Featured Albums of the Month

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 It’s as much an important historical document as it is a powerful artistic statement and, above all, a mesmerisingly beautiful record with top class musicians including Sarah Hayes, Fraser Fifield, Steven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…

Allison Moorer’s ‘Down To Believing’ is a brave walk through a turbulent thunderstorm of emotions in search of the hope that flickers like a lightning rod ahead. Allison delivers a record that confirms her place amongst the very best of America’s singer songwriters.

Combining dizzying instrumental flair with a maturing songwriter’s voice Incidents & Accidents strips Dan Walsh’s sound back to its core and is wholly satisfying as a result, a perfect blend of great playing, so finely realised it is at times simply breathtaking, with a gift for telling a story that gets straight to the narrative heartbeat, making for an exceptional record all round.

Formerly known as Joyce The Librarian, Martin Callingham recently released the excellent ‘Tonight, We All Swim Free’, one of our featured Albums of the Month. Here he gives FRUK an exclusive insight into the album’s creation, those involved in its making and shares his thoughts on mysterious art of songwriting.

Asleep At The Wheel call on old friends and new with a younger generation drawn to re-flame the torch for western swing and their ongoing tribute to The King, Bob Wills. Featuring: Pokey LaFarge, The Avett Brothers, Old Crow Medicine Show, Willie Nelson and The Quebe Sisters and many more.

Recording in Nashville with Band Of Horses Lotte Mullan tells finely etched tales of heartbreak and hope on Love’s Bonfire, one of our Featured Albums of the Month, an album ablaze with superb songcraft throughout. Read our in-depth review and interview.