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Website: http://www.myspace.com/tinderboxacoustic

"Golden" is Tinderbox's follow up to "The Fire Inside", sharing two tracks, "Fallen" and "Travelling" as well as introducing nine new orginals. Tinderbox step up to a full band for the new album, as opposed to a duo with guest musicians. It gives the album a richer feel. Monique's Irish lilt seems to work especially well when guitar is joined by whistle, add some very sensitive percussion into the mix and you suddenly start to hear a jazz undertone to the folk/singer-songwriter core. The album feels sparse, but at the sametime has a lushness to it. I could listen for hours.

Website: http://www.myspace.com/boohewerdine

When you've got a singer/songwriter as good as Boo Hewerdine, it's a disappointment to discover that the new release, "Toy Box No.1" has only got six tracks on it, but it's the only disappointment about the mini-album. Hewerdine has penned half a dozen tracks, that sparkle, at least as much as the facets on the Koh-I-Noor diamond, the subject of the lead song. Boo gets into the emotional core of his songs, hanging the emotion on strong images. "Bible Pages" has bible pages being used by soldiers to roll cigarettes because it's the only paper in the trenches.

Larry Jon Wilson

Album:Larry Jon Wilson

Website: http://www.myspace.com/larryjonwilson

There's a reason why some artists are best known as songwriters and others best known as performers. Elvis had a stage presence that left many artists for dead, but couldn't write a decent song if his life depended on it. Larry Jon Wilson knows how to put together a really good song. It doesn't matter if he's writing songs about emotion or with a political bent, he can put the words and music together and make them something, check out "Heartland" on the new self titled album. Then imagine it being delivered by a Steve Earl or a Tom Russell.

Album:Living With Ghosts

Website: http://www.myspace.com/smokefairies

We missed this release from female duo, Smoke Fairies, when it was originally released. Fortunately that situation has been recently corrected and we can only lament the lost listening time. Call this dark folk, dark blues or even dark Americana, call it what you like, this is music to lose yourself in. It's The Lady Of Shallot turned to sound. Both the English and American sounding songs are linked by a melancholia, but it's far from depressing. The vocal harmonies dart and weave like willow wisps around layers of delicately plucked strings. Definitely one to keep an ear on.

Website: http://www.olibrownband.co.uk

The travellers to the crossroads seem to get younger every year. I wonder if the devil still charges an immortal soul or does he do special rates for teenagers.? The rule book says that blues guitarists do their apprenticeship as the sidesman in a number of bands before making a name on their own. Oli Brown and his album, "The Open Road" basically tears up the rule book and discards it, almost casually in the nearest bin. That a blues guitarist can have so much talent so young, it makes you sick :-) God knows where he'll be with some life experience to draw on.

Ross Ainslie & Jarlath Henderson

Album:Partners In Crime

Website: http://www.myspace.com/rossandjarlath

When music is this expressive, who needs the words? Ainslie and Henderson have put together a collection of tunes that create an aural canvas for your imagination to fill in. It makes you wonder why there aren't more instrumental albums released. "Partners In Crime", partly funded by the Arts Council Of Norther Ireland, is packed full of traditional tunes, many blended with new tunes written by the duo into new songs and arrangements. Scintilating is the only phrase that can do the pipework justice, worth tracking down a copy of the album for that alone.

Joan As Police Woman

Label:Reveal Records

Website: http://www.myspace.com/joanaspolicewoman

It's easy to see why Joan As Police Woman has acquired herself cult status. Her eclectic use of piano and strings, treating every song as it's own entity, getting the feel right. A strong writing ability and the knack of pulling it all together so it sounds like an album. There's a certain panache that reverberates through "To Survive". Sometimes it's jazz, sometimes it's old timey, sometime soul sometimes blues, always Joan As Police Woman. Hopefully this will be the album that lifts her from niche to the wider audience she's capable of entertaining.

Website: http://www.myspace.com/kimrichey

Kim Richey is perhaps less known as a singer than as a songwriter, having written hit songs for many country music notables. Chinese Boxes, comfortably crosses the line between country and pop music in a way which could well open the door to allow others to sample her music. The recording and sound itself play a big part of what makes this album so good. Giles Martin in production, has ensured that the final sound is produced but not overproduced. Thus the Cd maintains its edge, allowing Kim Richey to show us what a great voice she has. (Helen Mitchell)

Label:Reveal Records

Website: http://www.myspace.co./gramercyarms

I first heard this album on a gloomy rainy day pounding along the M3 and it certainly lightened the mood. Gramercy Arms are a New York supergroup containing members og Guided By Voices, Luna, Joan As Police Woman, amongst others and an array of guest talent. The resulting album is an acoustic pop rock gem. It's an album that'll just eat up the miles, provide the soundtrack to your road, frothy coffee and bubblegum. That is until you find the time to sit down and listen properly an find a rich vein of songwriting and lyrical dexterity. East coast poetry.

Album:Walking Through Walls

Website: http://www.sallymorgan.net

Sally Morgan's songwriting has been compared to Patty Griffin, Gillian Welch, and the ballads of Bob Dylan with a hint of southern rock and R&B. Her debut CD features appearances by some of Boulder, Colorado's finest musicians; coupled with James Tuttle's engineering, they all fall together to greatly enhance Sally's thoughtful songwriting. The result is an album filled with songs which draw you in to the heart of the matter, showcasing Sally's obvious affinity with acoustic folk music. I have Myspace to thank for finding this CD and look forward to hearing more by this up and coming artist.(HM)

EP:Fall On Your Kness

Label:Reveal Records

Website: http://www.myspace.com/madammusic

"Fall On Your Knees" is a well written, well produced, well performed EP. Madam has a good voice with enchanting waiflike qualitities. I feel like I should like this a lot more than I do, but I don't. Part of that is that whilst there is obvious quality in both the singing and delivery, there is a familiar feel to it. There are a number of excellent vocalists walking down this path and Madam, doesn't seem to have enough in her locker to make me feel that she's made the territory her own. It's enjoyable enough, but it somehow feels too familiar.

Album:Between Daylight And Dark

Website: http://www.myspace.com/marygauthier

Mary Gauthier has had an interesting life; in fact she describes it as 'Jack Kerouac in reverse.' Between Daylight and Dark is, amazingly, Mary Gauthier's (pronounced 'Go-Shay') fifth album Between Daylight And Dark was cut live and produced by the legendary Joe Henry. The beauty of the fact that it was cut live, lies in the fact that it is immediately apparent that we hear is what happened in the moment of recording; nothing was added and nothing taken away. This adds a real honesty and depth to the music, which to my mind, is often lost in CD production.(Helen Mitchell)