INSTANT KARMA
Jacken Elswyth
I’M NEW HERE
Skilled banjo player – and maker! – embracing the weirdness of British folk traditions
ELENIPAROUSI
JACKEN Elswyth was always likely to be an alternative folk musician. Until recently, her parents were members of the band Sproatly Smith, at the centre of Herefordshire’s ‘Weirdshire’ folk scene; they’re also the two guests joining Elswyth on her new album, At Fargrounds. “It’s not exactly a standard narrative,” she smiles. “My parents aren’t old folkies who sang in folk clubs while I was young. We’re both approaching folk from a slightly oblique angle and doing something a bit strange with it. But it does mean that there is a connection there to the image of traditional song being something inter-generational.”