Rachel Taylor-Beales is a singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist with extensive touring experience, whose music sits at the crossroads of Americana, alt-folk, blues, and jazz. Described by BBC Radio 2 Legend Bob Harris as ‘highly recommended’, Rachel’s unique brand of beautiful melancholy advocates for issues of social justice and ecology, drawing inspiration from folklore tales alongside her own life. Her latest album Lucky Bag – Reboots and Rarities is a collection of alternative mixes and previously unreleased tracks, all recorded at Hushland Studio between 2011 and 2024. While some tracks reveal new musical arrangements to more familiar songs, others are completely new offerings.
The album features Rachel’s bedrock vocal harmonies and multi-instrumentation supported by textured contributions from her long-term creative collaborator and husband Bill Taylor-Beales. The songs are further enhanced by guest appearances from Rachel’s eclectic collective of bandmates as she is joined by backing singer Angharad Evans, guitarist Dylan Fowler, bassist Paul Gray, cellist Rosy Robinson, violinist Lucy Rivers, with additional vocals from Stacey Blythe, and occasional cajon beats from Shane Beales. The end result is a sonic cornucopia of dynamic soundscape. These alternative mixes and song variations provide a rare glimpse into Rachel’s behind the scenes creative process and her joy of musical explorations as she seeks to find a song’s best fit within the context of her vision for an album. Her previous album, Out Of This Frame was nominated as a best of 2022 album by Folk Radio UK, with tracks featured on the BBC Radio 6 mixtape.
Alongside her musical career, Rachel can also be found writing, theatre-making, painting and collaborating with many other creative folks. Her gig-theatre show, Stone's Throw, Lament of the Selkie, was nominated by Wales Arts Review as a 'best show' of 2020. In recent times Rachel’s new drama-comedy Bag for Life was optioned for full production and tour by Fluellen Theatre Company. Her brand-new music and poetry collaboration with author-broadcaster-poet-comedian Robin Ince: The Final Den was released August 7th 2026 and is available to stream and purchase under the banner of Normally Weird Associates: normallyweirdassociates.bandcamp.com
Rachel is currently writing songs for a new collaborative project called The Untangled Knot, that sees her joining forces with singer-songwriters from different corners of the UK for a live performance and community cohesion project that explores themes of Freedom, Inclusion and celebration of local area. Their debut performance and workshops are scheduled in Berwick on Tweed, November 21st 2026 please visit https://theuntangledknot.com for further details.
“Exceptional” Klof Mag
“Outstanding” BBC Radio Wales
“Lovely” BBC Radio 2
“Beautiful” RnR Magazine
“Mighty” Folking.com
