Albums

Saskatchewan-born singer-songwriter Zachary Lucky returns with new album ‘Midwestern’. Old school folk and country, sung from the heart with sentiments to which everyone can relate.

Music journalist Colin Irwin shares his thoughts on this year’s BBC Folk Awards – Manchester’s grand Bridgewater Hall provided plenty of talking points, a bit of glitz and one particular moment that falls into the ‘not a dry eye in the sparkling water’ category.

With ‘Chosen Daughter’, Maz O’Connor presents a very personal but equally universal album that is veined, as per the title, both with the a sense of being wanted and the need to feel so, let it bring out the very best of your musical maternal instincts.

As The Son Of Town Hall, Ben Parker and David Berkeley have created an album that plays like nothing else you will hear this year. Equal parts care and craftsmanship, joy and sorrow, it is a splendour to behold. As a bonus, watch their video for their new single The Line Between.

Often sailing a stream of consciousness and impressionistic imagery, Intergalactic Sailor is dreamily ethereal and melodically therapeutic in its calming eddies, it’s well worth booking passage across the cosmic seas.

Richard Dawson’s ‘2020’ is a sincere appeal to optimism, and above all else, sincerity is Dawson’s calling card. This is art shorn of artifice, pop against populism, and it just so happens to be one of the defining statements of our times.

With Parallel Line, Tim Crabtree challenges listeners to hear the music that exists within the notes, in the process re-examining who we are and what we think.

While they clearly set out to create a good time, their consummately played approach to a celebration of traditional folk music is every bit as serious and as passionate as the Carthys and Watersons of this world.

Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh and Thomas Bartlett have created an album that is seductively dreamlike but sometimes sad, layered like a palimpsest but accessible on every one of those layers. It is unlikely you will hear a better instrumental album this year.

Postcards & Pocketbooks is a fully comprehensive Bella Hardy retrospective and a well-rounded overview of one of the finest folk singer-songwriters of her generation and a useful staging post from which to launch the next chapter.

Curated by Ryley Walker, Imaginational Anthem Vol 9 crams its forty-four minutes with enough musical styles and new artists to satisfy anybody. Study the sleeve notes, seek out the players and have a load of fun with another ace compilation.

This is an album with many highs, with even the more familiar material sounding fresh in the band’s capable hands. Let’s hope this is just a start of their recording journey, as this is a road that’s definitely well worth taking.