Mike Davies

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.

GRAMMY Award-winning singer, songwriter and musician Lori McKenna’s latest album, 1988, is both deeply personal and universally resonant; it’s up there with her very best.

While Bella Gaffney’s latest solo album, Reflections, may have had a longer gestation period than she envisaged, it would be one of the best folk albums in whatever year it was released.

It’s de rigueur for artists to say their latest work is their best yet, but that’s certainly true of The Lilac Time. Dance Till All The Stars Come Down is magnificent.