STANDING out in a saturated market isn’t the easiest thing, but sometimes all it takes is for someone to stick to their roots.

That is exactly what folk five-piece Stick in the Wheel have done and they are riding a wave of momentum as they release their second full-length Follow Them True.

The East Londoners don’t pretend to be anything they aren’t. But in that their honesty has reaped the awards and has seen them welcomed into the folk scene with open arms.

Vocalist Nicola Kearey is known for her fierce, working-class delivery of her lyrics, and it is the East London twang to her vocal that lifts Stick in the Wheel head and shoulders above many other acts.

Kearey told The Gazette: “To get any meaning out of what we are doing I have to be myself. I can’t put on a posh accent, that’s not me.”

In discussing the prominent use of the East London accent in their music Keary added that it is the Stick in the Wheel identity.

She added: “It is intrinsic to what we are doing. I am not American so for me that American sound doesn’t have any meaning.

“In blues there are a lot of white men imitating that southern American sound and that is a problem for me, we need to show our own identity.

“Whereas with our accent you don’t hear it that often, I’m just my own person that’s all and that’s what I want to put across.”

Even though the band has been welcomed into the folk music scene it wasn’t always the case for the five-piece.

In fact, when the band first formed they were considered outsiders within the music scene.

Guitarist and producer Ian Carter added: “There are different styles and sounds within folk music, but we do what we like and what we think sounds good.”

Stick in the Wheel, will be performing to a sold-out audience in the Forge on February 10 and Kearey has given a warning to the Basingstoke crowd.

She added: “I love a rowdy crowd that has lots of energy.”