Richard Hollingum

Nora Brown returns with ‘Sidetack My Engine’ featuring special guests Jerron ‘Blindboy’ Paxton and Jackson Lynch, an excellent album that marks the next chapter for this accomplished performer.

Burning Your Light finds Brigid Mae Power addressing the work of other songwriters from Bob Dylan to Aretha Franklin. While no easy task, her light shines all the brighter for it. An excellent EP.

Throughout ‘Home No More’, the Folkatron Sessions make clever use of subtle experimentation to enhance and celebrate traditional song. This is experimental folk at its best. Excellent.

From its attention-grabbing opener, Dag Tenere’s “Iswat” is an entrancing EP. Despite the hypnotic raw guitars and steady rhythms coming to the fore, it also feels deeply layered and sophisticated. Short but excellent.

Thanks to the musicians and poets of the Khasi Hills and Gareth Bonello, we learn of the little-known history between Wales and this area of India. While ‘Sai-thaiñ ki Sur is diverse and broad, it is also a remarkably cohesive and excellent album.

In Mental Health Awareness Week, Richard Hollingham considers the role music plays in his own mental health and how it can help others.

Offcuts and Oddities showcase the commitment of the Shovel Dance Collective to playing traditional music that speaks of working-class solidarity. The album features some cracking tunes that will leave you wanting more. Excellent.

Enjoy unique guitar playing with breathtaking creativity and a new Collective approach to traditional tunes on the latest Betwixt & Between Tapes instalment featuring guitarist extraordinaire C Joynes and the Shovel Dance Collective.

Binga, the latest offering from guitarist and singer Samba Touré is a compelling, intriguing and wonderfully refreshing album. While it reflects on some of the harsh realities of life it’s also driven by a pride for a nation’s history.

A 50th Anniversary reissue of a classic – For an imperfect perfect glimpse into the past, and for its paradoxical timeless quality, succumb to the spirit of love, either, like me, again, or for many of you, for the first time. Excellent – and pass me that joss stick.

On Ballaké Sissoko’s new album, Djourou, the Malian kora player chose diverse artists, removed from his own musical traditions – and transforms each collaboration into a moving partnership, highlighting the deep ties that bind us – a moving and excellent album.

The pictures on Reekinhame, the latest offering from the prolific Kitchen Cynics, are dark but there is a gentle humour that pervades all the songs, and a lightness of touch that endears you to them…Echoes of, The Incredible String Band, Ivor Cutler and Espers at their most genteel.