Mike Davies

The Crooked Brothers latest offering, Thank You I’m Sorry, is all the richer for the diverse sound and styles they bring to the fore, both collectively and individually. You can’t pin these guys down.

On The Resonant Rogues latest album there is plenty to appeal taking in influences from gypsy jazz, klezmer and Balkan music alongside old-time American folk and blues. All this whilst maintaining a core band identity, it bodes well for a very promising future. 

After all the stirring, but crafted angst and anthemic defiance that has gone before, this latest release from Frank Turner is as raw and as naked as they come and a reminder of the heart behind the PR image.

Ana Egge’s latest album, Bright Shadow, is an understated, but terrific body of work that should do much to reinvigorate Egge’s career and exposure.

Pop Songs For Elk is the latest offering from Idaho trio Hillfolk Noir. An offbeat but highly rewarding addition to the roots revival that plants its feet in the past while keeping a playful eye on today.

The Florida based quartet ‘Have Gun, Will Travel’ release an album based on Sir Ernest Shackleton’s ill-fated 1914-16 Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition. Aside from being a potted history of the Antarctic exploration, it’s also a pretty damn fine collection of tunes and one that deserves to see the band finding much wider exposure.

Anna Laube’s self-titled third album offers a stylistically eclectic brew, part sugarcandy, part bourbon, sweet but with a real kick.

Iris Dement’s latest album ‘The Trackless Woods’ is inspired by the writings of Russian poet Anna Akhmatova…”some cultural enlightenment and enrichment and an album of the year all in one perfect package.”

Cape Snow is a cross-continental collaboration between Los Angeles-based singer Bree Scanlon and members of the long- running New England based band Tiger Saw. One to be swept away in, like giddy hearts.

Departures is the debut release from London-based quintet Owl & Mouse, fronted by Brisbane singer-songwriter and ukulele player Hannah Botting.

Oddity, the debut album release from West Midlands based band Bethan and the Morgans shows great promise and the potential to strike on something demanding wider scale attention sooner rather than later.

‘Tied To The Moon’ is a hugely impressive album from Rachel Sermanni who’s proving to be a force to be reckoned with in the eclectic field of contemporary folk.