Albums

With a voice that echoes the spirit of Neil Young and a profound connection to the desert southwest of New Mexico, AJ Woods brings a personal touch to his music with Hawk Is Listenin’, a diverse collection of soulful songs that reflect his deep understanding of the region.

While Ash Grey and the Gull Glides On may appear as a head-on collision between Andrew Wasylyk’s downbeat neoclassical folktronica and Tommy Perman’s post-club, percussion-heavy ambient constructions, under the surface, there is the faint but delicious hint of the golden age of avant-garde music.

While it’s probably fair to say that Si Kahn’s name is not as popularly well-known as that of Seeger or Guthrie, as Labor Day – and the many albums before it – unequivocally demonstrates, he’s every inch their equal.

Chasing Light, the new instrumental duo album from Henry Parker & David Ian Roberts is a rich, fulfilling work by two intuitive players operating at a very high level and seemingly enjoying every moment.

at Eulogy, the latest live album from the folk alternative experimental trio ‘Setting’ (ft. Nathan Bowles, Jaime Fennelly & Joe Westerlund) is a hell of a journey…get lost in a strange, mesmerising and quite beautiful soundscape.

While Dorothy Carter missed out on experiencing the sudden mad rush of creativity that her music helped to inspire, the reissue of Troubadour, with its singular, strange and beautiful tunes, is a good sign that her star is once again in the ascendency.

Featuring several special guests, including Cathal McConnell, Liz Knowles, Brían Mac Gloinn, Anaïs Mitchell and Will Oldham, Nuala Kennedy and Eamon O’Leary’s Hydra features an excellent selection of superbly sung songs and handsome melodies. It doesn’t get much better.

Bluenose B, aka Stephen Lawson, speaks for itself. With top-drawer production values, Minstrel Of The Wasteland is often compelling, always accomplished and polished, but, above all, a most satisfying, rewarding and enjoyable listen.

It’s not often one comes across a musician of the calibre of David Berkeley or an album as pure as A Pail Full of Fire. It springs from a place of honesty where words and music still matter. This is an album for the ages.

Jamie Sutherland describes his second solo album, The World As It Used To Be, as songs with the sense that things aren’t black and white; laced with memories, hope and regret, it ultimately sounds the simple affirmation that “we will rise above the darkness”.

Masayoshi Fujita’s latest work, Migratory, is defined by its sense of flux and of growth. Comforting ambience meets melodic exploration, with the vibraphone and marimba fleshed out by subtle electronics and the sparing use of guest vocalists.

Not A Flower On The Dogwood Flats is a fitting tribute to Jack Bunch and the enduring music of his Uncle Henry, which also serves to bring to a wider audience the raw, authentic sounds that have, for generations, reverberated around the Laurel County hills.