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³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Radio 2 today committed to another year of the Folk Awards pledging to make next year's event more special than ever before.

Following last year's celebration, which included live performances from Cara Dillon, Ade Edmondson and the Bad Shepherds and Lifetime Achievement award-winner Nanci Griffith, next year's awards ceremony will combine both the Radio 2 Young Folk Award with the Radio 2 Folk Awards to concentrate its ongoing commitment to folk music via one major yearly awards ceremony.

Bob Shennan, Controller, Radio 2, comments: "I attended the Folk Awards on my first day in the role as Radio 2 Controller in February 2009 and was immediately struck by the passion of everyone involved. Radio 2 remains committed to nurturing new music at a grass roots level and by combining the young Folk Award with the Folk Awards, we can shine a more prominent light on what has become one of the key highlights in the Radio 2 music calendar."

The 2011 nominations were announced on Mike Harding's folk show on Radio 2 on Wednesday 17 November 2010.

The nominations follow a first round of voting by the 170-strong panel of folk professionals, covering a broad cross-section of the world of folk, roots and acoustic music. The panel will vote again for a winner in each category.

This year, exuberant folk big band Bellowhead are leading the way with four nominations, following the release earlier this year of their album Hedonism, which was recorded at the iconic Abbey Road studios and produced by legendary producer John Leckie. They are nominated in the categories Best Group, Best Live Act, Best Album for Hedonism and Best Traditional Track for New York Girls. Their front man, Jon Boden, is also nominated in the Folk Singer of the Year category.

Making his mark once again on the Radio 2 Folk Awards after winning two awards in 2009, Chris Wood is shortlisted for Folk Singer of the Year, Best Album for Handmade Life and Best Original Song for the affecting ballad Hollow Point.

A debut duo album for mother and daughter Eliza Carthy & Norma Waterson helps them to win three nominations this year – Best Duo, Best Album for Gift and Best Traditional Track for Wayfaring Stranger. Vocal trio Coope Boyes & Simpson pick up nominations for Best Group and Best Album for As If... and the hugely popular duo Nancy Kerr & James Fagan are in the running for Best Duo, while Nancy's Queen of Waters makes the final four in the Best Original Song category.

There are several artists this year receiving their first ever Folk Award nominations. Following the release of her latest album The Last Star, Irish singer Heidi Talbot is nominated for Folk Singer of the Year and Best Traditional Track for Willie Taylor, prodigious talent Laura Marling is nominated for Best Original Song for Rambling Man and Cornish shanty choir Fisherman's Friends – whose album Port Isaac's Fisherman's Friends made history earlier this year, being the first ever album of traditional folk music to enter the top 10 of the network album charts – are nominated for Best Group.

Following another year of live folk music, The Unthanks and The Demon Barbers are both again in the running for Best Live Act. Also short-listed in the Best Live Act category are two of the year's festival hits – leading exponents of Shetland's rich fiddle tradition Fiddlers' Bid and Bellowhead.

Promising traditional singers Ewan McLennan and Fay Hield make the final four in the Horizon award for best emerging artist alongside Jonny Kearney and Lucy Farrell and Emily Portman.

The Folk Awards will also include the 13th Radio 2 Young Folk Award, which is the network's annual search for the most promising young folk artist in the UK. The initiative is open to anyone aged 15 to 20 who performs folk, roots or acoustic music with roots in any culture as a band, duo or soloist.

The four nominees were selected by a panel of judges last Saturday night following an audition concert at The Brewery Arts Centre in Kendal. The concert was a culmination of a residential weekend of workshops, where the 10 semi-finalists had the opportunity to play music together and take part in performance workshops with leading folk musicians Nancy Kerr and Robert Harbron, as well as learn about the music business.

The prizes for the eventual winner include a live session for Mike Harding's Radio 2 show and slots on the bill at three of the UK's most prestigious festivals, including the Cambridge Folk Festival, Fairport's Cropredy Convention and Towersey Village Festival in Oxfordshire.

The nominees are:

Adam Holmes
Guitarist and singer-songwriter, aged 19, from Edinburgh.

Adam writes contemporary folk songs as well as doing versions of traditional Scottish songs. He was a finalist in the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Scotland Young Traditional Musician Award in 2009 and as a result of that did a 10-day tour across Scotland. He played Cambridge Folk Festival and the prestigious Tonder Folk Festival in Denmark this summer with The Muckle Loons with whom he has also recorded an album.

David Gibb & Elly Lucas
Duo aged 20 and 19 from Derbyshire who play guitar, fiddle and sing.

David & Elly are a young Midlands-based acoustic duo. With a particular emphasis on songwriting, they play a mixture of original and re-worked traditional material. In the last two years they have toured the UK extensively as part of "David Gibb and The Pony Club" as well as playing occasional slots at the folk clubs and festivals in their native Derbyshire.

Mairi & Steaphanaidh Chaimbeul
Sisters aged 16 and 17 from the Isle of Skye who play clarsach, saxophone and sing.

Mairi and Steaphanaidh are both native Gaelic speakers and their love of traditional Scottish music is deep-rooted, but their sound is unique and draws on influences of jazz and the classical training that they have received – they are both students at St. Mary's Music School in Edinburgh. They were finalists this competition last year, and Mairi has uniquely been a finalist in both the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Radio Scotland Young Traditional Musician and the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Radio Scotland Young Jazz Musician Awards.

Moore/Moss/Rutter
Trio, aged 16, 16 and 18, from across England who play fiddle, melodeon and guitar.

Comprising Tom Moore on fiddle, Archie Churchill-Moss on melodeon and Jack Rutter on guitar and vocals, Moore/Moss/Rutter play traditional English, contemporary and self-composed tunes, but are influenced by numerous styles and traditions. In 2010 they performed at some of the countries top music festivals including Sidmouth Folk Week, Warwick Folk Festival, Beverley Folk Festival and Glastonbury.

The winners will be announced at the annual Radio 2 Folk Awards on Monday 7 February 2011 at The Brewery in London, in an evening of music compered by Mike Harding.

Highlights of the awards will feature in a special two-hour extended version of Mike's Radio 2 show on Wednesday 9 February 2011.

The announcement of who has won the Radio 2 Folk Award for Lifetime Achievement will be announced in the near future.

Notes to Editors

The 2011 ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Radio 2 Folk Award nominations are:

Folk Singer of theYear
Chris Wood
Heidi Talbot
Jon Boden
Kris Drever

Best Duo
Chris While & Julie Matthews
Eliza Carthy & Norma Waterson
Megson
Nancy Kerr & James Fagan

Best Group
Bellowhead
Breabach
Coope Boyes & Simpson
Fisherman's Friends

Best Album
As If… – Coope Boyes & Simpson
Gift – Eliza Carthy & Norma Waterson
Handmade Life – Chris Wood
Hedonism – Bellowhead

Best Original Song
Hollow Point – Chris Wood
Queen of Waters – Nancy Kerr (performed by Nancy Kerr & James Fagan)
Rambling Man – Laura Marling
Stick Stock – Emily Portman

Best Traditional Track
New York Girls – Bellowhead
The Demon Lover – Andy Irvine
Poor Wayfaring Stranger – Eliza Carthy & Norma Waterson
Willie Taylor – Heidi Talbot

Horiszon Award
Emily Portman
Ewan McLennan
Fay Hield
Jonny Kearney & Lucy Farrell

Musician of the Year
Andy Cutting
Brian Finnegan
Michael McGoldrick
Richard Thompson

Best Live Act
Bellowhead
Fiddlers' Bid
The Demon Barbers
The Unthanks

³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Radio 2 Young Folk Award
Adam Holmes
David Gibb & Elly Lucas
Mairi & Steaphanaidh Chaimbeul
Moore/Moss/Rutter

The Radio 2 Folk Awards is a Smooth Operations production.

Radio 2 Publicity