Albums

Robb Johnson’s extensive 3-CD album Ordinary Giants is a monumental release. Supported by the likes of Roy Bailey, Boff Whalley, Tom Robinson, Miranda Sykes, Matthew Crampton, Phil Odgers and more, it tells of how we got to where we are today, told through the life and times of Robb’s father, Ron.

Paradise and Thorns is a rewarding and precious double album from Ashley Hutchings – ‘the single most important figure in English folk-rock’. Handsomely packaged, it’s a companion piece to his 1987 Gloucester Docks, an album that told a very personal love story.

This album from fourth-generation fiddle player Gerry O’Connor is so much more than just another collection of tunes outstandingly well played. The sense of total immersion in the music-making and the joy that brings is communicated par excellence.

On A Problem Of Our Kind Katriona Gilmore and Jamie Roberts have produced an album capable of making you dance, cry and think. And what is more, they do it straight from the off. This album is a masterclass in songwriting.

We catch Kelly Oliver at Cranleigh Art Centre, midway through a sixteen date tour supporting her accomplished new Album “Botany Bay”. Her vocal clarity and strength were evident, and the stripped back production of the show only served to enhance this.

Recorded in a break from touring with Robert Plant and the Sensational Space Shifters earlier this year, Seth Lakeman’s ‘The Well Worn Path’ is yet another stunning piece of work and, as ever, rooted in his native Dartmoor.

Folk Fever brings together folk music luminaries who have taken a collection of disco and dance floor classics and given them a folk makeover. An inspired album that, once again, proves that, in the hands of the right musicians,  a good song can transcend all musical borders.

Life-long friendship; the rich historical, literary, and musical heritage of the Orkney Islands for inspiration; and a quartet of gifted, imaginative musicians. Fara have all the ingredients for a perfect album, and Times from Times Fall is the proof.

Having relocated from her native New York seven years ago to take up residence in Cambridge, this is Annie Dressner’s first full-length collection to be recorded in the UK…”Shatteringly good.”

Leapfrog comes from a set of tapes recorded in 1998 and found by John Hulburt’s sister and is now available as a digital release via Tompkins Square. A perfect introduction to John Hulburt before you dip into the more expansive Opus III.

Named after a line from a  poem by Marj Ann Samyn, The Place That You Call Home is a new project by New Orleans singer-songwriter Kelcy Mae, produced by Neilson Hubbard and featuring a host of guest musicians including Will Kimbrough.

Nathan Bowles’s finest album yet, a confident recording skilfully crafted and well balanced and containing some of his most challenging and thought-provoking playing.