Mike Davies

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.

While Allison de Groot and Tatiana Hargreaves’ debut rightfully saw them critically acclaimed as a shining new force in string band music; Hurricane Clarice shows their light to be even brighter.

Ink of the Rosy Morning showcases the dexterity of Hannah Sanders and Ben Savage’s guitar playing and the unaffected beauty of their voices, both individually and in harmony. This is their most immediate, beguiling and, dare I say it, finest work yet.

On ‘Nothing Pressing’, Jerry Leger charts a musical and personal journey that he says he hopes listeners will feel they can share. These are songs that give you the strength to come through on the other side.