Sara Banleigh was unknown to me until a few weeks ago when I received an email about her from FlipSwitch PR. I checked her out and discovered she had self-released an album of piano-based arrangements of traditional folk tunes from Scotland and the British Isles. I definitely couldn’t say no to that, so I downloaded her album and I was blown away. Songs that are normally performed on guitar or violin had transformed much more gorgeously into piano than I thought was possible.

Being an EP (which releases today for those curious), The Folk EP only includes five songs–Railroad Boy (England), Mary Hamilton (Scotland), Geordie (Scotland/England), All My Trials (America) and Fhear A Bhata (Scotland)–but that’s more than enough to showcase what a marvelous musician Sara is with her haunting arrangements and ethereal voice. I very much look forward to hearing more from her. Check out her website, Facebook and MySpace.