Mike Davies
Mike Davies
I wrote for Melody Maker and Sounds in the late 70s, have written for local, national and international music publications and have covered the West Midlands scene in Brum Beat for over 40 years. I currently present Alternative Roots on Brum Radio.
Margo Cilker’s third album “Little White Cross” comes from a place of darkness, full of gun violence, wildfires and abuse, but seeks glimmers of light. Bruce Robison sits behind the desk for a mix of originals and well-chosen covers. Forget any future comparisons to Lucinda; this is the here-and-now Margo Cilker, and she’s magnificent.
Scott Cook’s “Troubadourly Yours” is his eighth album, six years in the making, deeply autobiographical, and echoing the spirit of Woody Guthrie. Recorded in Edmonton, it moves from union solidarity to family history and from a critique of consumerism to a call for inclusivity and embracing diversity – this truly is a brilliant sign-off of the times.
Mary Gauthier’s “Reckoning” strips things down to voice, guitar and occasional harmonica, her rawest album yet, co-produced with Neilson Hubbard and modelled on Springsteen’s Nebraska. Co-written with Jaimee Harris, Ben Roberts and Lori McKenna among others, the songs build around characters who arrive at pivotal moments and face reckonings that define their lives and communities.
Teddy Thompson’s latest album, Never Be The Same, digs back into rockier seams for his first album of original material since 2020. With influences ranging from Crowded House and The Beatles to his father Richard Thompson, these songs explore love, change and the passage of time. The album title may speak of flux, but Thompson’s brilliance remains predictably constant throughout.
Following years of IVF and an on-stage miscarriage, Abigail Lapell was pregnant with her first child when she made her album Shadow Child. Nine of the songs represent a month of gestation, embracing moments of joy and loss, and addressing issues such as reproductive health. Sweet and tender, the album is tinged with sadness but comes to full term with hope and joy.
Brown Horse’s third album, Total Dive, is a bigger, bolder beast than anything they have attempted before. Snarling guitars and weary pedal steel carry songs steeped in isolation, loss and defiant dark humour, with nods to Neil Young, Jason Molina and Uncle Tupelo running beneath the scuzz. A pinnacle, reached in just three albums.
Sons of Town Hall’s Of Ghosts And Gods is intricately, beautifully and never ostentatiously arranged, the voices full of quiet emotion as the music and the words draw you in. Across its richly orchestrated sweep — brass, strings, woodwinds and acoustic guitar all woven together with quiet precision — it is at once an adventure story, and something genuinely haunting and divine.
Fueled by a traumatic breakup and the fragility of new beginnings, Valentine is Courtney Marie Andrews’ most vulnerable and sonically adventurous work to date. Drawing on influences like Tusk and Big Star, the album navigates emotional extremes through lush instrumentation and “nakedly exposed” vocals. It is a powerful reclamation of self-worth that uses music to transform dark-night-of-the-soul pain into transcendent art.
John Blek’s tenth album, The Midnight Ache, is a sublime, lo-fi journey into vulnerability. The record balances melancholic “insomniac hours” with a hopeful move toward the light. Featuring lush strings and dreamlike arrangements, it’s a beautifully crafted transition from past shadows into a brighter, more domestic musical landscape.
With John Smith’s now much higher profile, these revisited and, at times, transformative reimagined songs should, deservedly, find a far wider acclaim and audience than the originals. At the same time, ‘Gatherings’ serves to remind us that he is one of the true elite on the UK contemporary folk scene.