Albums

David Weir shares his Sidmouth Folk Festival highlights including Queer Folk, Norma Waterson Tribute, Jack Rutter, Bush Gothic, Peatbog Faeries, Elspeth Anne, Nick Hart and more.

Despite the flawed and honest characters of Anna Tivel’s songs, with their troubling emotions and struggles with mental health, Outsiders is low-key and quietly optimistic. Masterfully crafted and performed, it is her finest work yet.

Robert Leslie made his name on the streets of New York. Despite this, Halfway Home, his fourth album, was produced by one of music’s heaviest hitters, Perry Margouleff, and it features Tony Garnier and Scarlett Rivera (both Bob Dylan veterans).

Hark The Voice That Sings For All is a terrific album. It’s Alison O’Donnell’s exhortation to listen. She is the archetypal dramatic storyteller in song, who can lay claim to being truly the voice that sings for all.

With Love is the Only Thing, Peter Mulvey and Sistastrings find refuge and rejuvenation in songs that deliver an uplifting reminder of the common humanity we share.

With music that is gloriously varied, Fara’s Energy Islands is a brave, wildly original almost-concept album from one of the finest folk bands in Scotland. It’s an exquisite album.

Ahead of Gretchen Peters’ 25th Anniversary UK Tour, The Show captures a singular artist at the peak of her powers, covering a 22-year spectrum of outstanding songs.

Rich in West Coast psych-pop vibes and lush harmonies, while Strange Pilgrim may have its roots in existential angst, a product of unsettled times, ultimately, it seeks to fly on wings of hope.

The Wilderness Yet’s ‘What Holds The World Together’, shows them to be a band steeped in both the English and Irish folk traditions, but with a fresh, confident edge and a clear idea of what they want to achieve. This is surely one of the folk albums of the year.

Suffused with a quiet melancholia, Will Stewart’s ‘Slow Life’ is an easy rolling cocktail of Americana, folk rock and jangling guitar swagger that invites you to stretch out and soak up the sounds.

Analog Africa’s latest compilation, The Movers – ‘Vol. 1 – 1970-1976’, is a true testament to one of South Africa’s most legendary soul scene bands with a legacy of over a dozen albums and numerous hit singles. It also adds to the label’s ongoing outstanding reputation.

Oh To Be That Free finds Michaela Anne embracing more sophisticated and textured stylings on an album that sees the darkness, but also feels its way to the light within.