Mike Davies

Rupert Wates returns to his roots in English folk music for his latest album which he says is “a love song to humanity”, the music “of the people, by the people, for the people”. Power to the people, indeed.

Broken Hearts & Dirty Windows, the second volume homage to the late great John Prine does ample justice to his talent and legacy, this is a terrific collection.

Joined once again by The Orphan Brigade and a number of guest musicians, Amy Speace’s Tuscon is a stunning and deeply affecting work, a catharsis for her and an epiphany for all who hear it.

Featuring an all-star ensemble of Nashville musicians, Molly Tuttle delivers her first all-bluegrass album and Nonesuch debut with Crooked Tree – In a forest of Americana saplings, Tuttle is a sturdy evergreen whose roots cling deep.

VanWyck’s ‘The Epic Tale Of the Stranded Man’ is a major work that clearly, like the ancient epics on which it draws, serves as a cautionary mirror to society, it’s a stunning creation and surely, at some point, demands a dramatic multi-media staging.

Zachary Cale’s latest album ‘Skywriting’ was born out of the arriving and departing life of a touring musician and of all the reflections and questions it can throw up. This one’s sure to fly above the radar.

Big Spring is the first time Kevin Buckley has both featured fiddle and wholly based the music on his folk roots. Whether it’s a one-off or marks an invigorating new direction for his career, this is a hugely enjoyable and listenable album.

Elliah Heifetz certainly made it out of Bustleton, but in chasing the American Dream, ‘First Generation American’ makes it abundantly clear, he never forgot his roots in the process.

The Struggle is Michael Weston King’s first standalone recording in ten years. It’s a hugely welcome return to the solo spotlight and I’d venture to suggest his finest album yet.

On their covers album ‘Songs Of The Recollection’, featuring songs from Neil Young, Bowie, Dylan, Gordon Lightfoot, Gram Parsons, Vic Chesnutt and more, the Cowboy Junkies have put together a highly engaging stop-gap while we wait for the follow up to Ghosts.

The Hanging Stars’ last three albums saw them teetering on greatness. Wearing their cosmic country and late 60s West Coast folk-rock influences on their sleeve, Hollow Heart should rightly push them over the edge; it’s their best yet.

On River Fools & Moutain Saints, Ian Noe takes inspiration from autobiography, the Appalachian community and observations of the characters that inhabit it, but the emotions he touches on and the stories he tells have a universal resonance.