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Album:Somewhere Down The Line

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

I had to do a quick double check when I heard the first track on "Somewhere Down The Line" to make suere I didn't have a new CD by the Dixie Chicks in the drive. It's only opn the first track that Marina sounds like Natalie Maines, but the similarity is uncanny. It's a good signpost for the rest of the album which drifts between Americana and folk in a contemporary style. There is a sense of mischief in both Marina's vocal tone and her delivery. It lifts the record and makes you try to second guess the song and performance. It's a vibrant record, full of life.

Album:Live From Nowhere In Particular

Website: www.myspace.com/jbonamassa

I'm not sure if Joe Bonamassa has even bothered taking his bed out of his box, it's probably at home somewhere waiting to be put together. That's if he even remembers where home is anymore. Joe Bonamassa was touring with BB King when he was just twelve year's old. Guitar fireworks are two words that tend to follow him around and well as serious plaudits from serious blues guitarists of both this and past generations. So does "Live From Nowhere In Particular" deliver on it's reputation. Oh yes, yes indeedy. A masterclass for the next generation to study. 2CDs of blues bliss.

Richard Durrant & Stephen John Kalinich

Album:Galactic Sypmhonies

Website: http://www.galacticsymphonies.com

This is one of those CD on one side DVD on the other disks, it's also the same album twice. 6 studio recordings followed by the same 6 tracks recorded live. After you've played it through the first time, I think you're better off playing one set or the other not both. It i worth listening to the album as a whole at least once. Different songs react differently in their environs, both sets are different neither superior. "Glaactic Symphonies" is the poetry of Stephen John Kalinich as a layer in Richard Durrant's acoustic soundscapes. It walks a narrow line and for the most part stays upright.

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

Occasionally an album comes along that falls outside of our remit, but we feel we need to draw your attention to. "A New Time" is just such an album. Like a Jean Michel Jarree with more of an understanding of natural rhythm and a feel for life, Sorensen builds an album that has an almost filmatic touch. He finds soundscapes that capture the imagination and allows you to populate them. It brings about an album that is not only relaxing, but has a life affirming quality to it. It's just so easy to drift off into the music. A seriously enlightening album, I just wouldn't recommend driving to it.

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

2008 is rapidly turning into a vintage year for England's folk canon and Mawkin:Causley have just added another half bottle to the cellar. This mini album/ep is a full bodied half bottle of red. Full of complex flavours, matured in English oak in the traditional way and blended masterfully by producer Stu Hanna, forging a second career behind the desk. "Cold Ruin" more than matches the criteria of leave them wanting more. As you would expect, this is an album as strong in the instrumentation as it is in the voice and as solid a set of six songs as you'ld find anywhere. One to swallow not spit.

Album:A Month In the Summer

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

It's an opportune moment to review Jon Fletcher's 'A Month In The Summer'. There's more than a hint of the delta in this collection of folk blues. It feels like walks down dusty country tracks waiting for the crops to ripen. Feet dipped in a brook witing for the bell on the fishing pole to ring. Getting crayfish out of the trap and slapping them on the barbie. It's also an album with a sense of it's self. Fletcher, has an edge to his voice that adds to the sense of drama, almost with an actor's quality as he captures the emphasis within the words and tune.

Safety In Numbers

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

Safety In Numbers have taken a rockier edge to the new ep, "Not Just Because", it starts with the strongest attack on a location in song since Show Of Hands popped into Yeovil for chips. "Marlboro Town" shows just how damning good song can be. The band make good use of the contrasting voices included in the line up, Jem Medhurt's soaring vocal contrasting well with the more dulcet tone of lead vocalist, Steve West. This is good honest folk rock with just a touch of pop. It's a good fun ep. The band obviously enjoyed making it and it captures that spirit well.

Album:Hello, My Uglies

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

Originally from the US, Rachel Austin moved herself to Northern Ireland, where she seems to have set about merging her US folk influences with some more local ones. The resulting album, "Hello My Uglies", supported by the Arts Council Of Northern Island, brings together the rich sound of the Hammond Organ with a whole host of strings and Austin's emotive and heartfelt vocal. There's a gospel tinge to some of the songs that add to a sense of belief in the numbers. It's real lump in your throat stuff, though sometimes you feel it needs slightly less instrumentation.

Ruth And Gary Wells

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

Good, honest, unadultarated, sometimes that's all folk needs to be. Ruth & Gary Wells operate a keep in simple philosophy on "No Cover" and reap the rewards for doing so. The songs not only demand to be listened to they do so with a polite smile. That's not to say they're twee, anything but. There is a sharpness to both the vocal and the instrumentation. Where it needs to be bitter it's bitter, when it needs sweetness, that comes through. "No Cover" is seven self penned songs, delivered with real conviction and passion. Well worth checking out.

The Martin Harley Band

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

How much longer must The Martin Harley Band remain one of England's best kept secrets? Whilst The John Butler Trio seem to make headway, Martin Harley and co remain in relative obscurity, unfortunately that's the nature of music. Hopefully it's a situation that won't last much longer if "Grow Your Own" does what it's supposed to and gets the band to a wider audience. Featuring some great lap steel and immersed in the sound of the delta, occasionally taking a detour towards blues rock, it's an album packed to the gills with great blues and a whole host of attitude.

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

When we heard "Radio", the first single taken from "Copenhagen" we said we wanted to hear more, it's good to know you get something right occasionally. Townsend knows his way around the words and how to get them all to fit. They don't always seem to have a natural rhythm or rhyme, but they always seem to work. Around them Chris builds a sound that sits at the stronger end of acoustic pop, just as it teeters on the brink of falling into folk rock. That's off set by more bluesy/folksy numbers that give the album a balance, whilst remaining song driven.

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

Tim comes across as a hybrid between Jack Johnson and Eric Bibb. His music bobbles along in a perfectly amicable way. Blues meets gosple, meets folk, meets easy listening. It leaves Tim in a strange place. It's sort of like a tribute band performing original(ish) material. Tim hasn't left enough room for his own personality to shine through. There's nothing wrong with the songs/tunes, in fact, they're quite good. It's just that they don't feel like they're Tim's. He's got a good vocal, I know he can handle guitar and gob iron, he just needs the confidence to make the material his own.