A Blaze of Feather

Folk supergroup A Blaze of Feather have one foot in the world of visual art and another in understated folk songwriting. In the early half of 2017, the name A Blaze of Feather began mysteriously appearing on festival lineups in the U.K. Despite no one having heard of them before, they featured high up on the respective bills, generating a fair amount of online speculation as to who they could be. Eventually it was uncovered that the band was primarily led by visual artist Mickey Smith, joined by singer/songwriter Ben Howard — for whom Smith was a regular touring guitarist — and a selection of Howard’s regular touring musicians, including India Bourne, Nat Watson, Rich Thomas, and Kyle Keegan (Hiss Golden Messenger). The band’s lineup was officially confirmed as they readied their debut release, EP 1, which was incidentally the first record to be put out on Howard’s label, Hell Up Records; their eponymous debut album followed shortly thereafter. ~ Liam Martin