier and guitarist from Fair Isle Ewen Thomson? After Ewen demonstrates how to make a great violin, they take...

“He said you could pluck songs out of the air - pluck them out of the air - and sing them bonny”. The great Northumbrian pipe player Kathryn Tickell describes the River Rede near her home as the backdrop and soundscape to her life. On its bank, she is joined by her Dad Mike to perform music, song...

The acclaimed singer and songwriter Declan O’Rourke takes us for a scenic walk near his home in the beautiful fishing village of Kinvara on the west coast of Ireland, singing songs inspired by the area as he goes. Declan’s grandfather, an artist, was born and brought up in Kinvara. On our walk, D...

In the shadow of the disused ironstone kilns of the Rosedale Valley in North Yorkshire, Ciderhouse Rebellion - fiddle player Adam Summerhayes and accordionist Murray Grainger - conjure up a soundscape of rare beauty - improvised on the spot. Then they add evocative poetry from Adam’s daughter Jes...

A Bronze Age site on Dartmoor, six musical instruments, a feather, harmonica-enhanced beatboxing, a stone that is said to increase fertility, a fast flowing river, a baby and a caring grandmother - all ingredients of a wonderful walk with the award-winning duo Edgelarks (Phillip Henry and Hannah ...

Olivia Chaney wrote many of the songs for her critically acclaimed second solo album whilst living alone without electricity or mains water at her family’s remote and crumbling farmhouse on Hawnby Moor in North Yorkshire. On a hot summer’s day, she takes Matthew Bannister back across the Moor, si...

Question: What do you get when you go walking with the nature writer Robert Macfarlane and the actor and musician Johnny Flynn on a scorching hot summer's day in Wandlebury?

Answer: A Neolithic track, an Iron Age fort, a Roman road, a holm oak, cow pats, a mighty avenue of sun-dappled beech, a b...

The singer, songwriter and artist Jenny Sturgeon has made her home on Shetland, a group of wild and wonderful islands in the North Atlantic. We climb up to the Sumburgh Head Lighthouse where Jenny – who has a PhD in seabird ecology – points out fulmars, kittywakes and a puffin on the vertiginous ...

The wonderful English fiddle player Sam Sweeney has been a key member of Bellowhead, Leveret, Eliza Carthy’s Wayward Band and many other collaborations. He’s also made two acclaimed solo albums and was the inaugural artistic director of the National Folk Youth Ensemble. We start this episode with...

A finger style guitarist with a uniquely impassioned vocal style, Jim Ghedi was born and brought up in the Crookes area of Sheffield. He takes Matthew Bannister to his Nan and Grandad’s terraced house where he spent his early childhood. There was always music in the house, much of it Irish and of...

The singer, fiddle, guitar and ukulele player Germa Adan was born in Haiti, grew up in Florida and now lives in the UK. She says the RSPB reserve in the Sandwell Valley has been her place of calm during the lockdowns – where she goes to contemplate and recharge. As the sounds of early spring surr...

The multi talented musician, producer and lover of the natural world Cosmo Sheldrake takes Matthew Bannister for a walk in the wood near his home. As well as creating electronic music from the song of endangered bird species and the sounds of deep sea creatures, he demonstrates his skill as a bea...

Come with us to the back garden of a house in the Peak District village of Grindleford. There, in a magical atmospheric workshop with fiddles, banjos and drying gourds hanging from the ceiling, we find the Rheingans Sisters and their Dad Helmut, who makes all their instruments. Rowan and Anna Rhe...

The legendary guitarist and songwriter Richard Thompson (who celebrated his 70th birthday in 2019) takes Matthew Bannister for a walk around the areas of London where he grew up, began playing the guitar, formed Fairport Convention (inventing English folk rock) and joined the vibrant music scene...

Belinda O’Hooley and Heidi Tidow created one of the most memorable sets of our summer Festivals, filmed at their home in the village of Golcar in West Yorkshire. They have an uncanny ability to move you to tears one moment then have you roaring with laughter the next.

In summer 2020 they were pl...

The multi award winning Dorset duo Ninebarrow take Matthew Bannister for a walk in the glorious countryside of the Isle of Purbeck.

Jon Whitley and Jay LaBouchardiere have known each other since they were twelve years old. They are a musical and personal partnership – a singing duo and a married...

Johnny Flynn is a talented stage and screen actor who is also a wonderful musician. You may have heard his theme tune for the brilliant TV comedy Detectorists, or seen him on the big screen in the recent adaptation of Jane Austen’s Emma, or on stage alongside Sir Mark Rylance in the acclaimed pla...

The award winning singer, songwriter and guitarist Chris Wood has lived in Kent all his life. “If you keep moving around, how much can you trust your judgement?” he asks. “If you stop where you are, the world does eventually come to you.”

Since the Brexit referendum and election of 2019, Chris h...