Albums

Liz Conway’s Downhill All The Way serves as a lovingly configured, carefully produced artefact in memory of the incomparable Terry Conway, who still remains comparatively unknown in folk circles and grossly under-represented on record, but whose all-too-infrequent live performances still resound in the memory, years on.

Silver Pin is an excellent first release with a great selection of songs. Sophie Crawford has a lot to offer in both her voice and her rendition. This has gently but firmly fallen into my consciousness and I hope she finds time in her busy schedule to record a follow-up.

Drawn from Deep Water is an assured next step for Scottish four-piece Gnoss – from the poised and deeply moving to the evocative and stirring this marks a clear progression of their sound. Their best yet.

While Geneviève Racette may be a new name to many, this bi-lingual album is sure to change that, a great start for anyone discovering this young talent whose vocals and delivery are sure to enchant on first listen.

Shepherd In A Sheepskin Vest handles the vicissitudes of love and life with inimitable tact and charm as only Callahan can, resulting in a career-high that listeners are sure to return to for sanctum and solace for many years to come.

Our reviewer falls under the spell of Skipinnish upon hearing their latest album ‘Steer by the Stars’, with its nautical themes he declares it the “catch of the day”. This is the band’s seventh album and their 20th Anniversary.

Celebrating their 50th Anniversary this year, Steeleye Span’s latest album finds them on something of a roll as they continue dragging Child Ballads into the 21st century.

The impeccable pairing of Turrisi and Giddens is something few would have foreseen… This is music at its most honest and primal, you can almost feel the walls of the studio shaking. Rhiannon Giddens is the absolute real deal and so is this album.

Old Man Luedecke’s ‘Easy Money’ is a relaxed and effortlessly listenable take on troubled times and personal tugs and turmoils, this is cash you definitely want in hand.

An Evening With Nancy Kerr And James Fagan captures one of folk music’s most enduring and talented acts in their natural habitat and provides the perfect snapshot of the duo at the top of their game.

Closer to the feel and sound of a Staple Singers record than any other solo album Mavis Staples has made, We Get By is one of her very best solo albums to date – it’s a winner.

Western Stars is an album that creeps up on you and leaves your heart hurting. It’s been commented that it seems strange that Springsteen hasn’t responded to Trump’s America, but listen to this album between the lines and you’ll realise that perhaps he has.