Albums

Chasing Light, the new instrumental duo album from Henry Parker & David Ian Roberts is a rich, fulfilling work by two intuitive players operating at a very high level and seemingly enjoying every moment.

at Eulogy, the latest live album from the folk alternative experimental trio ‘Setting’ (ft. Nathan Bowles, Jaime Fennelly & Joe Westerlund) is a hell of a journey…get lost in a strange, mesmerising and quite beautiful soundscape.

While Dorothy Carter missed out on experiencing the sudden mad rush of creativity that her music helped to inspire, the reissue of Troubadour, with its singular, strange and beautiful tunes, is a good sign that her star is once again in the ascendency.

Featuring several special guests, including Cathal McConnell, Liz Knowles, Brían Mac Gloinn, Anaïs Mitchell and Will Oldham, Nuala Kennedy and Eamon O’Leary’s Hydra features an excellent selection of superbly sung songs and handsome melodies. It doesn’t get much better.

Bluenose B, aka Stephen Lawson, speaks for itself. With top-drawer production values, Minstrel Of The Wasteland is often compelling, always accomplished and polished, but, above all, a most satisfying, rewarding and enjoyable listen.

It’s not often one comes across a musician of the calibre of David Berkeley or an album as pure as A Pail Full of Fire. It springs from a place of honesty where words and music still matter. This is an album for the ages.

Jamie Sutherland describes his second solo album, The World As It Used To Be, as songs with the sense that things aren’t black and white; laced with memories, hope and regret, it ultimately sounds the simple affirmation that “we will rise above the darkness”.

Masayoshi Fujita’s latest work, Migratory, is defined by its sense of flux and of growth. Comforting ambience meets melodic exploration, with the vibraphone and marimba fleshed out by subtle electronics and the sparing use of guest vocalists.

Not A Flower On The Dogwood Flats is a fitting tribute to Jack Bunch and the enduring music of his Uncle Henry, which also serves to bring to a wider audience the raw, authentic sounds that have, for generations, reverberated around the Laurel County hills.

Les secrets du ciel, the solo debut of Québécois singer Yann Falquet, is a tour-de-force of his artistic vision on which he proves himself worthy of these great old songs, an interpreter of French-Canadian ballads with a remarkable voice and powerful artistry on the guitar.

Cheer Up is a journey through darkness, self-loathing and doubt into the light and salvation…John Blek’s voice has never sounded better; it’s unquestionably his finest work yet.

Brilliantly preserved and imbued with a shared, democratic performance ethos, The Complete Friends of Old-Time Music Concert, featuring the Georgia Sea Island Singers and guests, is so vital and powerful that it feels almost like being there.