Author

Mike Davies

A consummate artistic triumph that marks a new phase in McQuaid’s career – a mature and hugely confident musical and stylistic progression that deserves to be applauded as such.

The big-voiced Belfast-based singer-songwriter Matt McGinn returns with his third studio album ‘The End of the Common Man’, his strongest and most confident step forward to date.

Recorded against the backdrop of division brought out about by the Trump election Birds of Chicago deliver an album of positivity: “We want to give people some good news, and we want them to be able to dance when they hear it.” Consider both boxes duly ticked.

Two years on from their critically adored duo debut, Before The Sun, Hannah Sanders and Ben Savage return with an even more accomplished collection. A new phase in their music and the perfect match.

A glorious album. Daniel Meade really deserves to be far better known than he is, this album makes you want to go up and down the nation’s streets, knocking on doors and playing it to whoever answers.

A hypnotic, imaginative and unique approach to contemporary urban folk that marks them out as one of the most distinctive names to have emerged in the past few years.

Featuring assorted members of Son Volt, Sera Cahoone and Rose Windows, and fronted by singer-songwriter Mike Giacolino, Hyways are a hirsute Seattle quartet trading in psychedelic-coloured cosmic country rock.

The Mammals latest album Sunshiner opens to a glorious upbeat track and ends on an epic ten-minute song. An album with attitude that promises to make you ‘think, dance, feel’. What more could you ask for?

Young Valley are an Americana five-piece from Jackson, Mississippi, their eponymous sophomore release augers well with its balance of ballads and more southern infused rock. One to watch for.

Changing Colours is the latest album from The Sheepdogs. With the broader musical palette on offer and the substantial quality throughout, this may well be the album that finds them attracting a broader audience outside their native Canada.

With Cahalen Morrison, Ethan Lawton and Jim Miller all taking lead vocals, writing the songs and switching between instruments, honky-tonk supergroup Western Centuries offer a range of colours – Country songs to drink to, dance to and cry to, get lost in the flood.

The cumulative effect of ‘The Great Untold’ is at once stilling, affirmative and inspiring, as you emerge at the other end as if you’ve been soaking in a bath of aural dead sea salts.  Matthews says that when he’s writing, “I’m almost hearing voices from The Masters and thinking: ‘Would they approve?’” Most assuredly.

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