Mike Davies

With ‘In the Shadow of John The Divine’, Chris Cleverley puts his personal spin on the usual festive fare that blends joy and wistfulness in the seasonal cocktail of often contradictory emotions, love and grief. Definitely one for your Christmas stocking.

With Paper Tigers, the fourth teaming of Boo Hewerdine and Brooks Williams as State of the Union, the creative spark shows no signs of diminishing – an unfussy vintage-sounding album played with simple, consummate ease by two outstanding artists.

Each time, I wonder how on earth Luke Jackson will surpass his previous album, but he manages to do so. With ‘Bloom’, he does so spectacularly, with dramatic moments and some hugely impressive storytelling.

Subtly understated in its melodies and delivery but with a profound depth of emotion, Letitia VanSant & David McKindley-Ward’s ‘Eye of the Storm’ is a deep album that sings to their musical chemistry – we hope it marks the start of a journey.

Very much in a classic 60s coffee house folk troubadour vein, ‘Love, Dan’ is C. Daniel  Boling’s latest offering; he just keeps on producing albums of outstanding quality.

Beth Malcolm’s Folkmosis is a spellbinding album that speaks not only to the music and heritage that lives within her heart but also to how the music of our homelands can root us in identity and place, however far away from home we may be.

Zachary Lucky’s ‘The Wind’ is in the classic mould of an Americana troubadour album – it’s up there with the best, alongside Guy Clark, Tom Rush, and Townes Van Zandt.

With so many artists trying to recreate the spirit and songs of old-time country, who would have thought that Shetland-born Malachy Tallack’s ‘The Beautiful Atlantic Waltz’ would be one of the year’s best and most authentic sounding?

If her debut announced her as a distinctive new Americana voice, Deep Feeler, with its conflicted raw emotions, simple but effective melodies and imagery, reinforces Liv Greene as being one of the brightest stars in the genre’s constellation.

With ‘How Much Is Enough Volume One’, Iain Matthews delivers another immersive and engaging album from someone who has proven himself a consummate craftsman time and time again, far more than just the ripple in the stream he modestly calls himself.

Tim Stafford and Thomm Jutz’s ‘Wall Dogs’ is an unfussy, downhome album with its roots deep in the musicians’ personal and musical heritages, played with unshowy skills and warmed by the fire of human connections, longings and lives lived.

Snowgoose’s third album, Descendant, is said to offer  “a reflection on the beauty and pain of impermanence”, but their intoxicating music is a far from transitory experience. Outstanding.