Mike Davies

Viv & Riley’s ‘Imaginary People’ is a more complex and emotionally profound work than their acclaimed debut which was a Folk Radio  UK  album of the year in 2021, there’s no reason to think this won’t be a repeat performance.

With her 2021 debut, Pohorylle, Margo Cilker set herself a high benchmark, but with ‘Valley of Heart’s Delight’, she’s cleared that with ease and guaranteed another set of Album of the Year votes.

Those ballrooms of romance are long gone, but as long as people like Ultan Conlon keep making music like this fabulous album, their souls, spirits, and the old songs will continue to live on.

Hollow is one of The Handsome Family’s more musically complex albums, exploring new sonic textures, yet still reassuringly sounding familiar, it marks a welcome return and an interesting suggestion as to where the road ahead might lead them.

Were it not for their accents, you would have thought Wayward Jane were raised in Appalachia. On ‘The Flood’, their music glows with authenticity in sound and spirit as it traverses different genres while never losing sight of their own roots.

While Rupert Wates doesn’t greatly depart from a basic framework on “Elegies’, the way he dances the notes within that are testament to his consummate skills…a hypnotic listening experience.

With ‘Dandelion Breeze’, The Clements Brothers have delivered a terrific album that unassumingly and softly seeps into your soul and stakes its claim as one of the year’s best debuts.

Gregory Alan Isakov’s ‘Appaloosa Bones’ is an album suffused with enigmatic poetic imagery that complements the simple but exquisite contemplative arrangements…an album to absorb as you lay outside on a summer night gazing up at the stars.

What turned out to be Rab Noakes’ final album, ‘Should We Tell Him: Songs by Don Everly’ is a genuine labour of love that should be embraced by fans of Noakes, Brooks Williams and The Everlys alike.

Faithfully rendered and recorded with a clear affection for the music, ‘My Love of Country’ is another fine feather in Teddy Thompson’s cap and well worthy of a slot in any old-school country fan’s collection.

Anna Tivel’s stripped-back Outsiders (Live in a Living Room) accentuates the focus on the lyrics and illuminates the folksy nature of her music and the emotional power of her voice at its most intimate. It’s the sound of an artist at the peak of her powers.

At its core, William Matheny’s ‘That Grand, Old Feeling’ is an album about searching for meaning and purpose; he says, “Sometimes I feel like I’ve spent most of my life waiting for something to begin”. This deserves to be the start of something big.