Songlines magazine
92 episodes listed below
Annual Songlines Music Awards ceremonies spotlighting global artists, from Afrobeat to sevda.
Songlines Podcast extends the magazine’s world music coverage into ceremonial nights, radio-style selections, and special projects. It suits listeners who want context around global recordings, from Malian kora and Ukrainian ethno-punk to gospel recordings and Balinese field recordings.
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Songlines Podcast is produced by Songlines magazine, a UK-based publication covering traditional, contemporary, and fusion music from around the world. The show's core format is the annual Songlines Music Awards ceremony, presented across episodes recorded between 2019 and 2022. DJ Keris Matthews hosts the awards evenings, introducing category winners and reading out acceptance speeches from artists unable to attend in person. Each ceremony episode covers nine award categories — Africa, the Americas, Asia-Pacific, Europe, Fusion, Best Artist, Best Group, Newcomer, and the career-spanning World Pioneer award — with winners drawn from labels such as Real World Records, Glitterbeat Records, Smithsonian Folkways, and Strut Records. Artists heard or referenced via acceptance speech include Youssou N'Dour, Omara Portuondo, Lee Raz, Damir Imamović, and Jake Blount, alongside Songlines publisher Paul Gagan, who presents some awards in person. The 2020 and 2021 ceremonies were held virtually due to pandemic restrictions, with the show returning to a live audience at London's Scala in 2022. Beyond the awards, the catalogue includes standalone events such as a 2019 remix competition judged by David Attenborough, Ghost Poet, Hannah Peel, and Matthew Herbert. The tone throughout is narrative and event-driven rather than conversational, structured around ceremony proceedings rather than open-ended interviews. Listeners who follow world and global music genres, or who want a yearly snapshot of critically recognised international releases, are the primary audience. Production centers on event audio — speeches, introductions, and brief artist context — rather than studio-produced discussion segments.
Made for: Listeners who follow world and global music traditions and want an annual roundup of internationally recognised artists and releases.
What sets it apart: Rather than interview-driven world music coverage, the show is built almost entirely around live and virtual Songlines Music Awards ceremonies, presenting acceptance speeches and category announcements instead of long-form conversation.
Celebrating its 20th anniversary in 2019, Songlines magazine covers the world's most exciting music from traditional and popular to contemporary and fusion, featuring artists from all around the globe. Songlines is packed full of the latest CD reviews, artist interviews, guides to particular world music traditions, concert-listings, travel stories and every issue comes with an exclusive compilation CD.
One minute you're rescuing 1960 gospel; the next, Blind Willie McTell is introducing himself.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
Kershaw turns tribute, gospel finds, reggae toasting, blues lore, bluegrass, and Freddie King into generous crate-digger radio.
Andy Kershaw opens with a plain, affectionate goodbye to Norma Watterson, then does what this programme does best: follows one record into another until the shelves start talking back.
A magazine-style roundup where performances, history, and place keep feeding into one another.
Songlines Podcast 103 moves with the loose, magazine-like shape of a good roundup. It starts in the Sahara with Aziz Ibrahim and the Sahara Soul Concert, then shifts into percussion with Evelyn Glennie and Jonathan Haas, before turning toward wartime memory, the Polish bonus-CD…
Chicago critics DeRogatis and Kot pair new-album reviews with deep dives into records like Rumours.
A high schooler's music diary — Grammys press pass stories to family concert interviews.
Stephen Hyden and Ian Cohen argue about indie rock, one Metacritic score at a time.
Andy Kershaw hosts a music-rich episode featuring live bluegrass from Borderland Bluegrass in his kitchen.
Songlines magazine launched a remix competition inviting UK music creators to reimagine a Gamelan track recorded by Sir David Attenborough in Bali in 1956, receiving over 300 entries.
Songlines Magazine Podcast 105 presents Simon Broughton and Joe Frost’s selections from the magazine’s top ten albums of 2014, including Aurelio Martinez’s Garifuna music and Aziza Ibrahim’s Western Saharan protest song.
Songlines Podcast 103 opens with Sutak by Aziz Ibrahim and then broadens into the issue's editorial map.