Tim van Eyken is one of the most outstanding members of the new folk generation who've taken the folk tradition as inspiration and brought it bang up to date. In the eight years following his capture of the BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Award in 1998, Van Eyken has matured as a musician and performer steadily building upon his initial flourish and gaining a wealth of experience both as a solo artist and key member of several bands including Waterson: Carthy, English traditional music's best loved band. He has honed his craft and prepared himself for this moment, the release of the astonishing "Stiffs Lovers Holymen Thieves". Collecting together a band of like minded musicians, an impressive bunch in their own right, consisting of Nancy Kerr, Olly Knight, Pete Flood and Colin Fletcher, Van Eyken has made an album that has knocked the socks off the jaded old ears at Topic Records.