Albums

Having made her mark with The Duke & The King, Simi Stone taps into her Upstate Catskill roots for a debut album of bright, vivid soulful sounds as fresh as the sun-kissed mountain air. Plus watch the premiere of her new video for ‘Got It All’.

Most of ‘Sundown Over Ghost Town’ was inspired by and written in Idaho City, a mostly abandoned former mining centre to the north of Eilen Jewell’s hometown of Boise, where she now lives, and provides the album’s reflective tone and lyrical threads. It is a more reflective, musically subdued work than some of her past outings, but it may well be her best yet.

Building a solid following and already a significant presence on the festival scene, in an age of  shooting stars that flare briefly and pass in the night, Thomas is an artist of solid, enduring substance and a real keeper.

Following hot on the heels of a brace of seriously landmark live gigs: first at this year’s Celtic Connections, and second and most recently in Dublin where they celebrated two decades of straight-down-the-line high-energy music-making Danú ‘s latest offering ‘Buan’ is in every respect a splendid achievement from a premier Irish band still at the very top of their game.

Building on the acclaim for his debut, Rhythm & Reason finds Bhi Bhiman hitting a socially conscious, soul groove and combining the political and the personal with trademark wit and wisdom. Don’t miss his UK and Ireland Tour in June.

Kent Folk-rock sextet Galley Beggar’s latest album does a damn good job of consolidating the tradition that began with Fairport Convention back in the late 60s.

Almost twenty years since their first release, Mellowosity, with Blackhouse the Peatbog Faeries have proven, yet again, that their music, while staying in the same musical vein that keeps live audiences on their feet, they can still move the music forward, provide a fresh approach, and keep that audience coming back time and again.

For such a stripped debut, ‘The Flesh and Bone’ is still abounding with drama and wisdom, where at any given moment Hicklin can turn a phrase or deliver a stunning melody in such a way that it knocks the wind out of you.

Living in Italy, but born in San Fransisco, the globe-trotting Lucia Comnes has returned to her Americana roots for the passionate and sophisticated new album Love, Hope & Tyranny. Lucia is also getting set to make her UK debut in June with a CD Release Concert at London’s Green Note, one you don’t want to miss.

Kadia are a band to watch out for. This debut album confirms they are maturing rapidly as songwriters, as instrumentalists, as singers, as arrangers. They are the full package, destined to reach an ever widening audience.

With Tom Robinson due to release a new album, his first in 20 years, produced by Gerry Diver and featuring guest contributions from Martin Carthy & Billy Bragg, we were naturally inquisitive. Jon Earl went along to London to catch his ‘rough mix of tunes’. It turned out to be a very memorable evening.

Against expectations Chatterbox is one of the freshest and in its quiet way one of the most spectacular albums I have heard this year. Ranging from incantatory to reflective, it is always subtle, vital, and feminine in the most elementary sense of the word. Bartosik and James look to have created an entirely new platform for the accordion, but more importantly the have created a beautiful set of recordings.