Albums

There are obscure albums, lost albums and ultra-rare albums, and then there is All on the First Day by Tony, Caro & John. An extreme-DIY effort that was first released in 1972 and limited to only 100 copies.

Assembly Lane’s dynamic arrangements of traditional and contemporary material on their self-released debut take us another step on the way forward for traditional music.

Texas-based singer-songwriter Keegan McInroe returns with his fifth album on which he more often than not goes straight for the jugular with untempered, visceral lyrics – Political and entertaining, he is an artist with something to say.

Here is a different, experimental and immersive experience from Bare Bones that is full of the elements of folk, acoustic and world music, full of the elemental, and full of body, shape and texture. Well worth the listen – and do touch the exhibits.

There is nothing else quite like The Transports in the world of folk music, and this new version is even more ambitious than the original. The perfect combination of song and story that is a fitting tribute to its hugely talented and much-missed creator.

Mad Martins a genuinely stimulating cultural artefact, born of an inspired collaboration of like-minded creative artists. It depicts the lives of the three Martin brothers, born in the late18th century in the South Tyne area of Northumberland.

We decide that sticking ‘Songs of the Hollow’, the new album from Irish band cua, into a genre would be pointless and instead sit back and enjoy an album of variety and of voices, of echoes and of influences, and of emotions and passions.

Almost four years since the release of their debut album, the Glasgow sextet, James Edwyn & The Borrowed Band, return with a solid and harder-edged set of guitar-driven alt-country.

Avenging & Bright, a crossover between folk, pop and electronica, is bursting with confidence, and rightly so. Once again Damien O’Kane has recorded an album so highly polished it shines, it dazzles. Read our review and watch his new video for Poor Stranger.

Down to the Sea is a 4-track EP of covers from blues and roots duo Ma Polaine’s Great Decline, available with pre-orders of their forthcoming album. They are all great tracks and in one instance, trumps the original in spades.

Ralph McTell & Wizz Jones return with ‘About Time Too’, an extension of last year’s ‘About Time’ and very much cut from the same cloth. Throughout, it sounds like they’re playing for fun, nothing is too perfect or polished – one of the album’s key strengths. Lovely stuff.

Chris Stapleton’s ‘From A Room: Volume 1’ has just recently walked away with the CMA Best Album award. Based on the strength of Volume 2, they might as well start engraving that 2018 Album of the Year award now.