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Ladysmith Black Mambazo

Album:Songs From A Zulu Farm

Website: http://www.mambazo.com

There is still something beautifully hypnotic about the music of Ladysmith Black mambazo, whether you are hearing it for the first or five hundredth time, it has a quality about it that can't help but to impress. "Songs From A Zulu Farm" feels light than some of the previous albums, particularly the sign off track, a Zulu version of "Old MacDonald", but it still retains that great sense of spirituality and harmony. Some say the band have plateaued, but if they have it's a plateau like Table Mountain, familiar to those near it, but still dominating the scenery. A top draw experience.

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

Due to it's unique nature, Cornwall's traditional mausic has survived much better than that of a lot of counties. It gives artists like Dalla a rich vein of material to draw upon, both to play and to influence their own tunes and songs. Like the miners of the tin, the band have exploited that vein to produce an album and a sound that is not only relevent to the locals, but to export to the rest of the Uk and further afield. Full of characters, both real and imagined, places and trades that made the county what it is, "Cribbar" is an album that shows what folk music should be.

Website: http://www.rebcappermusic.com/

I'm normally a bit wary of titles like "The Half Elf EP" and fae sleeves, but this release is a perfect example of why that is a mistake. Reb Capper is a singer/songwriter that reminds of the buzz and excitement I got when listening to early Kate Bush. Reb is such an expressive songwriter, her command of language and phrasing makes her a premier league lyricist and if she were only that, she could be satisfied, but she's also so much more. There's the voice clear, crisp, every note audiable, with the right sensitivity. Get this and then sit in anticipation of the album.

Joe Cassady And The West End Sound

Album:The Chymical Vegas Wedding Of

Website: http://www.joecassady.com

"The Chymical Vegas Wedding Of" is one of those quite frustrating albums that there's not really a lot of knock, nor a lot to make it stand out from the crowd. Joe cassady And The West End Sound are fair musicians. Their country sound will, no doubt, find favour on country and americana based radio stations in the US. I wouldn't turn it off if it came on the radio, but on the strength of this I wouldn't search them out for a session either. In defence of the bandf, they manage to avoid a lot of the cliches, but don't quite have a sound that could be considered truly distinct.

Album:Strings To Tracks

Website: http://www.cousti.com

This is a real cruiser of an album, "Strings To Tracks" particularly valid if those tracks include the A34, M3 etc. This is a real car album, one that helps eat up the miles, strings, drums and gob iron giving the album a real sense of rhythm, that whilst having a sense of purpose, is also laid back enough to take the edge of any tension. Cousti are predominently a three piece with a nice line in Americana, but with a more reflective tone that picks up on it's origins on this side of the pond and seems to offer the best of both worlds, easy going without being laid out.

Iain Morrison Daibhidh Martin

Website: http://www.hauntedbird.com/

The penmanship and musicality of "Haunted Bird" are of the highest order, but the thing that really sets it apart from many of it's contemporaries is the spoken word sections delivered by Daibhidh Martin. He's got a voice that demands you pay attention to his Scots accent and absorb every word he delivers, be it in English or Gaelic. The majority of the album is Martin working with Iain Morrison and his guitar/vocals, but another highlight for me is when the duo added the vocals of Anais Mitchell into the mix, taking the good to the sublime.

Album:Good Morning Glasgow Town

Website: http://www.reverbnation.com/theskunnered

Good honest pub rock with a folk/country overtones and proud Glaswegian themes, that's pretty much what lies at the heart of the Skunnered' cut, "Good Morning Glasgow Town". This high octane four piece draw on the themes that come the events and places that shape their city and hence the songs, the Blues, the Hoops, the Clyde, the trade and the constant road works. It provides for an album that takes the rough with the smooth, a nod to the humour of the city that keeps it ticking over. Even without a pint in your hand, this makes you feel you should have and maybe a chaser?

Label:Together We Are All Alone

Website: http://www.luckybonesmusic.com

Hailing from Dublin, Lucky Bones appear to have become the torchbearers for the point where the showband sound hits celtic/country rock, somewhere between Hothouse Flowers and The Saw Doctors, and a damned fine job they do of it. "Together We Are All Alone" is an album with a real sense of restlessness, a need to embark on a journey, both spiritual and physical. It's an album about the getting there, rather than being there. The places and people may be different for each of us, but there is something familiar about the road that strikes a chord.

Website: http://www.elleo.com/

Fiddle-singer Elle Osborne, first came to my attention via this EP on fledgling label Folk Police, though she released a debut album in 2000 on a budget of twenty quid. "Good Grief" features some harrowing un-accompanied vocal tracks as well as others that feature sparse instrumentation and occasional samples to deliver an EP that feels as though you want to hold it to your chest and feed it soup. There's a real waif like quality to the recording, enhanced by a reverb quality in Elle's voice. It's got a real timeless feel to it, that enhances it's dark charm.

Album:I Got My Work Cut Out

Website: http://www.rogerknott.com

Prolific singer-songwriter, Roger Knott, returns with another slice of his country rock/americana driven songs, "I Got My Work Cut Out". Knott is an observational songwriter often taking inspiration for his songs fom the mundane and giving them a place, real life songs about events that can happen to anyone and mixes them up with events that happen to a lot of people at the same time such as war and oppression. For me the stand out track is "Golden Child" a top, where all in this together, well except the rich and powerful, type track, expressed for so many of us.

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

"WanderLust" is an album of questions seeking answers. Some require looking in and examining motive, others feature the bigger questions on life, time and the universe. The setting is in the borderland where americana merges into a percussive acoustic pop sound. It's an album that feels like the open road, eating up the miles and letting the world try to explain it's self. Tom Monahan has a knack of turning life's experiences into three and four minutes vingettes without making the whole process feel superficial. It asks the questions of both writer and listener.

Glyn Bailey & The Many Splendid Things

Album:The Disturbance

Website: http://www.GlynBailey.com/

"The Disturbance" is a great name for an album, particularly one that full of dark tales and that philosophy of 'play hard, live fast, die you, leave a beautiful corpse. Glyn Bailey & The Many Spendid Things have delivered an album of pomp rock perfection. Check out "The Bolan Tree" a track that is at least as good a death disk as Terry's "Twinkle", though somewhat darker for it being a real road death an all. There's a feel of The Divine Comedy meets Screaming Lord Sutch. Pub piano meeting funky guitar. Wit and whimsey finding a ghost story.