Albums

Dàibhidh’s all-encompassing philosophy is that “traditional music is for everyone”. As he demonstrates on this fine debut, it’s truly a rich and engrossing world into which he hopes that others will readily fall through listening to this album.

“smouldering with an earthy sensuality compared to which, Peggy Lee sounds like a nun…” Tami Neilson said she wanted to make an album of popping firecrackers. Chickaboom! is a veritable Fourth of July display.

On his latest album, Robert Vincent sings “Nobody knows the ending”, but this outstanding album is a very good start on the path to finding the light at the end of the tunnel in which we seem to be lost.

As demonstrated at The David Hall, Megson continue to build and develop their strong sense of identity – from the delights of caravanning to the plight steel industry, they know how to entertain a crowd.

Return to Y’hup serves as a loving homage and sincere tribute, and compellingly illustrates why the estimable Mr. Cutler was ahead of his time. It also achieves its aim of re-affirming Ivor Cutler’s status as a “national treasure”.

Mhairi Hall’s Airs is excellent an album that sets you adrift – mountains, the sea, the grey, the bright, the mist, the sunshine, the solitude, the camaraderie, human emotions, things greater than us, beyond us, behind us, in front of us.

In teasing all the juiciest ingredients from country, folk-troubadour and rockabilly, LaVere is arguably the most undiluted Americana artist as you could wish to find. Fifteen years into her recording career, she’s consistently proving to be one of the genres finest.

Like Lisa O’Neill, Ye Vagabonds and Lankum, Varo share a deep understanding of traditional music, preserving the genre’s heritage with the need to create a form of music that is fresh and new. This accomplished debut should position them at the forefront of the scene.

While By Appointment Or Chance explains exactly how these songs came to Miranda Mulholland, in the end, our gratitude has to go out to a cat which brought Miranda back to the peaceful landscape of Twyford where this distinguished album was recorded.

On album closer ‘I Love You’ he says “you don’t need to pretend you’re anything more than you are” – a simple, open, intimate, honest and hugely listenable album, Sam Lewis sums up those sentiments up perfectly.

John Moreland’s ‘LP5’ is a terrific piece of work that is his most musically complex and lyrically personal album to date, it confirms his position as one of today’s great singer-songwriters.

With a bonus opening by Smith and McClennan, Dirk Powell’s album launch at Celtic Connections had a warm informal back-porch feel, as if Dirk and his transatlantic band were playing as much for their own fun as for ours.