Mike Davies

The highly revered alt-country Portland outfit ‘Richmond Fontaine’ is back with more hard luck stories – it will, however, be their swansong providing ‘an end piece for all the characters who inhabited the world of Richmond Fontaine over the years.’

Mount Moriah’s third full-length album ‘How to Dance’ takes further steps down the Alt Country road, but with a new found confidence and direction. You don’t need to know the steps to these dances of the soul, just let the music guide your heart.

The Black Feathers return with their much anticipated full length debut Soaked To The Bone. This is an album to drench yourself in, long may they pour down like silver.

Having already released one 10-year reunion album with Freakwater, Bloodshot Records go for the double with the first studio recordings by the Waco Brothers since 2005.

Red is the second in the Echo Bloom’s three colours trilogy, described by frontman Kyle Evans as ‘country/shoegaze’ with the songs telling stories and painting pictures in black and white.

Marlon Williams’ decision to embark on a solo career now bears first fruits with this eponymous stylistically diverse debut, he’s touring Europe and the UK in April and on the evidence here he should be something special.

Findlay Napier returns with an EP follow-up to his Very Interesting Persons album released last year with new songs dedicated to Harry Houdini, Glasgow’s East End and more.

Gabriel Kahane’s ‘Ambassador’ offers a unique portrait of LA that span Pulp Fiction, architecture and race riots – all visualised through ten street addresses. Don’t miss his UK tour dates in March.

The Ghosts of Highway 20 re-enforces Williams’ maverick status with 14 powerful songs – meditations on loss, death and mortality and more besides. An exceptional album.

The splendidly bearded Ben Caplan is back as he plunges into the folk roots belly for a sophomore stew of fifty shades of Americana produced by klezmer-rapper Josh “Socalled” Doglin and featuring an army of collaborators.

With their harmonies steeped in southern moss, Appalachian colours and the old school influence of the Carter Family still firmly nailed to the mast, Freakwater’s new album’s been worth the ten year wait.

The gravelly-voiced, heavily bearded Oklahoma songwriter John Moreland sees his third album, In The Throes, and latest ‘High On Tulsa Heat’, get a joint UK release.