Mike Davies

Tightrope is the long-awaited second solo album from Joe Tilston, one which concerns walking that tightrope between despair and hope, as such, it casts Tilston very much as folk’s answer to Charles Blondin.

It’s been a long 14 years since South Yorkshire’s Kate Green’s first and last release. A Dark Carnival marks a very welcome long-awaited return, to take her place among this country’s finest folk singers.

Margo Cilker’s taken her time readying this grander entrance onto the Americana stage. Pohorylle is one of the year’s finest debuts, that stage is hers for the taking.

Electric Dreams is the latest offering from Pacific Northwest perdition blues band This Lonesome Paradise. It’s a dark, brooding gothic Western noir affair, that serves a delicious cherry atop a peyote sundae.

Lately is by far the most immediate and accessible album Lilly Hiatt’s made, packed with Top 40-friendly hooks and choruses, it’s infectiously irresistible.

David Keenan’s ‘What Then?”, builds on his phenomenal debut in the same way that Finnegan’s Wake was a quantum leap for Joyce, a defining work of visceral genius from a soul aflame with both the poetry of his ancestors and the fire of the future.

While the choice of material on “Songs Of Love & Death” may not offer any surprises, there’s no questioning the freshness and resonance of the interpretations or the sheer class that Reg Meuross, Harbottle & Jonas bring.

Marla and David Celia return with Indistinct Chatter, an album that covers themes around our throw-away society, capitalism and compassion…while they never labour the point they’re making, their whisper is far more effective than the scream.

Will Varley’s ‘The Hole Around My Head’ contains some of the best material he’s written to date. It’s a magnificent album that mines diamonds of hope from the rock of despair

Featuring music that spans her vibrant 24-year career, Sarah McQuaid’s ‘The St Buryan Sessions’ is a wonderful, expressive and intimate live album from a consummate performer.

Afterlight is indisputably one of her very best. The former Thea Gilmore can justifiably stand back and be proud of the new woman, the new artist she has become. Long may the Afterlight shine.

While it’s a departure from his more familiar Americana sound, Danny George Wilson’s latest offering will indeed take you to “another place”, one that’s well worth the journey.