Albums

Birds is a five track EP from the driving force behind Cambrian Records, guitarist/composer Toby Hay. The music forms part of a larger artistic enterprise, a collaborative exhibition, shared between Hay, artist Keith How, and blacksmiths Nick Buchan and Tom Robinson of Gofannon Forge. The twelve string technique is flawless; the music delightful.

Seamless, powerful, thought-provoking…As promised in the publicity surrounding the series, this was indeed a truly unique event: not just a concert, not just a book reading, but a journey of discovery, and one which lingers in the mind long after the tube ride home.

David Simard’s second full-length collection, The Heavy Wait, has arrived after being pieced together over eight years, and it’s a real spine-tingler. An atmospheric, brooding, and compelling collection of dark-yet-pretty folk songs that artfully wend their way into one’s brain, and lodge there.

Louise’s magnificently accomplished show is not only a polished and professional presentation but also a superb evening’s entertainment – an assessment enthusiastically endorsed by the organisers and their capacity audience.

There’s many an artist out there mining America’s rich musical history and shaping it into their own experiences and observations; Jeff Crosby may well be one of the best.

If this is your first dip into the music of The Baird Sisters, then let it not be your last. Until You Find Your Green is one of the most beautiful albums of 2016, one I know I’ll constantly be revisiting.

An engaging, visionary record that blends many different influences and styles into a compelling whole, a very personal ode to a strange and enchanting land that will forever continue to baffle and intrigue.

These two well-travelled veterans of the folk music scene have still got a great deal to say and can still say it with style. That they have chosen to say it together, for this album at least, is something we should all be grateful for.

Lady Maisery’s live performance banishes thoughts of the cold and a sore throat for our reviewer Thomas as he declares: Lady Maisery have proved themselves one of the most invigorating and talented live acts around. They are a rare tonic in these troubled times.

Doghouse Roses return with their third album featuring a number of guest musicians including Jez Hellard and Laura-Beth Salter of The Shee. One that’s well worth the wait and is quite simply, their best work yet.

Hard to believe, but it’s twenty years since Gillian Welch released her groundbreaking debut album, Revival. To mark the occasions, she’s been through the archives and, along with musical partner David Rawlings, has put together Boots No 1: The Official Revival Bootleg, a double disc 21 track collection of demos, outtakes, alternate takes and other previously unreleased tracks.

Whilst you can play spot the musical namecheck if you have to, you’d be far better off to stop such swithering and just turn up the volume, and appreciate one of the finest musicians to have come out of Glasgow in the past decade.