Mike Davies

Inspired by the spirit of Garcia and Grisman’s The Pizza Tapes, Taco Tapes’ ‘Trad is Rad’ is a fresh and spirited album with an appeal that ranges from old-time music devotees to more experimental inclined ears.

A more uplifting and optimistic album than Modern Hinterland’s predecessor, a call to not waste life…to escape your metaphorical personal diving bell and breathe in the air. Accept the gift with open arms.

‘whence, the’ is the latest offering from Thirty Pounds of Bone – Experimental but equally delicate and intimate, folk with a cosmic sheen and a human heart, from whence it stems.

Luke Jackson is incontrovertibly one of the greatest performers and songwriters to which this country has given birth and Of This Time speaks not just to the ‘here and now’ but to the ‘eternal and the universal’.

Kristin Davidson and Carolyn Phillips, who hail from Austin Texas, make a resilient combination – while their band name suggests a toughness to their music they also know tenderness.

As his song put it, JT spent his life Looking For A Place To Land, this magnificent album from Steve Earle finds him and his legacy safe in his father’s loving arms.

Both Emma Scarr and Black have gathered a solid following for their albums and live shows in and around their stomping ground, this terrific album once again reinforcing that their music, together or solo, is deserving of a far wider and far bigger audience.

A remarkable, well-researched, historically illuminating, contemporary resonating and consummately crafted album that is both musically esoteric and accessible, haunting and atmospheric, it deserves to become a classic of its kind.

Mike Davies shares his Top 10 Albums of 2020 featuring Eliza Gilkyson, Luke Jackson, Blackbird & Crow, Ben Bostick, Bruce Springsteen, David Keenan, Merry Hell & more.

Songs of Govan Old is not only an album bursting with pride and passion to stir the heart and blood of any Scot, but a damn fine listen even if you don’t have a tartan stitch to your DNA.

Orlando is a highly accomplished, subtly emotional and beautifully textured debut from Seafarers, here’s hoping there are many voyages ahead.

Beattie’s “Somewhere Round The Bend” is an album for reverie and relaxing, of raising a glass to what was and a candle to what might be, the boy done good indeed.