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Website: http://www.fayhield.com

"Looking Glass" is the sort of album that immediately identifies it's creator as a major league player. It positions Fay Hield in folk's top division, regardless of gender. Her powerful vocals breathe life into a selction of traditional tunes arranged by both her and Jon Boden who also plays on the album. Whilst the musicianship is superb throughout, you are always drawn back to the vocal performance. Hield exhibts real power, contrasting rousing choruses against more delicately structured verse. The result is an album of fine English song that showcases singer and song.

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

In the few years since her debut, "Going Just To Be Going", Kinzli has moved her style from a more folk sound to a more acoustic pop feel and it's a move that's suited her well, she seems more confident in her own skin. It's enhanced by strong songwriting that doesn't compromise. "Down Up Down" contains the idealism of the previous album, a quest for a better world one where people communicate with thoughts and ideas rather than guns and violence. It's also an album about personal conection as well as across the wider community. An album rich in anthems.

Website: http://www.simonmcbride.net

One time guitarist of the year, Simon McBride, takes a break from sidesman duties with the likes of Sweet Savage and Andrew Strong to deliver his sophomore album in his own name. "Since Then" is the album of a man that knows he's got nothing to prove. It's a blues rock album that's relaxed and self assured, populated with riffs tha stop short of being too clever for their own good. Delivered in power trio arangement, the songs have an almost soul feel to their construction, energised by a rough around the edge vocal that sounds totally committed.

Eliza Carthy And Norma Waterson

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

Eliza Carthy and her mother Norma Waterson cause a stir in pretty much every folkies heart when they release solo, together it's pretty much earthquake proportions. "Gift" is an album that lives up to the expections that are weighed on it by expectation. The vocal performances and arrangements of the songs on this album are stunning as in the main they draw on traditional themes and songs, but the real gem is "Ukulele Lady/(If Paradise Is) Half As Nice". It's a bit of frivilous fun, but if there's a song that captures the love and enjoyment of music more than this, I need to hear it!

Album:Jukebox Of Maladies

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

If they had a jukebox like this down my local bar, I wouldn't be complaining too much. "Jukebox Of Maladies" packs a lot into the eleven tracks that make up the album. It's got a sophisticated pop/rock feel that incorporates that late 70s early 80s feel of the likes of Squeeze. The Blue Hearts then contrast that across a sound more reminiscent of country rock. It's a full blooded sound with bucketloads of drive and all those great rock 'n' roll themes, good girl meets bad boy, bad girl corrupts good boy, prisons and roads, a real fun outing for both musicians and listener.

Album:Tower Sessions

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

You've got to be confident in your ability to take on an iconic song like "Purple Rain" and it has to be said Aynsley Lister pretty much pulls it off, it's just a tad too laid back on the vocal, but boy has he got an interesting take on the guitar. "The Tower Sessions" with two exceptions are his songs, chilled electric blues that are real mood setters. He gives the songs enough time to really explore them connecting the verses and choruses with intricate instrumental phrasing. There's something here for everyone, guitar fans and good old fashioned listeners.

Album:Raw Deal To Nastylicious

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

There's a beautiful sparsness to "Raw Deal To Nastlicious", bleak and at times almost desolate and yet at the same time captivating and bewitching. "Raw Deal To Nastylicious" is just MacMinn, his guitar, his words and his music supported only by the silence that he uses to punctuate his songs. He's a real wordsmith, creating an album of short stories. The imagery is rich, each song effectively becomes it's own vision as they fire up the imagination. A lot of it feels personal, but you know how he feels because you've been there, you just weren't sure how to express it.

Album:Love Potions And Snake Oil

Label:Shut Up And Play

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

It's been ages since I got a really good blast of Cajun/Louisianna swamp pop. I hadn't realised how much I'd been missing it until I played "Love Potions And Snake Oil" by D.B. Reilly. It immediately brought back thoughts of a road trip to Lake Charles and Lafayette and nights on the bayou. That Rielly actually hails from New York is totally irrelevent, this music has such a southern drawl you can almost taste the citrus marinade. It's the sort of record that gets you moving from the inside to the out. It's got a real positive toe tapping appeal, oh yeah!

Album:West Coast Elegy

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

Balladry and balladeer are two words that have almost vanished from everywhere except the Scrabble board and yet they are still the most appropriate to describe Adam Wilson and his music. "West Coast Elegy" puts a modern edge onto that particular songwriting tradition. It feels more like a collection of songs than an album per se. Each song feels like ithas it's own time and place. Most of the album feels like shared experience, "Billy Taylor, As I Live And Breathe" being a good example, whilst we don't know Billy Taylor we do know the experience of bumping into old friends.

Album:Water Into Wine

Website: http://www.ellenwoloshin.com

"Water Into Wine" is one of those awkward albums, there's nothing to really condemn it, but not a huge amount to recommend it either. I'm not sure what the album is trying to be and I'm not sure Woloshin is and there in lies the problem. Ellen Woloshin has a very clear a precise voice, at times it almost borders on intimate and her best songs take advantage of this. She's got a good take on sophisticated pop songs, especially those with a showtune quality, it's when she brings that approach to more folky numbers that it doesn't work, some songs need that rougher edge.

Album:Me And The Metronome

Website: http://www.blabbermouthmusic.com

It's said that revenge is best served cold. Songs and humour it would appear are best served dark. "Me And The Metronome" is an album inspired and reflective of the spirit of life and it's observation. Nice guys get conned as well as greedy ones, the school of hard knocks is a better place to learn about the real world than the classroom. Blabbermouth has a good sense of what goes on in the world and how to turn that to song. Often he's accompanies himself with his trusty banjo, both inside and out of a more band environment. An intuitive and reflective album.

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

With a twin male/female vocal attack, The Fabulists, have a real opportunity to explore different types of songs across a loose acoustic rock/pop theme. That includes dirge in its truest sense right through to more uptempo more hope filled numbers. "Dog Violets" as a title really does the album justice. Dog Violets are a beautiful flower, small and delicate a beauty that is often obscured by the surrounding fauna. The same is true of the album, unless you take the time to seek it out, the chances are you'll miss is, which would be a real shame as its well constucted and performed.