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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.

Brilliant writing and no-frills singing from a veteran of the game and a band of experienced musicians and guests who leave the words and the nuanced experience coming through in the vocals and lyrics to stand in the foreground, while weaving a musical web that keeps the whole thing perfectly cohesive throughout.

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.

Veteran singer songwriter Mary Chapin Carpenter has just released ‘Sometimes just the Sky’, a reimagined set of songs that span a thirty-plus year long career. We met to chat about the inspiration behind the project.

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.

Sometimes Just the Sky is the latest offering from Mary Chapin Carpenter, our Artist of the Month. The album is a beautifully conceived and considered set that provides a rich and generous window into the career of this great veteran singer songwriter.

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. 

Legendary singer, songwriter, activist and Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee Joan Baez releases her first new studio album in a decade. Whistle Down the Wind is a totally engaging listen from start to finish and one that invites repeated visits.

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.

Diverse, innovative with plenty of surprises, Extralife is an engrossing album and a fulfilling listen that feels like it was truly made for the sake of music. For the devout fan of indie folk, Darlingside has found an engrossing niche.

Way Out I’ll Wander, the latest offering from Hannah Read, is a fine achievement: listening to each of its songs is like watching the snow settle in an exquisitely crafted snow globe, revealing an image of pristine clarity.        

There are big projects, there are gargantuan labours of love, and then there is this. The Self Preservation Society is an ambitious vinyl collection of songs from the late 1960s and early 1970s performed by the likes Eliza Carthy, Teddy Thompson, Marry Waterson and many others.