Albums

With support from Jim Ghedi & Toby Hay, Vashti Bunyan works her magic before a quiet and reverential audience at Leeds Brudenell Social Club. An unforgettable evening.

It is rare for an album of predominantly traditional material to sound as fresh and inspired as this, and feel both thrillingly contemporary and utterly timeless. Cunning Folk is making some of the finest acoustic music to come out of this country in years.

If you are simply hankering for timeless folk, splendidly played and sung, that sounds ancient as days, but as fresh as a daisy, look no further. It’s the most important, the most beautiful, the most magical… saggy old soundtrack in the whole wide world.

This solo debut album from Helen Diamond will no doubt find its way into the traditional music collections of archives all over the world but it also needs to be listened to for the sheer enjoyment of a remarkable voice.

Reg Meuross has achieved something rare and important: he has reanimated a valuable piece of history, and he has done so with great sincerity and emotional depth.

Royal Traveller not only confirms Missy Raines’ renowned instrumental status but also announces another first, as she debuts as a songwriter, over 11 tracks on which she is joined by a star-studded cast.

Throughout his career, Michael Hurley has inhabited his own niche, a living embodiment of the songs Harry Smith collected for his Anthology Of American Folk Music. Living Ljubljana is an excellent addition to his canon of work.

Rock Island Grange is a highly energetic and hugely enjoyable album, even if you’re not a devotee of old-time American string band music, this offering from Foghorn Stringband hard to resist.

Featuring Brian Ó hEadhra & Fiona Mackenzie and produced by Mike Vass, TÌR: Highland Life & Lore is an inspired, beautiful album and is destined to become a classic of contemporary folk music.

Jimmy Rankin’s latest offering, Moving East, is infused with a local Cape Breton flavour and is tinged with both joy and sadness, but it most definitely makes you want to put out the welcome mat.

On Songs of Love and Horror Will Oldham’s enigmatic aliases hand back control for an unadorned set of tenderly sung, troubled songs that tap the darkness as only Oldham can.

‘Anthems to the Wind’ is a strong and irresistible album that finds Merry Hell on top form – at that brilliant moment in a band’s evolution where everyone’s on the same wavelength and the ideas are just tumbling out.