Amanda Rheaume’s Holding Patterns is a terrific album, at the heart of which is the powerful ‘Red Dress’ on which she is joined by Juno Humanitarian Award winner Chantal Kreviazuk to tackle what she and others see as Canada’s cultural genocide. She tours the UK in January.

Formerly known as Alessi’s Ark but now flying under the shorter name of ALESSI, Alessi Laurent-Marke has revealed her video for ‘Wives’, a winsome assertion of female independence and the first single from her forthcoming new album.

Watch the new video from the two-time winner of Scots Singer of the Year, Siobhan Miller. This Bob Dylan cover features a host of special guests including Kris Drever and Louis Abbott and is taken from her forthcoming new album Strata on which she is joined by some of Scotland’s finest musicians.

Jimmy Aldridge & Sid Goldsmith return with their second album, Night Hours. Backed by the members of folk trio Teyr, it is an album that is exhilaratingly diverse and full of impeccably crafted and beautifully realised songs.

The Unthanks have announced a 2017 tour titled: “The Unthanks Perform The Songs and Poems of Molly Drake” (mother of Nick Drake). The tour will be accompanied by the release of Diversions Vol 4. How Wild The Wind Blows.The project has the blessing of the Drake musical estate and the full blessing and enthusiasm of celebrated actress Gabrielle Drake (Molly’s daughter and Nick’s sister).

We have another new song to share from the forthcoming double album Vieilles Caniques et Nouvelles Caniques from Stanley Brinks aka André Herman Düne, he is joined by the Norwegian folk collective The Kaniks, this time stripped back to a two piece of fiddle and banjo, ‘The Old Time Kaniks.’

Samson is a purveyor of indelible lyrical imagery, both direct and opaque, real and imagined, drawing inspiration from a head-spinning range of subject matter…and a late contender for my favourite Canadian release of 2016.

Blue Rose Code put on a spectacular performance at Edinburgh’s Queen’s Hall for his Homecoming show. One which featured some of Scotland’s finest musicians, as well as a more than fifty members of Edinburgh and Glasgow Contemporary choirs – a musical celebration of everything that’s wonderful about this region of the country.

As they days draw near their darkest, it’s tempting to sit by an open fire and listen to wintry folk music with fiddles and traditional tunes. But if you want to inject a splash of summer (with a melancholy edge), then this release will get you singing, dancing and pondering. Sometimes a pendulum swing helps you see life from a fresh perspective.

Watch Meg and Laura Baird perform ‘Down Where the Waters Flow’ from their new album Until You Find Your Green. The session was filmed at Brickbat Books in Philadelphia, PA.

When Hands Up For Trad, the organisation that promotes and supports developing talent in Scots traditional music, invited Folk Radio UK to attend this year’s MG Alba Scots Trad Music Awards we knew we’d be in for a treat, and we weren’t disappointed. Neil shares his highlights and details of the winners.

We have a song premiere (also our Song of the Day) from Enderby’s Room – fiddler Dan Mayfield, once from rural Lincolnshire, has now found home living in London. His folk-tinged songs reflect on his traditional folk upbringing, which included playing fiddle for Morris dancing sides around the country.