Albums

Johnny shares some of his highlights of a special Cropredy weekend featuring Fairport band members, past and present. To help us along the way he sat down and chatted with a musician who’s been part of the band’s line up since 1985, fiddle player, Ric Sanders.

Kim Lowings has been steadily climbing the folk league table since her Drifting Point EP debut back in 2011. Her latest offering ‘Wild & Wicked Youth’ backed by The Greenwood band places her in the first division.

Micah P Hinson’s modern folk opera ‘The Holy Strangers’ may not be the most commercial thing he’s ever released, but it’s certainly his most ambitious and compelling.

While Ian Felice’s ‘In the Kingdom of Dreams’ may not leave you feeling full of the joys of life, it does find grace in sorrow, which is perhaps, in these times, the best balm we can ask for.

Since their formation, Leveret have been one of the most enviably talented groups of folk musicians on the circuit, but with the sheer creativity shown on Inventions they have moved up another gear.

As the title “After All These Years” might suggest, this is a retrospective set marking Edinburgh’s The Wynntown Marshals ten years together. “Europe’s best Americana band.” Here’s to the next decade.

Carolina Sky is the first solo release from Pete McClelland who co-founded Hobgoblin Music with his wife, Mannie. With the songs focusing on a real and imagined journey across the USA, it’s a refreshing airy listen.

Johnny shares his musical highlights of Wickham Festival including Talisk, Kathryn Tickell & The Side, Mancunia, Ímar, Oysterband, Duncan Chisholm and more.

On That Other Green Shore showcases an accomplished, experienced band at the peak of their powers, with musicianship of the very highest order. Plenty here to please both bluegrass traditionalists and lovers of modern American folk music.

Martin Simpson’s ‘Trails and Tribulations’ is a classy, elegant and very confident set that doffs its cap to some top-drawer contributions from some of the country’s very best musician’s and that also benefits from an engineer and producer in mean form.

While no means a typical Bella Hardy album, many will adore the fusion of cultures, traditions and musical styles that populate Eternal Springs, it is a beautiful recording.

Multi-platinum and 7-time Grammy nominated singer-songwriter Joan Osborne offers up her interpretations of material spanning Bob Dylan’s oeuvre from the early classics to more recent material.