Old-school string bands have been seeing something of a revival in recent years, and The Tillers, as demonstrated on their latest album, are certainly up front leading the charge.

Sometimes Just the Sky is the latest offering from Mary Chapin Carpenter, our Artist of the Month. The album is a beautifully conceived and considered set that provides a rich and generous window into the career of this great veteran singer songwriter.

Glaswegian spirits writer Dave Broom has launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund a road-trip documentary called The Amber Light which will highlight the lesser known parts of Scottish culture and history through the lens of whisky, with personalities from art, music, literature and food.

Laura Veirs reveals “Lightning Rod”, the final pre-release song from her new album ‘The Lookout’, and it’s accompanying video created by Basque artists Izar Etxeberria (illustrations) and Eñaut Uribesalgo (animation).

Chamfer is a mini-masterpiece that rewards multiple listens. A labour-of-love release from this brilliant young artist, one who is happy to plough his own depths, both physical and mental.

Watch the new video from Bennett Wilson Poole for ‘Ask Me Anything’,  inspired by 60s and 70s spy movies, with Oxford’s social enterprise micro-brewery The Tap Social Movement (scene of BWP’s first ever gig, in fact) doubling as a vaguely Kafkaesque den of subterfuge.

Musically jovial but lyrically dark, this is solid old-school bluegrass filtered through a punk sensibility, more Pogues than Krauss, fuelled with an energy that suggests they also tear the roof off live.

Growing in stature every year, East Anglia’s fast-rising FolkEast is back for the seventh time this August with another great lineup including Oysterband, Show of Hands, The John Langan Band, John McCusker, Mike McGoldrick and John Doyle and many more.

In these days of polished pop-stars, celebrity couples and the pressure to curate your life on social media to photoshopped perfection, it’s refreshing to find an artist as honest as Kenneth J Nash.

Watch Mud and Flame the new track from Modern Studies, taken from their forthcoming album Welcome Strangers (out on 18 May 2018 via Fire Records on Digital|CD|Vinyl). The video was directed by Mario Cruzado.

Filmed deep in the woods by our good friend Harry Wheeler (Harmonic Rooms), watch Cath & Phil Tyler performing The Two Sisters from their new album The Ox and the Ax which is out on 30 March via Thread Recordings. 

Another top show featuring King Creosote, David Kitt, Modern Studies, Seamus Fogarty, James Yorkston, landless, Brona McVittie, The Rheingans Sisters, Brigid Mae power, We Are Muffy, Michael Head & The Strands, Haley Heynderickx and more.