Albums

This is a well-seasoned album for a debut, and The Canny Band’s nuanced musicianship suggests there are still many great things to come from this talented trio.

With Mousehold, The Shackleton Trio have delivered a fresh and masterful album that includes inspired retellings of largely unsung local ballads and broadsides from Norfolk. They’ve already built a healthy following, but this is sure to see that grow still further.

The Hackensaw Boys is an invigorating statement of who they are and, more to the point, where they’re going. For the faithful and new arrivals alike, it promises to be a rewarding journey.

Ready For The Times is a testament to both Williams and Catlow’s individual musical talents and the chemistry they spark in each other as a duo.

Tonight We Ride represents a soundtrack to Jason McNiff’s life and a gateway to some of music’s finest songwriters. Imbibed with his own personal takes, nuances and shades, it’s a resounding success.

Damien Jurado’s ‘Reggae Film Star’ is an album that owes much of its thematic muscle to the cinema. The musical diversity is all the more striking given the album’s conceptual clarity. It’s an addictive listen, full of faded beauty and lit by distant hope.

With ‘The Spur’, there is beauty and grace beyond anything Joan Shelley has done before. “…it is a mirror that allows us to see the world differently, to view these moments not only as what they are but as moments rife with possibility.”

A singular talent in the contemporary folk world, Bella Hardy returns with a terrific blend of traditional and original songs for her 10th solo album ‘Love Songs’.

Forget The White Stripes and their Seven Nation Army, and lock into the two-man musical army that is the Madalitso Band from Malawi; you will not be disappointed. Surely only those with a happiness-bypass could fail to enjoy such intoxicatingly accomplished and compelling music?

And So We Gather, marks Gaelic singer Kim Carnie’s accomplished and thoroughly captivating solo debut. It features an amazing cast yet Carnie’s velvet-tinged voice is the real star here.

Dreams and reality often run together in strange ways; this is definitely true on Rachel Sermanni’s new EP, Every Swimming Pool Runs to the Sea on which she also offers a vocal performance second to none.

Bloodlines testifies, in tandem with the re-issue of ‘Smokin The Dummy,’ that having established himself as a maverick country outsider in the seventies, Terry Allen began the eighties on a creative roll. They deserve stronger appreciation among country fans and record collectors far and wide.