Featured Albums of the Month

Shorebound is the sound of Ben Glover planting one foot firmly in his hometown of Glenarm, Northern Ireland and the other just as firmly in Nashville, Tennessee. It oozes confidence and skill. The production is assured, the playing excellent and the singing very beautiful. This is a worthy piece of work from a class act.

Great art can often come from the darkest places…many of these songs were born out of very real human experience. They are musically inventive and lyrically astute documents of this experience, but more than that they offer a clearer way of understanding it, and perhaps even a way of helping to overcome its darker periods.

A remarkable album of such texture and prowess that at points its scope, concentrated into the workings of two masters of their instruments, takes the breath away. The pacing, structure, packaging and context, including inspired liner notes from Andy Morgan, is all impeccable and it all combines to result in a truly inspired, beautifully conceived project.

ARC is a rich, varied and essential release for anyone who likes traditional music with plenty of thoroughly contemporary reference points and bright tunes that reveal more layers with repeated listening. A superlative work that sounds quite unlike anything else you’ll hear any time soon.

Ross Ainslie & Ali Hutton have yet again proven themselves to be not only masters of Scottish traditional music but at the very forefront of the movement that continues to breathe new life into that music, inspiring the next generation. Symbiosis was beguiling, Symbiosis II is utterly hypnotic.

This is absolutely primo Canadian roots music, entirely relatable, emotionally rewarding, and if, at the very least, it fails to gain a Songwriter of the Year nomination for the 2019 Juno Awards, it will be both bewildering and an injustice.

St. Peter is an album full of shimmering, finely crafted layers. Emma Tricca has employed an enviable array of talented collaborators to help achieve this unique effect, but it is her own approach to music-making that really marks this out as a serious piece of work and her best album to date.

Utopia and Wasteland explores a formidable range of human emotions and political ideas, and one that flits easily between the minuscule detail and the grand statement. An exceptional album from one of the most exciting duos not just in folk but in any genre.

It is the combination of attention to detail in every aspect, plus a great idea and considerable skill from a reliably exciting pair of musicians, that results in 365 being an excellent piece of work from the ground up that gently bewitches the listener with subtlety and pathos and lasts in the mind well after the final note has rung out.

The Rheingans Sisters’ powers of songwriting and arranging have reached a new peak, they have become one of the most formidably talented duos around. In Bright Field, they have created an album bursting with worldly joys and shot through with intimate sorrow and wisdom.

Improvisation and invention meet the listener at every turn of ‘Well Met’. Knight and Spiers have created a musical document that should inspire future generations of musicians to engage with Britain’s folk dancing heritage, and the beautiful, mysterious tunes that can be found within that heritage. 

Lucia Comnes opens Held In The Arms with a hearty welcome, closes it with a warm embrace and all the way through delivers assured, beautifully crafted, American folk. Although there are songs here that have emerged from shadow, it’s still a journey into the light – and that light is a warm, welcoming glow.