Glenn Kimpton

Front Porch is a wonderfully conceived and unselfconscious piece of work that is heartfelt and honest. Joy Williams has really hit her stride with this one, the album brims with warmth, an unassuming beauty.

Out of Sight is a fascinating set of old songs linked to the present through unpretentiously lovely music and singing. Jake Fussell is a singular talent and very valuable interpreter and this is his most beautifully realised album yet.

What impresses and resonates most with Alex Seel’s new album is how these nine songs all hang together to create a satisfying whole. It is confident work and a lesson in meticulous craftsmanship resulting in a concise and lean set of songs that are bursting with creative ideas and performed with the utmost care and ability. His best yet.

Led by C Joynes and featuring members of the Dead Rat Orchestra, plus Cam Deas and Nick Jonah Davis, The Borametz Tree is layered and intelligent, finding art and inspiration from many places. This particular result is something that really should be heard.

The Time to Come confirms Eli as a talent far beyond his years and a guitar player to watch; if this set is any indication, there will be many more great things to come from Mr Winter.

I have believed for a long time that there is magic contained in forms of improvised music that cannot be found in others and this album by Cormac Byrne and Adam Summerhayes certainly backs that theory. Their Stone Soup project is the best thing I have heard so far this year.

Coming in the style of Gillian Welch and Milk Carton Kids, the UK’s Copper Viper are beginning to run, with their debut album now out. We chatted about recording the album, classic duos and condenser microphones.

Cut it Down, Count the Rings does not feel much like a debut album. The songs and performances are strong and confident, the playing, too, is top-draw – it all feels at once new and utterly focused and considered. Hats fully off to Copper Viper.

Kinloch Nelson is a skilled player whose technique and broad repertoire inform his modest and intelligent guitar playing. There is a lot to enjoy and admire and indeed return to inside this forty minutes of material.

Brooklyn based solo guitar player (and Ancient Ocean member) J.R. Bohannon’s newly extended mini-album, originally self-released on Bandcamp, now being put out by Phantom Limb records is an album of deliberately paced and played gems.

With their superb fourth album Diversions now out, busy super-folk trio Leveret spoke to us about spontaneity in the band, shifting roles and playing with better musicians.

Diversions is the clearest statement of Leveret’s ability yet, an album packed with beautiful, gentle, energetic and fluid works, and it fully establishes this band as one of the very finest in English instrumental music.