Mike Davies

Despite the album title, The Rails show no signs of going quietly into that dark night as they further the rockier, more electric guitar feel of their last release while also displaying the Thompson musical DNA and family folk influences.

The HawtThorns are an L.A. duo comprising singer-songwriter KP (downsized from Kirsten Proffit), formerly of Calico, and guitarist Johnny Hawthorn, both of whom have solo albums under their belt.

Ian Noe tells compelling stories set to simple but infectiously memorable melodies. He cites John Prine as his biggest influence; this can stand shoulder to shoulder with his fellow Kentuckian’s self-titled debut.

Evoking a 70s Laurel Canyon feel with inevitable early Joni Mitchell comparisons surfacing, Native Harrow’s latest album shimmers and glows with a warmth and emotional intimacy that’s impossible to resist.

Karine Polwart covers some fifty years of Scottish pop and rock in an album of covers from Gerry Rafferty to Frightened Rabbit. Sung from the heart she makes each song her own, a triumphant tribute to some of Scotland’s finest.

Fran Foote of Stick in the Wheel and her mother Belinda Kempster, make their own contribution to the folk tradition with this album of songs mostly collected from Essex and learned from Fran’s great uncle, Ernie Austin who was recorded by Topic for the 1974 album Flash Company.

With its title inspired by a line in a  Keats poem,  High Romance marks a quantum leap for Emily Mae Winters that sees her fully immersed in her Southern Americana influences, setting a new benchmark by which future Americana albums should be measured.

Justin Rutledge’s eighth album comes in the wake of his marriage last year and subsequent impending fatherhood. With albums like this, it’s unfathomable that he still remains largely undiscovered to the wider Americana/folk-roots audience outside of Canada.

It’s the water of life that gives Chip Taylor’s new album its title and the opening recollection of a time back in 1958 when that’s what he briefly did for a living. As any whiskey connoisseur will tell you, this album is a mellow, aged in the cask of life 18-year old singular malt. Sip and savour.

Whether you just want to drift away in the soothing vocals and musical ambience or dig into her lyrical concerns, the album offers many rewards and, while it may confront death, it also embraces life.

Featuring a number of special guests including Laura-Beth Salter, Innes Watson, Mike Vass, Rosie Hood and Paul Carrack, ‘The Way is Clear’ unequivocally confirms Morris’s own must visit place on the contemporary folk scene. 

Resonant Rogues, Sparrow and Keith J. Smith, return with a breathtaking album which clocks up the musical air miles from France to Appalachia. Catch them on their UK tour in July.