Featured Albums of the Month

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…”

Breda Mayock has the voice and her self titled album the songs of enchantment, beautifully played and arranged this is music that creates its own serene, inviting world. It cuts through time itself and rearranges the world around you in blissful harmony, it’s absolutely entrancing from start to finish. Pick up a copy and treasure it.

Seth Avett & Jessica Lea Mayfield Sing Elliott Smith is simply that. Two fans pay a beautifully crafted tribute to the late songsmith for the sheer love of his music. One on which the songs are naturally littered with things that you can take to reference Elliott’s troubled and too short life.

Hailing from south Yorkshire, growing up in Sheffield and Barnsley, Richard Kitson has quietly emerged as one of the best guitar pickers of his generation, one who marries blues and folk styles into a fresh new sound. His latest album also proves that he has the songs and a storyteller’s gift. All of us need our time to escape and 40 minutes on ‘Hermit Hill’ is as good a place …

We have a video premiere today from Dan Walsh for ‘Whiplash Reel’, a track that features on his latest album ‘Incidents & Accidents’, one of our featured albums of the month. Dan also shares with us the story behind this tune which is rooted in his obsession with Indian classical music which culminated in an amazing trip to India in February 2013.

Da Fishing Hands is a resounding creative success on a number of levels. Inge Thomson and her collaborators have painted a vivid picture of a changed and changing community. It’s as much an important historical document as it is a powerful artistic statement and, above all, a mesmerisingly beautiful record with top class musicians including Sarah Hayes, Fraser Fifield, Steven Polwart and Graeme Smillie.

So who are False Lights, how were they formed? We have the answers in an exclusive video feature today in which Sam Carter and Jim Moray talk about the formation of False Lights, the other musicians in the band, and how they could have been called “Sam and Jim’s Special Relationship”. How can you possibly not want to find out…