Here is Part 2 of The Best Folk Music Albums of 2015, a product of whittling down the 450 albums we enjoyed and reviewed to 105 favourites. Read all favourites posted so far.
The list does not run in any order of merit. Part 3 will follow soon.
The Best Folk Music Albums of 2015
Barry Kerr – Boy in a Boat
It was a long time coming, but ‘Boy In A Boat’ is a fine record, which combines literate songwriting and top class musicianship with high production values and painstaking attention to detail. The result is an album of which Barry Kerr can be justifiably proud; one which more than holds its own with the big names of the contemporary Celtic music scene.
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Bella Hardy – With The Dawn
Bella Hardy’s seventh studio album ‘With The Dawn’ contains originals that deftly bridges new and old, forging new links between the two without forgetting the importance of the song, another feather in the cap for an award winning artist.
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Breda Mayock – Breda Mayock
Breda Mayock has the voice and her self titled album the songs of enchantment, beautifully played and arranged this is music that creates its own serene, inviting world. It cuts through time itself and rearranges the world around you in blissful harmony, it’s absolutely entrancing from start to finish. Pick up a copy and treasure it.
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Damien O’Kane – Areas Of High Traffic
Five years ago Damien O’Kane released his debut solo ‘Summer Hill’. ‘Areas of High Traffic’ is both an extraordinary and brilliant follow-up from an immensely talented musician and singer.
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Fabian Holland – A Day Like Tomorrow
For his second album A Day Like Tomorrow Fabian Holland returns with more magical guitar playing, a much bigger sound and another superb set of songs and the notable addition of percussionist Fred Claridge, a young and up coming star himself, while Jacob Stoney’s keyboards add variety and texture to the bigger sound that producer Mark Hutchinson has helped Fabian realise.
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Jackie Oates – The Spyglass & The Herringbone
The Spyglass & The Herringbone gathers up all of Jackie Oates promise to date, dusts it down and adds polish to present a sparkling jewel of a folk record. It’s a rare and most refined thing of gift of great beauty and as good a record as you could rightly hope for, that’s all yours for the small price of admission.
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Karen Matheson – Urram
Urram is bold, imaginative and a thrill to listen to. It’s the next step in a fascinating journey, one that unites the voices of the Hebrides with traditional and classical musicians from Scotland, Senegal, and India.
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False Lights – Salvor
Linking two outstanding talents in Jim Moray and Sam Carter, with Sam Nadel, Tom Moore, Nick Cooke and Jon Thorne, False Lights took Folk East 2014 by storm. Salvor is the reason why.
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Mairearad and Anna – Best Day
‘Best Day’ is the third album from Mairearad and Anna and firmly establishes them as one of Scotland’s most talented mutli-instrumental duos – one listen and you’ll be hooked!
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Martyn Joseph – Sanctuary
Martyn Joseph’s latest offering is a superb contribution to his art and activism, a safe haven from the bluster and banality that often passes for the music world’s social commentary. Seek asylum within.
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Richard Thompson – Still
Richard Thompson was on something of a roll, with Jeff Tweedy as producer and with his trusted rhythm section in tow, ‘Still’ was proof that he’s making some of the best music of his life.
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Rachel Taylor-Beales – Stone’s Throw, The Lament of The Selkie
Rachel Taylor-Beales fourth studio album ‘Stone’s Throw, Lament of The Selkie’ takes the form of a kind of song-cycle. Some three years in the making it is masterfully conceived and presented with imagery that is both precise and tantalising in its expression. An exceptional album.
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Eliza Carthy & Tim Eriksen – Bottle
Eliza Carthy and Tim Eriksen finally found the means to combine their extraordinary talents and a couple of UK tours created the opportunity to open the Bottle in celebration. This is a great record, as accomplished and surprising as you might expect from two of the folk world’s most complete musical artists.
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John Jones – Never Stop Moving
Known the world over as the lead voice of Oysterband, John Jones has combined his love of music and walking and, with the help of The Reluctant Ramblers, crafted his second solo album, the brilliant Never Stop Moving.
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O’Hooley & Tidow – Summat’s Brewin’
The sheer ebullient inventiveness of the duo’s musical settings, their committed sense of fun, their consummate, enviable musicality, their serious ability to grab your attention and carry you through the experience – all these qualities are faithfully conveyed in this lovingly crafted exceptional recording.
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Alex Roberts – The Daemon & The Eidolon
Both haunting and moody, Alex Roberts sixth album, The Daemon & The Eidolon, illustrates why he’s held in such esteem. It also underscores his immersion in the sound of traditional English folk-blues and prime influences of John Renbourn, Bert Jansch and almost certainly John Martyn.
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Dàimh – The Hebridean Sessions
Even though Dàimh have described the material chosen for this album as tunes they’ve been playing for years, that’s belied by the freshness and vitality of the way they’ve approached them. It’s one you don’t want to miss!
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The Young’uns – Another Man’s Ground
While unavoidably playing second-fiddle to the lads’ irrepressible live act, Another Man’s Ground nevertheless showcased their abundant talents, and their distinctive personal brand of musical versatility which won them Best Group at the BBC Folk Awards.
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Richard Grainger – Hard Road to Prospect Hill
A welcome return from folk singer Richard Grainger with ‘Hard Road to Prospect Hill’, an album which embraces a generous helping of new original songs. Well worth the wait!
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Kíla – Suas Síos
Retaining the boundless energy of Kíla’s early releases, Suas Sios is a rousing, exhilarating experience. The bewildering array of instruments produces a form of Celtic folk with orchestral depth and detail that makes for a listen as fascinating is it is exciting.
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Ange Hardy – Esteesee
Esteesee conforms to the exceptionally high standard of presentation of Ange’s previous albums; having already, long ago and from the start, set herself such a benchmark, she simply cannot depart from it. Esteesee will doubtless also prove every bit as addictive as the opium and laudanum on which Coleridge himself dosed.
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Tuulikki Bartosik and Hannah James – Chatterbox
Against expectations Chatterbox is one of the freshest and in its quiet way one of the most spectacular albums I have heard this year. Ranging from incantatory to reflective, it is always subtle, vital, and feminine in the most elementary sense of the word. Bartosik and James look to have created an entirely new platform for the accordion, but more importantly the have created a beautiful set of recordings.
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Steve Ashley – This Little Game
To say the album is accomplished would belittle the talent on show and the consistency of Steve Ashley’s output over five decades. ‘This Little Game’ may just be one of his best.
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Stanley Brinks & The Wave Pictures – My Ass
Stanley Brinks & The Wave Pictures’ latest offering, ‘My Ass’, is a powerfully honest album which, when played back-to-back with Gin, creates an almost perfect soundtrack to the humdrum, everyday existence of many people, to the ups and downs of lives lived to the fullest extent possible and, for that alone it is definitely something to be cherished.
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Joe Topping – The Vagrant Kings
The Vagrant Kings is really well crafted, both from the point of view of the playing and recording and also the way that the themes interlace. The more you play it the more Joe’s personality asserts itself and the more powerful his voice becomes, even in its softer moments, connecting the emotional highs and lows into the bigger picture.
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Read all of our 2015 Favourite Albums posted so far