Albums

The Eliza Carthy Trio’s ‘Conversations We’ve Had Before’, on which David Delarre and Saul Rose join Eliza, is “one of the best traditional folk releases of the year so far.” A digital-only release, it is to be hoped that such an enigmatic and compelling album receives the attention that it deserves.

Like a prophet in exile, Beverly Glenn-Copeland sends us messages of love, hope and resistance on ‘The Ones Ahead’, his first major album in two decades. What finer witness could we seek right now?

Seth Lakeman’s ‘The Somerset Sessions’ gets a welcome full release – a showcase for a brilliant set of musicians pouring their all into some of Lakeman’s strongest material to date.

Steve Gunn, John Truscinski and Bill Nace’s ‘Glass Band’ is an unpretentiously experimental and adventurous album, with lots to discover and each player bringing plenty to the table. It rewards, perhaps even demands, repeated listens, which is certainly no hardship.

It’s a sensitive, humble, yet skilled arrangement on show on amrwd and one that works incredibly well. Angharad Jenkins and Patrick Rimes’ masterful playing thrills throughout, and the considered compositions constantly surprise and please. It’s a delightful recording and evidence that Welsh folk is in very safe hands.

With such a fine collection of traditional tunes and an inventive and light-hearted set of new compositions, Rachel Hair & Ron Jappy’s Élan is an energising, inspiring and precious delight.

Sam Blasucci’s ‘Off My Stars’ illustrates how to live in a world where contradictions can be celebrated, and music exists as a pathway to be traversed – where the focus is more on the song than style or technique.

The grace in the music and the subtle touches of shading bring the songs on Wren Hinds’s ‘Don’t Die in the Bundu’ to life, unfurling slowly like the waltz of time. He has found the elusive charms that charge this disc with timeless beauty.

Making a first vocal album is a leap that has paid off for Steph Geremia on ‘If Tomorrow’. It was produced by John McCusker and features an all-star cast including Eddi Reader, Kris Drever, Alan Kelly, John Doyle, Mike McGoldrick, Phil Cunningham, Donald Shaw, Alice Allen & Ian Carr.

Upon first listening, Shana Cleveland’s ‘Manzanita’ is a beautiful and sonically satisfyingly album with well-written singles, but the real depth is found in its completeness, in its consuming, hypnotising curiosity and unapologetic declaration of love on a trip along the Pacific Coast Highway.

There is a shrewd exuberance in the way Nora Brown and Stephanie Coleman play together on Lady of the Lake, taking turns to lead and leaving plenty of space for each other to shine; it will leave you wanting more.

GRAMMY Award-winning singer, songwriter and musician Lori McKenna’s latest album, 1988, is both deeply personal and universally resonant; it’s up there with her very best.