Singer and harpist Rachel Newton specialises in interpreting traditional folk songs in both English and Gaelic as well as writing and arranging her own music. Rachel plays fiddle and viola in addition to harp, and works across a range of performance platforms including theatre and storytelling. A skilled collaborator, Rachel is a founder member of The Shee, BBC Radio 2 Folk Award 2017 Best Group The Furrow Collective and is a part of the Lost Words: Spell Songs. Her previous solo releases are The Shadow Side (2012), Changeling (2014), Here's My Heart Come Take It (2016) and West (2018).
Rachel was awarded Instrumentalist of the Year 2016 at the Scots Trad Music Awards and Musician of the Year in the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards 2017. Her album Here's My Heart Come Take It was shortlisted as one of Scotland's top 10 outstanding albums in the Scottish Album of the Year (SAY) Award 2017. She was awarded a Critics Award for Theatre in Scotland (CATS) for Best Music and Sound in 2009 for her work with the Rowantree Theatre Company
Co-founder of The Bit Collective, a group focusing on equality and diversity in folk and traditional music, Rachel has organised various campaigns and events, including the Trad. Reclaimed: Women in Folk festival at Kings Place, London in 2019. November 2020 marks the release of her fifth solo album To The Awe, based particularly around women’s experience. Rachel draws on poems and ballads that are hundreds of years old, working them into her contemporary compositional style to create a rich sound that is ambitious, original and unique.
'A beauty' **** Observer
'Haunting and compelling' **** The Guardian
'Harp and strings blur the border between worlds' **** The Financial Times
'This is the sound of modern Scotland, as surely as draws on folklore and tradition, Newton's
singing and harp at the heart of a singular vision.' **** The Herald
'Newton has made the leap to a fine solo performer and this album is perhaps her best yet' **** The Telegraph
'Rachel Newton is well equipped to take centre stage in her own right and this second solo album
is a beauty...fascinating stuff' (Playlist Selection) - ***** fRoots Magazine
Top of the World Editor's Pick - Songlines Magazine
Rachel was awarded Instrumentalist of the Year 2016 at the Scots Trad Music Awards and Musician of the Year in the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards 2017. Her album Here's My Heart Come Take It was shortlisted as one of Scotland's top 10 outstanding albums in the Scottish Album of the Year (SAY) Award 2017. She was awarded a Critics Award for Theatre in Scotland (CATS) for Best Music and Sound in 2009 for her work with the Rowantree Theatre Company
Co-founder of The Bit Collective, a group focusing on equality and diversity in folk and traditional music, Rachel has organised various campaigns and events, including the Trad. Reclaimed: Women in Folk festival at Kings Place, London in 2019. November 2020 marks the release of her fifth solo album To The Awe, based particularly around women’s experience. Rachel draws on poems and ballads that are hundreds of years old, working them into her contemporary compositional style to create a rich sound that is ambitious, original and unique.
'A beauty' **** Observer
'Haunting and compelling' **** The Guardian
'Harp and strings blur the border between worlds' **** The Financial Times
'This is the sound of modern Scotland, as surely as draws on folklore and tradition, Newton's
singing and harp at the heart of a singular vision.' **** The Herald
'Newton has made the leap to a fine solo performer and this album is perhaps her best yet' **** The Telegraph
'Rachel Newton is well equipped to take centre stage in her own right and this second solo album
is a beauty...fascinating stuff' (Playlist Selection) - ***** fRoots Magazine
Top of the World Editor's Pick - Songlines Magazine
