Featured Albums of the Month

Block booking Dublin’s prestigious Vicar Street for a month of concerts was a bold move, but one that has paid off handsomely for Paul Brady, with a little help from his friends. You can hear it for yourself on The Vicar St. Sessions Vol. 1 which is released this month via Proper Records. Read our review here.

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.

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 …

Former Young Folk Award finalists, the Jaywalkers have now been recognised with an Emerging Excellence Award and the unique musical tapestry of Weave lives up to the billing. Their unique sound mixes their love for progressive American bluegrass forms with a Lancashire hotpot of working life and social injustice.

Constant innovators and superb musicians, Lau invited Joan As Police Woman to produce the new album The Bell That Never Rang. It charts bold new frontiers. Is it the best Lau album yet? There’s absolutely no doubt about it!

With a little help from Sam Lakeman and Boo Hewerdine, The Changing Room’s debut Behind The Lace proves a brilliant tribute to the sun, sea and salt air of the Cornish southwest. It is one of those delightful little gems, one you should all seek out.

With each successive work Spiro seem to get better, as the hours playing with and for each other have their effect. Intense, calming, complex, minimal, meditative and playful the Spiro machine whirs into majestic life to Welcome Joy Welcome Sorrow drawing its fuel from the life to be lived.

We were recently given the opportunity of an exclusive insight into Dan Walsh’s musical life from his inspirations and roots to his new album ‘Incidents and Accidents’ and the exciting collaborations that fit in between. How could we resist: Dan reveals all from crowd surfing in New Zealand to his all-time favourite songwriter.

The first of what promises to be a varied set of EPs, Music For Exhibition & Film finds Aidan O’Rourke in visionary mode. Music to file under electronic meditations and could be described as visionary in that it plays on your mind’s eye and promotes visions and as such lives up to its title admirably. The mental movie is yours for the making.

Emily Barker’s ‘The Toerag Sessions’ is a masterclass in the art and craft of songwriting and an instructive and insightful record by one of today’s leading singer/songwriters. A record to be cherished and played again and again; The Toerag Sessions is the very definition of essential listening.

Their third album, The Ghost In Our House And Other Stories, finds Merry Hell at the rebel heart of folk-rock adding real sophistication to their high energy good time mix. As they say on their website “Our pleasure is to please: let the audience be the acid test and let the music speak for itself…”