Will Kemp talks to Alexis Bennett, a London-based composer, performer and academic with many strings to his bow from working in media and film from Pinewood to Abbey Road…and then there’s his interest in traditional folk…

Liz Conway’s Downhill All The Way serves as a lovingly configured, carefully produced artefact in memory of the incomparable Terry Conway, who still remains comparatively unknown in folk circles and grossly under-represented on record, but whose all-too-infrequent live performances still resound in the memory, years on.

Silver Pin is an excellent first release with a great selection of songs. Sophie Crawford has a lot to offer in both her voice and her rendition. This has gently but firmly fallen into my consciousness and I hope she finds time in her busy schedule to record a follow-up.

On June 21st, The Smoking Flowers, made of East Nashville-based artists Kim and Scott Collins, will release their forthcoming album Snowball Out of Hell. The album was conceived during Kim’s battle-and later triumph-over an aggressive form of breast cancer. Listen in full here.

Drawn from Deep Water is an assured next step for Scottish four-piece Gnoss – from the poised and deeply moving to the evocative and stirring this marks a clear progression of their sound. Their best yet.

Having released one of the most critically acclaimed albums of the year so far in The Unseen In Between, singer-songwriter Steve Gunn today shares two new non-album cuts ‘Be Still Moon’ and ‘Shrunken Heads’.

Devendra Banhart announces his new album Ma (featuring Cate Le Bon and Vashti Bunyan) and shares surrealistic video for the first single, ‘Kantori Ongaku’ which translates from Japanese to “country music”.

Ali Hutton & Laura-Beth Salter go in search of common ground as they pair up as new duo “From The Ground” and release their debut EP ‘Beginnings’.

While Geneviève Racette may be a new name to many, this bi-lingual album is sure to change that, a great start for anyone discovering this young talent whose vocals and delivery are sure to enchant on first listen.

Shepherd In A Sheepskin Vest handles the vicissitudes of love and life with inimitable tact and charm as only Callahan can, resulting in a career-high that listeners are sure to return to for sanctum and solace for many years to come.

Our reviewer falls under the spell of Skipinnish upon hearing their latest album ‘Steer by the Stars’, with its nautical themes he declares it the “catch of the day”. This is the band’s seventh album and their 20th Anniversary.

Celebrating their 50th Anniversary this year, Steeleye Span’s latest album finds them on something of a roll as they continue dragging Child Ballads into the 21st century.