Thomas Blake

That combination of closeness and mystery – a thread that runs through all of his records – is one of the reasons Yorkston is amongst the very best songwriters of his generation; The Wide, Wide River is yet another career highlight.

Frankie Armstrong’s all-encompassing, compassionate worldview has served her well for over half a century, and Cats Of Coven Lawn is one of her strongest statements yet. It is also a brilliant testament to the essential nature of artistic expression.

Thomas Blake shares his Top 10 Albums of 2020 featuring Bill Callahan, Shirley Collins, Burd Ellen, The Silver Field, Herman Dune, Stella Sommer, Stick in the Wheel, Cunning Folk, Brigid Mae Power & The Rheingans Sisters.

While EP2 owes more to American Roots than EP1, when the musicians are as good as this, the influences matter less than the intimacy of the playing. This is a group of musicians playing the music that they love, and doing it better than just about anyone else.

Henry Martin, the latest offering from Edgelarks (Hannah Martin and Phillip Henry) is an album filled with positivity – resolutely optimistic, brilliantly played and a joy from start to finish.

The power of A Casual Invocation comes from its mystery: it feels at once ancient & modern. Folk music at its most transcendent, an antidote to the banal and a gateway to the weird.

David Ivar has made a record that sounds on first listen like it could have been recorded at any point in the last fifty years, but in reality is uniquely and intelligently current, an album of the year in every sense.

Stella Sommer’s ‘Northern Dancer’ is a stunning piece of work, full of hush and swell, profoundly evocative and brilliantly, lovingly composed.

Their previous release was one of the most innovative folk albums of the last decade, and on Receiver they up their game even further. The Rheingans Sisters have created a masterpiece of modern folk music as well as a captivating physical artefact.

On Fretted And Indebted, Alasdair Roberts brings focus to the traditional songs and singers that have inspired him and also illuminates some of his own considerable talents.

We talk to Jenny Sturgeon about the making of her new album ‘The Living Mountain’, the influence of Nan Shepherd’s writing, the Cairngorms, the benefits of the natural environment and more.

Nan Shepherd’s writing has found a perfect musical equivalent in Sturgeon’s stunning new album…a work of rare beauty: to hear The Living Mountain is to hear the song of the Cairngorms.