Garden sessions

Infobox Newspaper
name = The Garden Sessions


caption =Jack Foster, Dave "The Angles" Gimble, Frank Burkitt and Tom Harland.
type = Folk music Online magazine
format = Website/Podcast
foundation = 2006
owners = Garden sessions
political = No allegiance
headquarters = Edinburgh, Scotland
editor = Jack Foster
website = http://www.gardensessions.co.uk

The Garden Sessions are a non profit, internet based radio show based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Their website offers free downloads of local traditional artists, who (more often than not) don't have any sort of record label. Claiming to be leading the way of a new Scottish Folk Revival, they broadcast their show twice monthly. http://www.gardensessions.co.uk

The first broadcast of The Garden Sessions was in May 2006, it is presented by Jack Foster, Frank Burkitt and Dave "The Angles" Gimble. Regular appearances are also made by guest presenter Chris Silver and world correspondent Tom Harland, who broadcasts regular features on the New Zealand folk scene. [http://www.gardensessions.co.uk/odyssey.htm]

The Garden Sessions' main aim is to dispel fundamental assumptions about traditional music. According to the Garden Sessions "in order to become an ‘artist, ‘singer’, or ‘songwriter’ it is assumed that a figure from above must come down and pluck talent from a forest of amateurism. Typically this figure will have vast resources at his or her disposal and work for a large organisation with profit or mass appeal at its core. It is likely that this enthroning figure will have emerged through a similar process and will be distanced from the original arena in which he or she produced music in. If this is not the case then he or she will have a past reputation for promoting work or individuals who have succeeded in terms of mass appeal or artistic merit that is substantially distanced from the ethos from which traditional and original music is produced."

Since it's inception, they have brought many new artists to a wider audience. Artists who (generally speaking) do not have the backing of large record companies or distributors.

The Garden Sessions has often been compared to 'Travelling Folk', BBC Radio Scotland's flagship Folk music show presented by the legendary Archie Fisher - now in it's 25th year [http://www.bbc.co.uk/radioscotland/features/travelling_folk] . The Garden Sessions is just over 2 years old.

Channel 4 said of the Garden Sessions: "...they bring a much needed lightness of touch to a genre far too often associated with stuffy gents in Arran sweaters." [http://www.channel4.com/4talent/feature.jsp?id=2386]