Ailbhe Reddy stands a head and shoulders above the folk mainstream with “Relent”

In the past decade or so, modern folk musicianship has taken many forms; from the radio-friendly kick-drum bombast of Mumford & Sons to the slew of near-identical acoustic covers of chart hits clogging YouTube. By its very nature, folk is one of the most accessible genres for would-be musicians, and as such, a lot of what’s released under that umbrella is hardly worth listening to.

Not so with Ailbhe (pronounced Alvy) Reddy. Hailing from Dublin, the unsigned singer’s newest single “Relent” could teach every aspiring folkster a thing or two. Reddy’s voice is awesome and raw in its distinctive power; she tells a story as much with her tone and delivery as with words. The way in which her songwriting toys with lyrical rhythms is breathtaking in its most literal sense.

“‘Relent' is about looking back on a soured relationship & realising how it could have been, seeing the lessons and my own shortcomings as part of the story,” Reddy outlines, in the song’s description on Soundcloud. “It’s about the guilt that forms part of the natural retrospection on a once loving relationship. Too often these songs can be purely accusatory, whereas I’ve tried to explore the reality that there are two sides to every story and each party has their own narrative as they see it. The inspiration was these feelings and the song was written as an attempt to express this and move forward from it. To sweeten what has soured and move on without guilt.”