Featured

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.

New albums from Beth Nielsen Chapman seem few and far between, but when they do arrive they’re solid gold. Hearts Of Glass is no exception. Her decision to bring in Sam Ashworth as producer has fostered a new setting for her music, one that offers her engaging lyrics room to breathe.

We talk to American singer songwriter Mary Gauthier, our featured Artist of the Month, about her latest album, Rifles And Rosary Beads. A work that brings new songs to her audience, from a quite remarkable source.