Albums

It’s a clever musician who can weave such a human image through sparse improvised playing, but Samuels is clearly one such player and this small, cohesive and unassuming album contains multitudes of such touches.

Ewan MacPherson’s ‘Norther’ is a curious and utterly beguiling beast. Released in 2008, it’s a self-assured and impressively produced debut that takes you back to the roots revival of the mid-2000s.

Tired of the same old? Then Gap In The Fence from Scotland’s Tom Houston will bring refreshingly welcome rays of musical sunshine into your life.

Kris Drever’s ‘Where The World Is Thin’ is a charming album. Confident and mature in its content, and beautifully performed. A fine treat as the nights draw in.

The Magpie Arc’s debut EP is a varied and brilliantly executed set of songs from a truly gifted group of musicians and bodes extremely well for what is to follow.

Martin Green goes well beyond the boundaries of traditional music with The Portal, a multifaceted artwork that is as original as anything that has come out of this strange year.

A timely album as we attempt to struggle through a year many of us would rather forget, Kris Delmhorst reminds us of the things that we need to carry with us.

Looking Up is Mike McClure’s tenth solo album and one that arrives after five years during which there have been dramatic changes in his life.

Our Man in the Field’s debut album offers a rather fine set of shuffling, pedal steel coloured Americana pop, occasionally sung in a dreamy falsetto that echoes the mood of the music. Definitely one you should seek out.

While this might not prove the work for which Judy Dyble is most remembered, it’s a bittersweet understatement to mark what was and is her finest hour.

Anyone unfamiliar with Rich Krueger is sure to be won over by his voice and way with words, as our reviewer was on “The Troth Sessions” featuring a stash of his unreleased demos.

Bristling with confidence and power, it’s hard to believe this is the Massachusetts-born singer-songwriter Diana DeMuth’s debut album. It has to be up there in my best of the year.