Mike Davies

Having taken a four-year break from her own material, Catherine MacLellan returns with an album containing life-affirming philosophical sentiment, compassion, understanding and wisdom.

In 1971, despondent about the state of America, torn apart by hatred, suffering, and injustice under the divisive policies of Richard Nixon, Marvin Gaye created his greatest work, an album for and about those times. Second Sight is May Erlewine’s  ‘What’s Goin’ On’.

Confronting the demons, celebrating her mother but recognising that her troubled father, Allison Moorer has emerged into the light, bringing with her the finest music of her career to date.

Thirty Pounds of Bone and Philip Reeder board Girl Emily, a 1974 fishing boat to perform nine new arrangements of traditional fishing/maritime songs, as the skipper and his mate go about their business of fishing.

Band Together cuts across Americana genres but maintains a cohesive sound and identity with melodies and choruses designed to fire up any crowd – a terrific album.

Come On Up To The House: Women Sing Waits features some great highlights from the likes of Iris DeMent, Courtney Marie Andrews and Rosanne Cash who doesn’t just knock it out of the park, but the entire state.

Utah trio 3hattrio dip into the well for this live album which celebrates the 100th anniversary of Zion National Park, culminating in a haunting paean to the power of the landscape and a terrific culmination of a remarkable live experience.

It’s been a good year for debut male/female duo albums, the latest coming from Kyle McGonegle and Liat Lis, better known as The Gossamer Strings. Due to the Darkness is a substantial and rewarding album.

Available as a limited edition EP, Music/Nature extends the themes of finding hope and meaning amidst an atmosphere of division, and the many forms of fragmentation explored on Atomise.

Glasgow duo Iona MacDonald and Paul Tasker, mark their fifteenth anniversary as Doghouse Roses next year, but the celebrations start early with this, their fourth album which ‘shines like a beacon’.

Dig into the lyrics of ‘Bonfire and Pine’, the new album from Hope in High Water, and you are instantly hit by the weight of human emotion conveyed in the lyrics from childhood trauma to Grenfell, it’s an album of healing and truth.

Rustic, pastoral and suffused with a sense of tranquillity and of being one with the landscape, Endersby has crafted a quietly enrapturing album about navigating your way through life’s labyrinths with the healing power of nature as your guide.