2022 was a remarkable year for album releases from the UK’s folk scene and to celebrate, Folk on Foot’s Matthew Bannister presents The Official Folk Albums Chart of the Year Show 2022. On 24 January 2023, he counts down the Top 40 best-selling and most streamed folk albums as revealed by the Official Charts Company in partnership with English Folk Expo.
Six Folk Chart entrants crossed over into the main Official Albums Chart that included the Appalachian blues and Spanish folk traditions of Jessie Buckley & Bernard Butler’s For All Our Days That Tear The Heart, to the sea shanties and legendary folk songs of Smoke & Oakum from The Longest Johns.
From traditional fiddle-drenched storytelling, to Gaelic voices and progressive indie folk, the full gamut of the genre was represented. In total, 122 albums entered the chart and this special end-of-year show will hear from some of the artists that made them. We’ll hear interviews and videos by the likes of Rachel Newton, Karine Polwart, Eliza Carthy, Seth Lakeman, Robert Macfarlane and Julie Fowlis, Kate Rusby, Becky Unthank, Bernard Butler and more.
In a further celebration, the Folk on Foot podcast has just reached one million downloads – an amazing achievement for an independent podcast about folk music and nature, providing further evidence (if any was needed) about the enduring popularity of the genre. Alongside the 27 episodes of the monthly Official Folk Albums Chart Show that make up this figure is the 58episodes walking with folk musicians in the landscapes that have inspired their music.
In true end-of-year style, the top five most popular episodes in 2022 were:
- Kathryn Tickell and her Dad by the River Rede
- Raynor Winn and the Gigspanner Big Band on the Southwest Coast Path
- Maurice Henderson and Ewen Thomson on Shetland
- Grace Petrie in Leicester
- The Musical Village of Pathhead, Midlothian
| Position | Title | Artist |
| 1 | (SELF-TITLED) | MARCUS MUMFORD |
| 2 | FOR ALL OUR DAYS THAT TEAR THE HEART | JESSIE BUCKLEY/BERNARD BUTLER |
| 3 | SORROWS AWAY | UNTHANKS |
| 4 | 30 HAPPY RETURNS | KATE RUSBY |
| 5 | BIRDS THAT FLEW AND SHIPS THAT SAILED | PASSENGER |
| 6 | SMOKE & OAKUM | LONGEST JOHNS |
| 7 | THE RUBY CORD | RICHARD DAWSON |
| 8 | SPELL SONGS II – LET THE LIGHT IN | SPELL SONGS |
| 9 | LOST IN THE CEDAR WOOD | JOHNNY FLYNN/ROBERT MACFARLANE |
| 10 | LIVE FROM PARR STREET STUDIOS | JAMIE WEBSTER |
| 11 | MAKE YOUR MARK | SETH LAKEMAN |
| 12 | THIS IS REALLY GOING TO HURT | FLYTE |
| 13 | GOOD WOMAN | STAVES |
| 14 | READ THE SKY | OYSTERBAND |
| 15 | THE HOPE | FEROCIOUS DOG |
| 16 | LIVE AT BARROWLANDS 2020 | PEAT & DIESEL |
| 17 | TENDER | LADY MAISERY |
| 18 | THE ETERNAL ROCKS BENEATH | KATHERINE PRIDDY |
| 19 | HENKI | RICHARD DAWSON & CIRCLE |
| 20 | THE LOCKDOWN SESSIONS | LEVELLERS |
| 21 | QUEEN OF THE WHIRL | ELIZA CARTHY & THE RESTITUTION |
| 22 | NATURE’S LIGHT | BLACKMORE’S NIGHT |
| 23 | SEA SONG SESSIONS | BODEN/LAKEMAN/NICHOLLS/PORTMAN |
| 24 | FLYING INTO MYSTERY | CHRISTY MOORE |
| 25 | STILL AS YOUR SLEEPING | KARINE POLWART & DAVE MILLIGAN |
| 26 | ECHO | CATRIN FINCH & SECKOU KEITA |
| 27 | CONNECTIVITY | GRACE PETRIE |
| 28 | THE SORROW SONGS – FOLK SONGS OF BLACK | ANGELINE MORRISON |
| 29 | THE MARY WALLOPERS | MARY WALLOPERS |
| 30 | HEAVY ELEVATOR | HAMISH HAWK |
| 31 | NIGHT DRIVES | KATHRYN WILLIAMS |
| 32 | REASSEMBLED | BELLOWHEAD |
| 33 | FOR THE NIGHT | ELEPHANT SESSIONS |
| 34 | NINE WAVES | YE VAGABONDS |
| 35 | HEAL & HARROW | HEAL & HARROW |
| 36 | BLACK CUILLIN | DUNCAN CHISHOLM |
| 37 | DAWN | TALISK |
| 38 | PROTECTOR | AOIFE NESSA FRANCES |
| 39 | ESCAPE THAT | SAM SWEENEY |
| 40 | GLAMOUR IN THE GREY | MAGPIE ARC |
