Mike Davies

If you’ve not seen Serious Sam Barrett play live, ‘A Drop of the Morning Dew’ will most certainly persuade you that you should as you hear him win over his audience at the Bacca Pipes Folk Club, where this album was recorded.

‘Diamond Days’, his first solo album in four years, finds Brooks Williams at his very best with just those six strings and vocal cords for company.

Eric Brace and Thomm Jutz’s ‘Simple Motion’ is a highly appealing album by two consummate musicians who have nothing to prove, making music for the joy of it and, in turn, affording that same experience in those who hear it.

Andy Skellam’s latest album, Brighten up the Place, is a bountiful offering of well-crafted, warmly sung, surreally poetic and calming pastoral folk. Don’t miss his album tour which kicks off this week.

Willi Carlisle’s Critterland, an album steeped in and driven by contradictions, its fingers grubby with the dirt of real life in all its joy and despair, confirms him as a strikingly individual voice.

Featuring Angeline Morrison, Nathan Ball and Pat McManus, Malcolm MacWatt’s ‘Dark Harvest’ is out now – “the sentiments that bolster this outstanding album will burn bright in the heart.”

Matt Mitchell Music Co.’s latest album, Obvious Euphoria, is a pleasurable listen – a cocktail of rootsy Americana, crunchy blues and old school country.

Formed in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Clay Parker and Jodi James’ second album ‘Your Very Own Dream’ clearly reveals them as an Americana force to be reckoned with.

A Time To Grow is the long-awaited new release from The Henry Girls, featuring special guest Ríoghnach Connolly; an emotionally profound album that offers calm and hope.

While Brown Horse may be from Norfolk, ‘Reservoir’, strongly suggests that their musical souls are rooted in the soil tilled at Big Pink and lit by a harvest moon. Their music is capable of both molten ferocity and tender sepia-grained caresses. A hugely confident debut.

Norman Paterson’s ‘Stornoway’ is, like his debut, drawn from deeply personal roots and universally recognisable memories, enfolded in unfussy but infectious hummable melodies. It’s a hugely listenable and relatable album.

Melodically engaging and lyrically thoughtful, musically, ‘Halfsies’ sets Lizzie No alongside Rhiannon Giddens and Allison Russell with Toni Morrison as a bedrock, it’s already secured a place in the 2024 Best of list.