Albums

Lauren plays traditional music with an unmatched elegance. This skill, in partnership with Mhairi Hall’s ability to provide exquisitely balanced accompaniment or an emotionally charged air, resulted in an evening of the finest possible traditional music.

Brothers James and Sam Gillespie describe themselves as North Tyne troubadours – this debut album is entirely captivating and is surely destined to become one of my albums of 2016.

At Celtic Connections Tim Edey put on one of the finest nights of music you could hope to enjoy anywhere, brought to life by his superb musicianship and his warm, affable character.

It penetrates your conscious on the first listen and unfolds as all its glorious fecundity comes flooding to the surface. A folk-pop-ambient-electronica soup of loveliness.

The Ghosts of Highway 20 re-enforces Williams’ maverick status with 14 powerful songs – meditations on loss, death and mortality and more besides. An exceptional album.

Multi-award winning folk musician Nancy Kerr and her Sweet Visitor Band provide an evening of top entertainment at Ashcroft Arts Centre which included new material that will feature on her next album.

Steeped in the traditions of his beloved Dumnonia, Forgotten Kingdom presents both an ambitiously broad canvas and a tour de force display of Jim Causley’s range and depth. It succeeds as a result of his commitment to his vision and his choice of contributors, confirming his status as one England’s finest folk singers, musicians and composers.

Whilst Fahey and Basho may well cast a long shadow in the field of acoustic guitar that you’d need to travel far to get away from, C. Joynes and Nick Jonah Davis demonstrate on Split Electric they are well down that road.

The splendidly bearded Ben Caplan is back as he plunges into the folk roots belly for a sophomore stew of fifty shades of Americana produced by klezmer-rapper Josh “Socalled” Doglin and featuring an army of collaborators.

For his latest album Jez Hellard managed to herd some of his favourite collaborators back into the pen he calls the Djukella Orchestra. A superb album – you won’t be able to keep your feet still!

This was an immense show, great performances by all, but it will inevitably now stick in the memory of all present for Rhiannon Giddens’ stunning performance who brought the house down with the perfect combination of soulful vocal and explosive delivery.

With their harmonies steeped in southern moss, Appalachian colours and the old school influence of the Carter Family still firmly nailed to the mast, Freakwater’s new album’s been worth the ten year wait.