Albums

A confident and impressive sophomore album that not only fully justifies past predictions regarding Hannah Sanders trajectory in the current folk field but also marks the arrival of a significant new duo force with Ben Savage.

Buck Curran has been a leading light in the psych-folk scene for so long now that it might come as a surprise to learn that this is his first solo album. With Immortal Light he has successfully tapped into nature’s beauty and created a slice of alt-folk that is as engrossing as anything you’re likely to hear.

Nick Jonah Davis’s ‘House of Dragon’ scores deservedly high with Folk Radio UK. “I doubt if I will come across a better album this year if I ever do it will be a considerable piece of work.”

Wolves A-Howlin’ sees talented young fiddle player Kieran Towers join forces with Charlotte Carrivick (banjo/guitar/mandolin) on a collection of old-time fiddle tunes. The young duo delivers an uncompromising and impressive performance on their first recording together.

Johnny shares some of his highlights and interviews from this year’s Wickham Festival including Blazin’ Fiddles, Mawkin, Skerryvore, Saltfishforty, Mischa Macpherson Trio, Lynched, Ewan McLennan and more.

Symbiosis sees Ross Ainslie and Ali Hutton bring their musical intuition and unity to the studio in a collection of tune sets that expertly brings their combined skills as composers, multi-instrumentalists, and arrangers to an eager audience.

The Golden Hum featured the transcendent vocal and sparse instrumentation of Brigid Mae Power, Gareth Dickson’s graceful songs and mesmerising finger-picked guitar; and event organiser Constant Follower’s début live performance.

SERA has an impressive ability to weave together strands from different genres to create songs which allow her individuality to shine through. Little Girl looks set to reach a wide audience and bring Sera the commercial success she so richly deserves.

Jim Causley could croon the phone book and it would still be worth a listen. But with this latest release he has put his pipes to much better use, setting the verses of visionary Cornish poet Jack Clemo to soaring and often profoundly moving music.

With Grammy award-winner Larry Campbell on production, The Stray Birds return with a fuller sounding album and their first fully collaborative songwriting effort. Flaming brilliant!

The Private Press is a very interesting collection of music, much of which might have been lost but for the efforts of the Tompkins Square team – Michael Klausman, Brooks Rice and Josh Rosenthal should be commended for their work in compiling both the album and its informative liner notes.

Rob heads to London’s Slaughtered Lamb for a live preview performance of Josienne Clarke and Ben Walker’s new album ‘Overnight’ due for release on Rough trade records on 14 Oct. 2016