Kirsty Merryn: Our Bright Night review – thieves, sailors and nuns mix heady balm
(Self-released)Merryn’s second album is full of pared-back, piano-led mood pieces, her voice a treat for the soul
Laura Marling: Song for Our Daughter review – better than ever
Laura Marling’s seventh album is addressed to an imaginary daughter: it provides succour, perspective and more than a few warnings. “Sometimes the hardest thing to learn is what you get from what you lose,” she muses on Blow by Blow. … Continue reading
James Elkington: Ever-Roving Eye review – a slow-burn delight
(Paradise of Bachelors)
Laura Marling: Song for Our Daughter review – the intimate album we need
Written to an imaginary child about ‘what it is to be a woman in this society’, the singer’s seventh album is alternately intimate, sneering and sad, and lavished with gorgeous melodies
Bob Dylan: Murder Most Foul review – a dark, dense ballad for the end times
Dylan’s first new song in eight years is a fascinating portrait of his obsession with JFK’s assassination, rich with pop cultural detail and apocalyptic dread
Wu Fei and Abigail Washburn: Wu Fei and Abigail Washburn review – transcendent and blissful
The two musicians seamlessly merge folk traditions from China and the US, on an album deserving mainstream recognition
Georgia Ruth: Mai review – lush Welsh pastorals and other odes to spring
(Bubblewrap Collective)
Big Thief review – brawny folk-rockers beguile the big leagues
The New York group play their biggest-ever gig, and captivate thousands with their unshowy, confidently beautiful songcraft
Myrkur: Folkesange review – Danish black metaller makes dense, intense folk
Amalie Bruun goes back to her roots in these new versions of Scandinavian traditional songs, played on mandolas, lyres and a nyckelharpa
Seth Lakeman: A Pilgrim’s Tale review – all aboard the Mayflower
Following in the wake of the Pilgrim fathers, the English folk star sees things from both sides of the Atlantic
Lisa O’Neill review – indelible portraits from outstanding folk star
From unemployed dockers to swooning lovers, O’Neill has a way of getting the audience straight into her characters’ heads
Sam Lee: Old Wow review – a dazzling fusion of nature and song
Lee pursues his twin passions on this fine third album
Sam Lee: Old Wow review – Britain’s nature crisis in gnarly song
Lee’s twee-free third album, produced by Bernard Butler and featuring Liz Fraser, is a stark reminder of this country’s environmental concerns
Grit Orchestra/Celtic Connections review – filmic fusion from an 80-strong band
Greg Lawson’s boisterous ensemble celebrate freedom and the Declaration of Arbroath while US duo Béla Fleck and Abigail Washburn add festive moonshine
