Albums

Australian picker Darren Cross’s third album of solo guitar music comes from a place of travel and solitude; harnessing life’s recent restrictions and finding art in simplicity during the strangest time most of us can remember.

No one could have predicted the Oysterband returning with a song collection quite like ‘Read The Sky’. This is what you get when a band continue to make music for the best reasons. It’s a top-quality album worthy of the name.

One of Shane Parish’s reasons for making ‘Liverpool’, was to unlock the inscrutable power that exists within nautical worksongs that makes them timeless and uniquely human. It’s safe to say that he has achieved that goal and made a breathtaking and singular album in the process.

On Vulpus, The Drystones successfully fuse 21st-century electronica with contemporary British folk music. If they are the future of folk/dance music, then it is in very safe hands.

With the release of Moch, self-proclaimed ‘trad fusion’ band DLÙ have heralded themselves as a fresh, innovative and exciting band with a unique, original and eclectic sound. This may already be a strong contender for one of the debut albums of the year.

Now approaching their 25th anniversary, Yonder Mountain String Band have carved themselves a hugely impressive reputation and loyal following on the bluegrass scene and this album looks set to take that further.

Invested with reflections and memories, Judy Collins’ Spellbound is quite literally an album of a lifetime that, spurred by a pandemic that put life on hold, has equally taken almost a lifetime to find its purpose in coming into existence. Indisputably a late career high.

Counting Down the Hours, the debut album from Rakish, a New England-based duo consisting of Maura Shawn Scanlin and Conor Hearn, is an invigorating blend of beauty and emotion that’s produced some seriously enduring music.

Anaïs Mitchell’s self-titled new album draws on the past and looks to the future – quietly affecting and beguiling, delivered with quiet, introspective emotion and perfectly attuned musical arrangements.

Kyle Morgan’s ‘Younger at Most Everything’ is one of those gems that’s so good and so atmospheric that it stops you in your tracks. If the rest of the year continues to deliver music of this soaring standard, we could be in for a vintage twelve months.

At every turn, Big Thief exposes their willingness to experiment and create sounds that puts them in a category all their own. Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You is a stunning new collection that goes everywhere with the most impressive results.

There can be no doubt that with ‘Needle and Thread’, Dom Prag’s sophomore album, he has propelled himself straight from the “definitely one to watch” category straight to the top rank of distinctive, individual folk performers.