Mike Davies

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.

The latest release from American singer-songwriter Steve Forbert isn’t going to repeat the success of ‘Jackrabbit Slim’, but it sure goes a long way to repeating the magic.

Recorded aboard the Cayamo cruise ship Buddy Miller is joined by the likes of Fats Kaplan, Lucinda Williams, Richard Thompson, The Lone Bellow, Kris Kristofferson and more.

Having previously traded as Major Chord, this is the first outing for the Melbourne indie folkie Dan Flynn under his own name. With influences from Nick Drake to Fairport Convention it’s a gentle, airy affair that sometimes belies the darker shades of the lyrics.

Dredgermen plied their trade working from a boat that dredged debris such as mud, coal or even corpses from rivers. Occasionally, they might just find something of real value. These lads have.

Gem Andrews’ Vancouver navigates the listener through folk and alt-country numbers with a crystal streams voice, at times evocative of the McGarrigles from whom she covers their classic Heart Like A Wheel. Seek this wonderful album out.

It’s rare that a compilation warrants an album of the year tag, but ‘The Essential Gretchen Peters’ does. Released to coincide with her UK Tour which kicks off at Celtic Connections this month.

‘Rain falls when God spills his cup. We’re down here forever cleaning it up’ – For Picott, it’s how you hold the mop that is the measure of your life.