Albums

Johnny shares his Wickham highlights including Graham Nash, Judy Collins, National Youth Folk Ensemble, Ryan Young & Jenn Butterworth, Ross Ainslie & Ali Hutton, Treacherous Orchestra, Sam Kelly and the Lost Boys, TRADarrr, Kathryn Tickell & The Darkening and more.

Gwilym Bowen Rhys’ “Arenig” is a work of art that is as reassuring in its quality for modern folk music as it is confident and entertaining. A highly accomplished and original album that cannot fail to dazzle in just about every way.

Rooted is an album of rich material put to wonderful music that all combines to result in a release that is an essential career highlight from the most inimitable of musicians. Watch Martin’s new video for “Trouble Brought Me Here”.

While ‘Free Company’ proves that love is never really free. Taylor Vick’s Boy Scouts emerge from these moments cleansed, ready to move on. Rather than a downward spiral, Vick seems to emerge energized and invigorated. All heartbreak should be so inspiring.

Johnstown, the 1999 Appalachian-gothic, folk-noir masterpiece from Oh Susanna gets a well-deserved anniversary remastering with the addition of bonus tracks. On UK Tour in September.

We review Charlie Parr’s latest eponymous offering. This is actually Parr’s 17th album in as many years and those who’ve followed his journey will most definitely want this in their collection. Also, find out why he has an extra string on his resonator.

Proving “Small can be Beautiful”, David Pratt heads to the Mid Sussex Americana & Ale Festival to take in Jamie Freeman, Porchlight Smoker, Native Harrow, Bennett Wilson & Poole, William the Conqueror, Trevor Moss & Hannah Lou, Jason McNiff & more.

As a live album, Horses and Stars is so intimate and sparse you can almost hear the sweat drip and the blood pulsing as Sam baker draws you into his stories, it may not introduce him to new audiences but the converted will have much to celebrate.

This collaboration shows that, thankfully, Martin Hayes has no plans in resting on his laurels. Brooklyn Rider add colour and shape to the aura of Hayes’ fiddle. It was always there, but now we can finally experience it in technicolour.

At Bush Hall, Big Thief play through their upcoming second release for 2019, Two Hands, from top to bottom. This is the first time they have played the new album in this way and many of the songs have never been played in live performances till now.

So It Turns is a musically complex and nuanced work with emotions to match, this may not have the immediacy of its predecessor, but its contemplative air marks Sermanni’s passage from a musician to an artist.

On Green Ribbons, each singer brings something unique and subtly experimental to the table, and the result is a collection of songs that transcends genre and fuses the history of vocal music with the most exciting aspects of its present.