Mike Davies

A masterful, innovative, highly accomplished and persuasively entertaining work that reinforces their credentials as one of the truly pioneering acts in contemporary folk music, this is one gap you really do need to set your mind to.

Lamentations, the new album from American Aquarium, is further testament to Barham’s storytelling skills as well as the painful honesty of the personal numbers; it may well be his best yet.

Featuring a number of guest musicians, on Cardinal in the Snow, love and loss, life and death, determination and defiance, all ripple through the songs of My Girl The River, come and immerse yourself in their waters.

A new benchmark in Lucinda Williams’ 40 years career, when it comes down to saving arseholes or good souls, the album is very clear on how the scales should be balanced.

Daphne’s Flight return with a terrific example of sisters doing it for themselves in their own ways and on their own terms, an arrival well worth breaking out the greeting banners for.

A simple yet haunting album of emotional and musical depth that underscores both Kirsty Merryn’s consummate musical craftsmanship and her articulacy of the heart.

While it took B.Knox a  while to stop just writing songs for himself and to have the confidence that others might want to listen to what he had to say, Heartbreak & Landscape is ample evidence of why they will.

An album that ranks up there with Springsteen’s The Ghost of Tom Joad in its vision of a world bereft of hope… Bostick has tapped into the zeitgeist with a songbook of the times worthy of Steinbeck and Guthrie.

Dan Whitehouse’s Dreamland Tomorrow offers two musically contrasting albums, but both consummate expressions of a master craftsman and wordsmith at the peak of his prowess. It is an album deserving of wide commercial success.

Sins We Made is the sophomore outing by Canadian duo Harrow Fair which blasts out of the starting gate. It’s a truly terrific album, indulge in the sins they’ve made, and listen and repent at listening leisure.

2020 is a collection of songs that serve both as a call to arms and a reminder of the beauty and decency that still exists. Fuelled by resonant songs that are both about and for the world today, this is an album of the year in more than just its title.

As well as offering a career snapshot for the faithful, this serves as a handy enticement to newcomers to dig further into Dean Owens’ catalogue and discover what they’ve been missing.