Featured Albums of the Month

“The Lost Words” finally reaches us in the form of Spell Songs. Composed by eight of folk’s finest contemporary talents: Karine Polwart, Seckou Keita, Julie Fowlis, Kris Drever, Jim Molyneux, Kerry Andrew, Rachel Newton and Beth Porter, the songs bring us hope for the future.

An Evening With Nancy Kerr And James Fagan captures one of folk music’s most enduring and talented acts in their natural habitat and provides the perfect snapshot of the duo at the top of their game.

On 4am And Counting, Curse Of Lono deliver a series of assured and masterful live studio performances, for an outstanding album that can sit proudly alongside its two predecessors.

Ida Mae have finally earned the right to make the music they were meant to. This is the kind of debut collection that goes all out to prove itself; it has done just that and then some. Ida Mae are definitely here to stay.

Edgelarks have created an album that captures something long-lasting, universal and difficult to pin down: the nature of human happiness and the need for hope, not just now but in perpetuity. And in that respect Feather is an uplifting triumph.

Kate Rusby’s 17th studio album “Philosophers, Poets & Kings” is utterly delightful; she journeys into new territory while maintaining that unshakeable bond to her musical heritage. One of her finest albums to date.

Antonio Forcione (Italy), Seckou Keita (Senegal) and Adriano Adewale (Brazil) bring together the musical traditions of three continents with contemporary themes and rhythms in an utterly beguiling album.

What impresses and resonates most with Alex Seel’s new album is how these nine songs all hang together to create a satisfying whole. It is confident work and a lesson in meticulous craftsmanship resulting in a concise and lean set of songs that are bursting with creative ideas and performed with the utmost care and ability. His best yet.

Featuring some of the best British & Irish Folk artists, Vision & Revision serves as a reminder of the enriching ways folk song lends itself to reinvention, and the idealists, innovators and romantics that have passed through their ranks….yet another testament to Topic’s enduring legacy.

With The Little Unsaid, John Elliott has carved out a niche as a poet of mental disintegration, a chronicler of very real and very difficult human emotions. But his songs are not without hope. Atomise is perhaps his darkest and most hopeful album to date. It is certainly his most expansive and fully realised.

Singing It All Back Home has all the passion and history of the characters that populate these stories; Naomi Bedford & Paul Simmonds paint them in a fascinating new light, while holding fast to their enduring heritage in an outstanding album.

Wonderful Fairytale sees Bill Jones return in excellent form, with an exceptional album that fulfils the promise of her early career, and confirms that this gifted performer still has so much to offer.