Mike Davies

Drawing on a mass of musical influences from North and South American pop and folk to Gypsy Jazz & classical music, Elias Krell’s ‘As Eli’ is unquestionably one of the summer’s brightest gems.

William Matheny makes his debut with Strange Constellations, a solid collection of roots rock and countrified pop. Read our review and listen to his cover of Jason Molina’s ‘Just Be Simple’, a bonus track on the UK digital edition.

Idaho’s Hillfolk Noir return with Junkerpunch, a ramshackle rural clatter that is given life by guitar, double bass, banjo and washboard. All beautifully recorded by analogue wizard Mike Coykendall at his Blue room Studio in Portland, Oregon.

On Itinerant Arias, Christopher Paul Stelling sees the storm coming, but his songs, which come from a wide range of unlikely inspirations, are there to provide a bridge over troubled waters.

At the end of the Scott Cook’s booklet for ‘Further Down the Line’ there is a preamble memoir in which he quotes Bruce Cockburn “Kick at the darkness ‘till it bleeds daylight.” This album kicks hard.

Jason Eady’s self-titled release is still very much Texas red dirt country, but more stripped back than his last two offerings, a rootsy approach that puts the spotlight on the writing and where influences such as Guy Clark, John Prine, Steve Earle and Merle Haggard shine through.

On Big Bad Luv, his 4AD debut, John Moreland sets his sights on reaching out to a wider international audience, but without sacrificing the qualities that have built his reputation. While the songs still address bruised and battered relationships, there’s a more positive, redemptive note.

Moondogs and Mad Dogs is the debut album from Donald Byron Wheatley, the cracked-voiced scion of a family of showmen and fairground people stretching back one hundred and fifty years.

On Swimming in Mercury, Boo Hewerdine offers lush arrangements, affectionate homages to different musical styles from the years gone by, and a mix of playfulness and quiet poignancy in the lyrics. An eloquent album.

Beinn Alba marks a slight change for Scottish folk singer Davy Holt as he shares his self-penned songs for the first time. While he may not come festooned with the reverence accorded to fellow contemporary Scottish folk acts his music is no less worthy of recognition.

Anna Coogan’s ‘The Lonely Cry of Space & Time’ isn’t an album you approach on a casual basis, you need to work with it to form a relationship, but once you do, it’s one that will last.

Watershed is Amelia Curran’s eighth album and one that digs deeply into her work as an activist for mental health issues in the arts. An album that calls to build a breakwater against the often self-inflicted attrition of the heart and human spirit.