100 – 75 | 74 – 50 | 49-25 | 24-01 |
74-50
74. Amy Speace – Tucson
Tuscon finds Amy Speace once again accompanied by the multiple talents of Neilson Hubbard, Ben Glover and Joshua Britt, who make up The Orphan Brigade. Tuscon is the follow-up to last year’s There Used To Be Horses Here, an album that pivoted around her father’s death; if anything, this is even more deeply personal and raw. It’s a stunning and deeply affecting work, a catharsis for her and an epiphany for all who hear it.
73. Erlend Apneseth – Nova
Nova is his first solo album since his 2013 debut Blikkspor, and on the face of it, it seems like an exercise in getting back to basics. But that doesn’t really do it justice. Apneseth’s artistic practice has always been about pushing the boundaries of his instrument and forging new and unexpected pathways between disparate genres, and while Nova is, by his own admission, his most personal piece of work, it never shies away from the exploratory spirit that has defined his career. There is no pretentiousness to Apneseth’s music. His experimental urge is fueled by natural musical curiosity rather than any desire to intellectualise or obfuscate, and as a result, his music has always been refreshing as well as highly proficient. On Nova, where everything is stripped back to the fiddle and its acoustic surroundings, we get the clearest picture yet of this proficiency.
72. David A. Jaycock – David A. Jaycock (2011-2022)
For the last few years, David A. Jaycock has been taking his practice into increasingly experimental and hauntological territory, and it is a joy to behold. His experimentation is of a quiet kind; his music reflects on landscapes and histories but without shying away from technology or from the possibilities of the future. His idiosyncratic path through folky electronica, ghostly soundscapes and wonky Englishness can be partly traced on this new collection, which brings together more than a decade’s worth of material and can be thought of as a companion to last year’s Outtakes, Reimaginings and Unreleased pieces (2003-2006). …It brings to mind the Edwardian symbolism of certain strains of British psychedelia, with its alarm clocks and its sudden slips between one world and the next. This is the music of the looking glass, and Jaycock captures it better than anyone.
71. The Shackleton Trio – Mousehold
The Trio’s trademark is its uniquely sparky blend of folk, bluegrass and Americana stylings with an occasional Scandinavian influence. All facets of that description come into play on their new album Mousehold. To these three talented musicians, displaying their chops and intelligence is second nature, and the combination of freshness of execution and excitement in sharing is as ever most persuasive….a masterful album.
70. Stick in the Wheel – Perspectives on Tradition
On one level, Perspectives On Tradition does exactly what its title implies. Stick In The Wheel (Nicola Kearey and Ian Carter) asked three contemporary musicians to explore their own heritage and that of the UK’s traditional music scene via the archives at Cecil Sharp House, with a view to collaborating on a handful of tracks. Nothing too groundbreaking there, you might think. But if you know the music of Stick In The Wheel, you will know that pretty much everything they do is groundbreaking, often bordering on iconoclastic. While their music has roots – or at least tendrils – in folk, their philosophy is a heady blend of radical inclusivity and punky anarchy. The resulting music is often as diverse as it is exciting. …Like much of Stick In The Wheel’s work, it functions as a chapter in a manifesto for how folk music should be made and how tradition should be thought about. But it never feels cloistered by its own ideas. Because Kearey, Carter and their collaborators are fearless when it comes to following their own standards, the results are rarely short of astonishing.
69. Oysterband – Read the Sky
So much time has passed since the last full studio Oysterband album, 2014’s Diamonds On The Water, that fans may have wondered were the band going to re-appear in anything like the rolling, tumbling, full force folk outfit we have loved in the past. There had been 40th anniversary touring, incredible work with June Tabor and certainly no actual mention of an ending, but sometimes things do just slowly fade, don’t they? Well, I am delighted to report that this has not been the case with the Oysterband, but surely no one could have predicted them returning with a song collection quite like ‘Read The Sky’? A real case of a band scooping up with open arms every grain of musical inspiration, flare and focus slow-cooked over the previous decades and serving up a platter that is just so vital and tasty. This is what you get when a band continue to make music for the best reasons, for the sheer delight they get from playing together and knowing they have something they want to say, then taking their time to ensure they put out a top-quality album worthy of the name.
68. Jackie Oates – Gracious Wings
Some sixteen-odd years into an illustrious career in folk music, Jackie Oates releases her eighth studio album. Following on from 2018’s intensely personal release, The Joy Of Living, reviewed in Folk Radio by Thomas Blake here, Gracious Wings, see her soaring to even greater heights, as is befitting a two-category BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards winner. Jackie has stories to tell, and she conveys them with great aplomb. …an album underpinned by top-quality musicianship, is another assured and enthralling collection from one of the undoubted talents of the contemporary folk music world.
67. Gigspanner Big Band and Raynor Winn – Saltlines
Saltlines was always meant to be more than a collection of songs tied to a particular place, and the band’s masterstroke was getting author Raynor Winn herself involved. Saltlines is a massive, ambitious and highly unusual project; the fact that it feels perfectly judged at every moment is down to the sheer excellence of Gigspanner Big Band’s musicianship and the touching, clear-eyed nature of everything Winn writes or speaks. It is a constant delight.
66. Hannah Sanders & Ben Savage – Ink of the Rosy Morning
Created by circumstance perhaps, Ink of the Rosy Morning showcases the dexterity of Hannah Sanders and Ben Savage’s guitar playing and the unaffected beauty of their voices, both individually and in harmony. This is their most immediate, beguiling and, dare I say it, finest work yet.
65. Owen Spafford & Louis Campbell – You, Golden
The release of You, Golden, the first duo record from Fleadh Cheoil na Breataine prize-winning violinist Owen Spafford and young maestro guitarist Louis Campbell, was always one to look forward to, and the finished article is as special as the potential would suggest. The quality on display across the nine tracks of You, Golden is frightening and fully belies the pair’s ludicrous average age of twenty-one. …You, Golden is a splendid effort; uplifting, probing and exciting, as well as wise and patient; it is an album to return to and savour. Excellent stuff.
64. Breabach – Fas
Acclaimed contemporary Scottish folk band Breabach are back with their first full-length album in four years. The album entitled Fas – is a Gaelic word meaning ‘growth’, ‘developing’ and ‘sprouting’ and it is heavily inspired by the natural environment of Scotland. The album retains the familiar sound Breabach are known and loved for, while incorporating new layers and textures to their sound. The majority of tracks are self-composed, taking influence from traditional and contemporary compositions from Scotland and Cape Breton -now fused with an avant-garde edge.
63. Sam Sweeney – Escape That
For his third solo album proper, virtuoso fiddle player Sam Sweeney built songs in an entirely different mould, forgoing the violin entirely for the writing of Escape That and transposing pieces composed on synths and guitar to the violin once the tune’s structure was set. …Escape That is a wonderful set, quite possibly Sam’s best yet and one that confirms him as a violinist of the highest calibre.
62. Mike Vass – Decemberwell Decade
In December 2011, Mike Vass’s regular employment, travelling around the schools of western Scotland to provide fiddle tuition, was on hold due to the winter weather. However, that gave him a chance to make good use of his home studio, writing and recording the music that became his 2012 album, Decemberwell, a suite of compositions that helped cement his growing reputation as one of Scotland’s most innovative and accomplished composers and performers. A reputation crowned by being named Composer of the Year at the 2012 Scots Trad Music Awards. …Decemberwell Decade is an absolute delight.
61. Mavis Staples and Levon Helm – Carry Me Home
In the 1976 concert film The Last Waltz, at the end of a stunning version of The Weight, with The Staple Singers joining The Band, Mavis Staples inaudibly mouths “beautiful”. In 2011 only a few hundred people were lucky enough to be crammed into The Band’s drummer Levon Helm’s barn in Woodstock to hear Mavis and Levon end by singing the same song whilst sharing a stage for the last time (Levon died in 2012). That fitting bookend – with Mavis singing Levon’s opening part and Levon singing Pops Staples’s vocal part – can now be savoured by the rest of us with the release of Carry Me Home. …It is a performance of gusto and elation, belying Levon Helm’s ill-health and standing as the wonderful final thread of their shared musical connection.
60. Eliza Carthy & The Restitution – Queen Of The Whirl
Queen of the Whirl is a celebration of Eliza’s thirty years of working as a professional musician with a release that punches far beyond the ambition of a mere ‘best of’ collection. These are new recordings, re-imaginings of selected titles from across her many solo and collaborative releases. …Far from the dry or predictable, this is the sound of the artist as she is now, capturing a bountiful snapshot of her relationship with her own work as she feels it today, and today Eliza sounds particularly switched on.
59. Angeline Morrison – The Brown Girl and Other Folk Songs
The Brown Girl is one of those rare records that feels perfectly weighted, entirely free of anything extraneous. Every multi-tracked harmony or subtly plucked string has its place, and the whole thing feels lighter than air. That is a remarkable achievement, given the gravity of the subject matter in many of these songs, the layers of history they have accrued over time, and the wholly new perspective Morrison brings to them. By the time of the final, contented exhalation that puts a seal on the closing track, Must I Be Bound, it’s almost as if a satisfying but mysterious journey has been undertaken, one that will lead ultimately to many further destinations.
58. Alex Rex – Mouthful of Earth
When we talk about words in relation to music, we normally have in mind lyrics that fit melodies, songs as structures built around the conventions of rhyme and rhythm and scansion. But it’s fair to say Alex Neilson has a more complex relationship with words than most musicians. …The list of songwriters who are also genuinely good poets is short enough to prove that there is a vast distinction between the two skills, despite their apparent similarities. To create an album that works both as a collection of poetry and a musical offering must be doubly difficult, but with Mouthful Of Earth, Neilson has pulled it off with endless originality and lusty lyricism.
57. Hushman – Hushman
Hushman is a new project from Edinburgh-based folk artist Ewan Macpherson, a singer known for his work with folk trio Salt House and Celtic fusion band Shooglenifty. For his music as Hushman, Ewan veers closer to Salt House than Shooglenifty, crafting beautiful, mostly original songs with a fingerpicked guitar core and minimal embellishments from Lauren MacColl, Hannah Read, James Mackintosh and the prolific bassist Ben Nichols among others. A seasoned musician, Macpherson allows his songs to exist as simple, fully formed pieces that are only subtly enhanced by the extra musicians. …Perfectly pitched and performed, Hushman is a little masterpiece of confidence and understatement. Wonderful.
56. Bert Jansch – Bert at the BBC
When Neil Young toured with Bert Jansch in the spring of 2011, it was, in a sense, a master guitar player honouring one of the truly legendary figures in musical history. His passing, only months later, only served to reinforce his legacy as a musician who knew no bounds and could record in virtually any style imaginable. With truly unbelievable generosity, the BBC open their vaults leading to the release of Live at the BBC, a collection that effectively amasses all his live recordings for the Beeb (including radio and TV sessions from 1966 to 2009). …a truly glorious collection.
55. Siskin Quartet – Flight Paths
Scottish-Finnish duo Sarah-Jane Summers and Juhani Silvola’s third duo release, The Smoky Smirr o Rain, was a highlight of last year. They have now continued their run of exceptional albums with a collaborative project as the Siskin Quartet, joining forces with Anglo-Swedish folk duo Leif Ottosson and Bridget Marsden. Flight Paths, an album loosely based around the theme of migratory birds and the band uprooting and settling in new countries, benefits from this fleshed-out set-up by containing compositions from each member of the quartet, giving the music a broadness in style while staying within the parameters of fiddles, guitar and accordion. While the music is broad-reaching, the quality of each member ensures that it is also balanced while being daring and compelling throughout. Flight Paths is excellent; I can’t recommend it highly enough.
54. Elijah McLaughlin Ensemble – Elijah McLaughlin Ensemble II
Elijah McLaughlin Ensemble II really is a fascinating album, and it’s not surprising that Tompkins Square, one of the most discerning of labels focused on avant-garde guitar music, decided to snap it up. Chicago-based Elijah McLaughlin and his band of Joel Styzens on hammered dulcimer and Jason Toth on upright bass have followed their 2020 debut with a multi-faceted and highly creative set. The solo instrumental guitar, or American Primitive, influences are certainly there, particularly Robbie Basho. …a highly charged, fascinating and dynamic album, played with skill and focus.
53. Elspeth Anne – Mercy Me
Elspeth Anne, a singer-songwriter based on the Welsh Borders, is another name to add to the impressive list of folk artists keen to embrace a more experimental approach to their practice (including Burd Ellen, Stick In The Wheel and One Leg One Eye). Mercy Me is Elspeth’s third album, and the subjects of many of its songs come from a series of dreams and nightmares prompted by the covid lockdown. While this kind of experimental music is sometimes (and often wrongly) dismissed as lacking heart, of valuing the process over the result, such an accusation could never be levelled at Mercy Me. It is an album full of ideas, but more importantly, full of feeling, a raw, moving triumph.
52. Robbie Basho – Bouquet
During the research for Liam Barker’s 2015 documentary Voice of the Eagle, the master tapes for Basho’s Bouquet, his thirteenth album, were found and re-mastered, resulting in this generous package, available on CD and vinyl, as well as digital and sounding better than ever before. With extensive texts by Glenn Jones, Henry Kaiser, Steffen Basho-Jughens and others, as well as rare photos, the physical copy of the release is certainly recommended. Considered by many to be a misunderstood genius of the steel string guitar, always in the shadow of contemporaries like John Fahey and Leo Kottke, Basho’s earlier albums demonstrated his picking prowess, whereas the real hero on Bouquet, as on his previous recording Rainbow Thunder, is his powerful, often quite spectacular voice, a formidable instrument in itself. Many will find the music on Bouquet challenging, but there is so much to enjoy here, and it is a high point in Robbie Basho’s career. This version is now the benchmark; beautifully packaged and finally produced in its full glory, with added context and images, as well as extra music, this extraordinary album is a truly essential purchase.
51. Eli Winter – Eli Winter
While these are six instrumental pieces, they are songs that carry images and scenes across an album with the celebration of community at its heart (featuring the likes Cameron Knowler, Yasmin Williams, David Grubbs, Ryley Walker, and Tyler Damon). This is Eli Winter’s A Love Supreme moment; like Coltrane’s masterpiece, this album’s most profound qualities lie in its sense of unity, transcendence and hope. It’s a landmark album and the perfect ten.
50. Courtney Marie Andrews – Loose Future
Courtney Marie Andrews’ last album, Old Flowers, was essentially a piano and guitar rumination of post-break-up and slow recovery songs. In contrast, the new blooms of Loose Future have much more expansive instrumentation with organ, electronics, synths and backing voices, creating an upbeat summery vibe as love re-enters her world, whether that be romantic, self-love or hope. …Both musically and personally, Loose Future marks something of a new journey and beginning for Courtney Marie Andrews, and, while nothing in life is certain and the future may be loose, this album is a moveable feast indeed.