Jim Moray: Folk music ‘with the kitchen sink thrown at it’

Seasoned folk singer-songwriter Jim Moray is heading out on tour, and he also released a new single, Spencer the Rover, in September – his first new music since 2019.

Moray has been pushing the boundaries of traditional folk music since the early 2000s, infusing it with elements of electronica, rock, and even hip-hop.

His upcoming tour, which comes to Cambridge on 23 January, will feature the artist performing songs from throughout his career, including tracks from his debut album Sweet England, right up to his most recent collection of new material, The Outlander.

He will also be previewing songs from his upcoming new album.

“This time last year [December 2023], I put out a kind of 21st anniversary album, that was partially recorded at Abbey Road Studios,” says the Liverpool-based musician, who Mojo magazine hailed as “very much a landmark artist for our times”.

“It was called Beflean and that was re-recorded tracks from the previous 21 years of making records.

“Since then, I’ve toured that, I played some festivals with my band, which was the first time I’d done band gigs at festivals for about 10 years. So that’s been nice…

“I’ve just been kind of getting back to it, both after the pandemic – and the effects of that are still going on, really – and also after significant life changes.

“So I’ve been working on a new record, which should be out next year – just putting the finishing touches to that.

“But because Beflean was a retrospective album, it was songs that I’d already done, it’s been a long time since I’ve had anything new out there.

“So I’m just looking forward to getting some new songs out there and taking steps forward, rather than looking back at the view, if that analogy works.”

Originally from Stafford, Jim spent his formative years in Bristol. “The nicest thing that’s happened in the last few years, other than the birth of my children, is someone on Wikipedia added me to the category of musicians from Bristol,” he says.

“We moved away seven or eight years ago now, but it’s still the place that I feel the most at home, I think. I would love people to think I was from Bristol, I’d love to count as that.”

Will the new album lean more towards traditional folk music? “No, I wouldn’t say that,” replies Jim, who counts Iggy Pop and fellow folk singer Nic Jones among his fans.

“Beflean was mostly acoustic, for various reasons – that’s the main way that I’ve toured for quite a while, but I’d never really made a record that sounded like that.

“Having said that, the previous new album, which was called The Outlander, which came out in 2019, was quite a bit more acoustic…

“The thing that Beflean and The Outlander have got in common is that they don’t have any drums on them at all.

“So what I’m really trying to do with this new record is have a bit of expansiveness to it again – not be limited by what you can do live, because I spend most of the time on my own.

“This gig in Cambridge will be me on my own with gadgets and guitars and pianos and stuff – but it’s still what one person can do on their own.

“But I suppose people within folk music when they think of me, they think of those records that have the kitchen sink thrown at them – so I’m trying to do a bit more of that again.

“I think Spencer the Rover was a good way to ease into it, because it’s a bridge between what I’ve been doing more recently and the other stuff that’s still to come on the record.

“So it’s still mostly traditional songs, but there are some electronic moments on there and there are some more ‘built-up’ moments on there.”

As you would expect of an artist befitting his stature, Jim has previously performed at the Cambridge Folk Festival.

“Not for a while,” he admits. “I played quite a few times in the first half of my career, and then I ran the silent ceilidh there for a few years, before I handed it over to somebody that was a bit younger and more willing to stay up till two in the morning…

“But one of my first ever professional gigs was in the Club Tent; I did a Club Tent showcase when I was 19, 20, something like that.

“So Eddie Barcan, who programmed Cambridge [Folk Festival] for a long time, I have a particular debt of gratitude to.”

Jim Moray will be appearing at Storey’s Field Centre on Thursday, 23 January. Tickets, priced £18.70, are available online from storeysfieldcentre.org.uk. For more on the artist, go to jimmoray.bandzoogle.com.