Albums

Interloper is the latest release from Tom Kitching on which he is joined by some well known musicians to define the current state of the English tradition. This is a collection of cracking tunes with intelligent, absorbing arrangements. You can’t go wrong with this one.

Tom Russell’s epic The Rose Of Roscrae is the crowning achievement of one of America’s most potent songsmiths, a brilliant and dramatic, western folk opera with an all star cast. It could just be the single most important Americana release of all time.

For his second album A Day Like Tomorrow Fabian Holland returns with more magical guitar playing, a much bigger sound and another superb set of songs and the notable addition of percussionist Fred Claridge, a young and up coming star himself, while Jacob Stoney’s keyboards add variety and texture to the bigger sound that producer Mark Hutchinson has helped Fabian realise.

His last album saw him reinterpreting songs by his own favourite writers and singers, but here on his fifth album, Scott returns to his own pen for a collection of ten numbers. Songs that gets deep inside you.

Loyalty is an album full of wonderful, enigmatic murkiness, an album that should earn The Weather Station a place at the top table of Canadian songwriters. From the start her songwriting is assured and the musicianship – aided by Afie Jurvanen of Bahamas and Feist collaborator Robbie Lackritz – creates just the right balance of iciness and warmth.

To say Marika Hackman’s album ‘We Slept At Last’ is a warts and all album is an understatement. The flashlight’s glare is upturned and fixed on that frightful grimacing profile we all know only too well. Yet the radiant glow seems to embrace the blemishes and frailties. In fact it goes deeper, to reveal the unpredictable, eccentric and beautiful person hidden behind them.

Kris Drever and Boo Hewerdine, both exceptional on their own, bring their collaborative skills to Last Man Standing a duo EP of song craft at its finest. With the tour just underway and the first date tonight, there will be a chance to see just how far that Kris and Boo can push this partnership. With two songwriters as good as this pairing you should make every effort to see …

Listening to These Gathered Branches, it’s hard to believe that it’s The Foxglove Trio’s debut album, such is its combined depth and breadth. Its wholeness and maturity bodes well for the band’s future.

On ‘Strange Tails’ Lord Huron has now blossomed into a full orchard of radio friendly, hugely infectious melodies and hooks, drenched in reverb and with punchy arrangements and instrumentation. This should see the band step out of the cult shadows and into the mainstream Americana spotlight.

Hailing from Glasgow, Robin Adams provides a garden of earthly delights on his latest release. The theme of the struggling artist informs much of the material – not surprising when you read of Robin’s own battles. Evocative at times of the vocals of John Martyn and the guitar work of Bert Jansch.

On Good Friday evening a fairly typical looking folk audience is filling the old malt room at the Brewery Arts Centre, Kendal to near capacity. But they’re waiting for anything but a typical folk band. Whilst 11-piece bands are not so unheard of today, Feast of Fiddles have been playing for 22 years.

Sharron Kraus’ latest album draws inspiration from the Mabinogi, a medieval Welsh collection of stories. It’s a highly original collection of compositions which can be enjoyed as a folk album like any other, but which repays a much closer listening to reveal a depth of understanding of its sources which shines a light on a classic text too often overlooked when we think of the great works of literature of …