Our Song of the Day is from Scots singer Amy Leach and Highland guitarist Alasdair Paul. Listen to them performing The Twa Brothers – they present their folk songs beautifully and simply, allowing them to speak for themselves.

Taken from his forthcoming ‘Short Stories’ album, Sean Taylor delivers the ice on ‘Be Cool’…a smokey jazz number that nods to Tom Waits, the Beat Generation, Miles and Coltrane.

While Bella Gaffney’s latest solo album, Reflections, may have had a longer gestation period than she envisaged, it would be one of the best folk albums in whatever year it was released.

Although it seems uncompassionate to describe someone’s difficult personal circumstances as artistically rewarding, with ‘The Greater Wings’, Julie Byrne has proved that music can be transformative and reinvigorating, as well as beautiful. There is hope here beneath the sadness, hope of the most life-affirming kind.

Ten Steps is the highly anticipated collaborative album from Brooklyn, NY and Tokyo/Black Country Pathfinders Max ZT & Dan Whitehouse. From that album, watch them performing ‘Shizuka’, which translates as ‘quiet’ – it is also our Song of the Day.

Watch Josh Okeefe performing Sam Hall at Foxy John’s in Co. Kerry – this half bar and half hardware store will also be one of the venues on his upcoming tour of the Emerald Isle.

Simon Jones, of the acclaimed experimental folk song and storytelling trio Harp & a Monkey, shares his new single and video ‘Call off the Dawn’ – “…I’m just trying to tap into my own internal imagery and hoping that the results resonate for others.”

Sam Burton’s ‘Dear Departed’ is a lush and lovely album that speaks to the heart and the soul. Recorded at Jonathan Wilson’s Topanga Canyon studio, they have created dreamscapes seemingly based on old masterpieces from the 70s.

Primary Wave are releasing A Song For Leon: A Tribute To Leon Russell, featuring Nathaniel Rateliff, Pixies, U.S. Girls, Orville Peck, Hiss Golden Messenger and more. Listen to Margo Price covering ‘Stranger in a Strange Land’.

Another one to savour. Pedro Rosa’s ‘Midnight Alvorada’ is an impressive debut which could play a valuable role in bringing this type of Brazilian music to a wider audience. Its mellow, mellifluous ambience provides the perfect, chilled sound for a balmy summer.

Taken from her new album ‘Sink to Swim’, American-born London-based musician Erin K has shared a live session of her performing Breathe with a catchy opening that’s hard to resist; it’s an exceptional performance.

Watch Lisa O’Neill’s NPR Tiny Desk Concert featuring songs from ‘All of This Is Chance’ and a new song – ‘When cash was King’ – which reflects on how those without a bank account or a mobile phone are sometimes unable to purchase basic essentials.