Mike Davies

Luke Jackson’s latest album ‘This Family Tree’ is short but perfectly formed, sharply and sympathetically observed and emotionally involving. Further evidence that Jackson is shaping up to become one of the enduring major figures in the world of contemporary folk.

His last album saw him reinterpreting songs by his own favourite writers and singers, but here on his fifth album, Scott returns to his own pen for a collection of ten numbers. Songs that gets deep inside you.

On ‘Strange Tails’ Lord Huron has now blossomed into a full orchard of radio friendly, hugely infectious melodies and hooks, drenched in reverb and with punchy arrangements and instrumentation. This should see the band step out of the cult shadows and into the mainstream Americana spotlight.

Hailing from Glasgow, Robin Adams provides a garden of earthly delights on his latest release. The theme of the struggling artist informs much of the material – not surprising when you read of Robin’s own battles. Evocative at times of the vocals of John Martyn and the guitar work of Bert Jansch.

Hold You Like A Harness is the fourth album from singer-songwriter Philippe Bronchtein best known as Hip Hatchet. It’s an open and honest work, intimate in its delivery yet still capable of reaching out to larger audiences. Wonderful keening rustic Americana.

Essentially 70s shaded pop-rock with a touch of Americana, Carry Illinois’ Alabaster is filled with bright music, but the lyrics not always so. There’s enough here to provide a solid foundation on which to build.

This Is The Kit is back with her new album Bashed Out joined by her regulars as well as collaborators including both Desnner and his brother, Bryce, Beirut’s Benjamin Lanz and Matt Barrick from The Walkmen. The quality of the music and her craft are unmistakable.

The Lilac Time release their Ninth Album ‘No Sad Songs’, an album that is charged with an uplifting, buoyant vision of life. Given its April release, a quote TS Eliot quote fromThe Waste Land seems appropriate – “ breeding lilacs out of the dead land, mixing memory and desire, stirring dull roots with spring rain.” Go gather.

Although not well known outside of their North East London stomping grounds, The Persecuted have the potential to attract far wider audiences already tuned in to the likes of Turner, Chris T-T and Beans On Toast.

The Taxidermist is the fourth full-length album from Thirty Pounds of Bone, the nom de plume of Shetland born multi-instrumentalist Johny Lamb. It marks a departure from its predecessor in being an entirely one-man show with Lamb playing everything, recorded live (with no overdubs or edits) in a cellar in West Cornwall.

Once again there’s a strong indie pop sensibility informing the accessible, highly melodic tracks on Bonxie, though it’s less eclectic than its predecessor. Instead there is more of a direct connection with the summery, folksy roots of the debut, not least in rekindling their love affair with the shanty – and then there’s the birds.

Hailing from Manchester, five piece band The Slow Show release their debut album ‘White Water’, a collection of epic yet minimally arranged spin on the Americana genre. Whilst not that well known in the UK this release could mark them out as one of the brightest new arrivals.