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

Headwater's Jonas Shandel takes a break from the band to deliver his eponymous solo debut. Recorded in 2009, the album, apart from a pretty faithful cover of Peter Gabriel's "Mercy Street", is all down to his own penmanship. Amongst the guests on this well delivered mini-album are Tim Tweedale on pedal and lapsteel and vocalist Andrea Edar, both of whome add their spirit to Shandel's vision. The result is an album that is self assured and shows that there is a more delicate, almost fragile artist with an alternative avenue of expression, long may both continue.

Album:Fool Of Regrets

Website: http://www.thezephyrs.com/

It's been almost five years since we last heard from The Zephyrs. "Fool Of Regrets" is the first album they've released since adding guitarist/vocalist Emily Hall to the lineup a year or so ago. At the core very little has changed, the material is built around solid pop/rock foundations and a healthy reliance on letting the instruments do the talking as well as the vocal chords. It's around the fringes of the sounds that you notice the change, there's a more subtle move through the structure of the songs, giving them more definition, more punch, deeper connections to their world.

Website: http://www.daniwilde.com

It's always reassuring to see Mike Vernon's name on the production credit for an album and he's done Dani Wilde proud, as does brother Will who gets drafted in for harmonica duties. "Shine" sees Dani Wilde emerging from the prodigy chrysalis into a fully fledged blues artist. Her songs have matured, there's still the blistering guitar, it just finds more context, soul and heat finding their place in the numbers. This is the self assertive blues of a woman that has found herself and knows exactly what she wants to say and how she's going to get you to listen. Breathe deep and dive in.

Album:Wherever Yet May Be

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

An absolutely stonking set of songs and tunes that can't help but lift the world weary and cynical masses. Old Blind Dogs are as fine a crew of miscreant musicians as you'll find anywhere, inducing a spirit of mischief into the mainly traditional pieces on the album and providing a superb counter for the more emotion lead songs. "Wherever Yet May Be" is an album that celebrates the musician and the singer, feeling at times like you've walked into a bothy on a session night such is the trust and interpplay between the musicians all get to express themselves.

Album:Fields Of Dreams

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

Iain Thompson has assembled a top selection of musicians, including Maeve MacKinnon, Charlie MacKerron and Gordon Maclean to play on "Fields Of Dreams", but it's the way he assembles his words that really impresses. In days gone past he'd have been called a bard and tasked with recording the village history. That's essentially what he does on this album except he sings his songs and tales of a wider world, but most of them also comeback to his beloved Mull. It's poignant album that places one man into his landscape surrounded by friends and past times.

Album:Bridge The Roads

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

"Bridge The Roads" is like staggering out of a night club, half empty bottle of champagne in hand, mascara running and strolling along the South Bank meeting the stares of those with the courage to look at you with a detached distain. Franka De Mille delivers at atmospheric album with a Gaelic accident. Smooth sultry vocals that hint of heartstring that have been stretched, but which are too strong to snap, settle into an almost cafe jazz backing. Sparse arrangements provide a dramatic and at times melancholic mood. Music to be seduced by.

Label:Counter Culture

Website: http://www.raghudixit.com/

It might be going just a little too far to say this is the album that redefines world music, but it's certainly charting the way. There's a real sense of fusion in the sound, this is not just adding drum and bass backing to a traditional music styles, this is taking Indian, rock and blues and hurtling them together with a speed that would make the Higgs Boson particle blush. The result is a sound that really does meld it's core components into something that can really bridge musical communities. Raghu Dixit may have found a link we didn't know was missing.

Album:Live At The Grand Pavillion

Label:Easy On The Records

Website: http://www.mabon.org

Mabon strike me as a very non-Newtonian band, by which I mean that the energy they put out always seems to be so much more than the energy going in. This is particularly true live, but having seen them totally exhausted after giving their all at a gig, I'm not sure about the energy figure :-) "Live At Grand Pavillion" captures a band that really knows how to put together a gig. This is more than bailed out by the accompanying DVD "Live At Quay Arts Centre recorded on the same tour, with some songs being exclusive to one or the other. Great atmosphere just add sweat.

EP:The Cat + The Moon EP

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

I bumped into singer/bassist Tracey Browne at this year's Cambridge Folk Festival and discovered that she's already got two cd/eps under her belt, "The Cat + The Moon" being the most recent release with "Tooth & Nail" still being available. Tracey has developed a strong electric folk sound that at times borders on rock and new wave. She's an artist that pushes at boundaries, never quite allowing her music to define her or vica versa. There's a freedom about her music, one that allows you to take it at face value because it's good honest songwriting that's fresh as the daisy.

Website: http://www.rosienimmo.com

It's difficult to work out exactly where Rosie Nimmo sits on the acoustic spectrum, part folk, part blues, part Americana, hailing from the troubadour tradition. There's an almost timeless quality to her music. Her keen sense of observation and empathy with events going on around give "Home" a life's highways and byways feel. It's an album that's in no rush to get anywhere, just happy to take in the view and absorb the rich tapestry of the vista. The real trick is to turn that around and take the audience with you to those places, it's a trick Rosie's got off pat.

Album:Voracious Love

Website: http://www.erjalyytinen.com

It must be difficult to follow an album like "Grip Of the Blues" do you do the same again or do something different? Erja Lyytinen takes the latter with her new thirteen tracker "Voracious Love" and for me it doesn't quite work. I can hear what she's trying to do, a bit more soulful, less reliance on hard guitar, more use of strings, but it's taken her sound a bit close to AOR. She's not helped either by the substandard vocal of Marco Hietala on the duet "Bed Of Roses". The album only really comes alive when she's stripped back to an electric blues band

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

Fatea's favourite jazzers, Zoo, are back with a new album, "Psycho Drama" and have managed to persuade top trumpet man, Guy Barker, to come along for the ride. It's an album with fire like qualities, warm and welcoming only to suddenly spring into life with blistering solos and then threaten to burn the house down with some real sharp interplays. It's an accessable album, full of contrasts and tangents that allow you to explore the songs and pick up on the finer points of some silkly smooth arrangments without leaving you feeling like you've over indulged.