Albums

From recordings discovered on some dusty tapes in Yuma County Library, Charles ‘Poppy Bob’ Walker’s ‘Dirt Bike Vacation is quietly groundbreaking while containing some of the most modest guitar music you will hear. It’s probably my favourite release of the year.

Very much in a classic 60s coffee house folk troubadour vein, ‘Love, Dan’ is C. Daniel  Boling’s latest offering; he just keeps on producing albums of outstanding quality.

Beth Malcolm’s Folkmosis is a spellbinding album that speaks not only to the music and heritage that lives within her heart but also to how the music of our homelands can root us in identity and place, however far away from home we may be.

OVA shows no let-up in Afro Celt Soundsystem’s recording of thrilling, incredibly varied music that knows no boundaries. It is a fitting final testament to Simon Emmerson’s vision and his immense feat in making it happen.

While Lee Baggett’s playing may sometimes recall Neil Young of old, the lyrics on Waves for a Begull bend to a more positive vibe that seems to find new ways to discover joy–an antidote for these troubled times.

With Midwinter Swimmers, The Innocence Mission continue the trend of creating albums of sparkling clarity and coherent vision. The quality is always unfalteringly high throughout, and the tonal and thematic shifts provide enough progression to make every new album essential. This is no exception.

Johnny Coley is a genuine poet, someone with things to say that haven’t been said before. With Mister Sweet Whisper, he has created a document of a crazy, frayed civilization and has made it sound beautiful.

Jennifer Castle’s Camelot is a kind of jousting match between religion and mystic thought and secular, pragmatic humanism. It’s rare for an album of such intellectual depth to be so accessible, but throughout, Castle imbues her songs with wit, candour and melodic charm.

Under his pseudonym of Glåsbird, British artist and composer Harry Towell’s exploration of remote geographic locations returns closer to home as he explores the low-lying fenlands surrounding his sleepy Lincolnshire village.

In O Avalanche, Fionn Regan offers a quietly powerful experience. A rare voice capable of bridging vulnerability and resilience, the album is a testament to his enduring creativity and willingness to explore new territory without losing the authenticity that has always defined his music.

For the latest Ceremonial Counties release from Folklore Tapes, Benjamin D Duvall (Ex-Easter Island Head) explores the fragmentary nature of Merseyside’s Crosby Beach, and Sam McLoughlin delivers one of the most playful pieces in the series so far via eight Herefordshire tales.

Trust Fund’s “Has It Been A While?” drifts by, a thirty-five-minute reverie, gauzy and dreamy and illuminated from within…Jones’ biggest influence here is Nick Drake, and it shows.