Mike Davies

With an already solid reputation established on the UK folk festival circuit, Tilly Moses’ new album ‘Alight & Adrift’ should firmly plant her feet on the ladder to the genres upper rungs.

Hannah Aldridge returns with ‘Gold Rush’, a strong second album that is unquestionably one of the best Americana albums of the year,  she’s struck the mother lode.

With Nashville Sound, both Jason Isbell and his band are sounding both loose and hugely assured. From roots-rock to alt-country and the politically charged he delivers a broad musical horizon.

For her latest, Kathryn Williams pairs up with author Laura Barnett with a collection of songs based on her second novel, Greatest Hits. The diversity across the album is anchored by her smoky tones and the quality of her and Barnett’s lyrics.

Three years on, Luke Tuchscherer returns with  Always Be True, a more sonically fleshed out affair that, as the press release notes, comes with echoes of Uncle Tupelo, Tom Petty and Steve Earle.

John Alexander’s latest release ‘Of These Lands’ follows on further down the dusty and rocky road with a weathered collection of 11 songs that have been scratched from time spent on his recent journeys. These tales of weather-beaten lives make for engrossing listening

Having signed to Naim Records Daudi Matsiko’s self-released recordings are brought together under ‘An Introduction to Failure’ for wider distribution. His warm tones, sparse arrangements and confessional songs deserve the additional exposure.

On Tim Grimm’s latest album, A Stranger in Time, he is joined by his family as he offers songs inspired by his rural Indiana homeland to social-political protest including a justified swipe at Trump.

For The Counterweight, her fifteenth studio album, Thea Gilmore has consciously put together what she regards as a companion to 2003’s Avalanche, full of passion and fire.

Still Testifying is the latest offering from My Darling Clementine, laying claim to be the best British country album of the year for the third time and shaping up to be their most successful yet.

Nathan Bell’s Love > Fear is unquestionably one of the most important blue collar protest albums of our time, one which looks contemporary America unflinchingly in the eye and demands its listeners do the same.

Though little known outside their native Canada and parts of Europe, The Road Ahead is Golden is Jon & Roys 7th album which finds them exploring areas outside their comfort zone, a very worthy listen.