Louise’s warm heart and outstanding vocals bring this whole album a charm and magic, unparalleled on the folk scene. This powerfully honest, accessible track carries a deep emotional weight and sets up your heart ready for the rest of what is one of the finest albums I bought in 2025. If you can see Louise Touring in 2026, please buy a ticket and see her, there will be magic there you will never forget.

This is such a powerful song, and Luca’s sweeping, and enigmatic vocal has a solid grip on my emotions. I love this track particularly, but this whole album is a wonderful way to loose an hour. Luca’s music is taking the world by storm at the moment, and he is lighting up rooms all over the US on his current tour. He is visiting London in April for a gig, so if you can get there, do..

Liberia-born, Janjay Lowe, brings a bright and broad “Afro-Appalachian” folk sound to a space in the music industry we didn’t know needed filling. His beautiful, authentic and intimate storytelling is rooted hard won experience. Hey… 500 million TikTok views cannot be wrong. Currently in the midst of a sell out world tour, the beautiful music of Mon Rovîa is a breath of fresh warm air.

To me this new release is like a warm bath for traditional folk if you’re looking for a way to start with this genre you can’t go wrong with I am the mountain. In a world where politicians and leaders believe they can buy countries or kidnap the leaders of others, a song that reminds us that you cannot “trade the wind” or “buy shares in the shadow of an eagle” is so unbelievably necessary…. It reminds us that the natural world is there to be held and not to buy I can’t think of a better message for 2026.

When I call music “accessible”, often what I mean is that it is easy to plug-in to your own life, or your emotional space at the moment you need it… Shirley Barr takes this idea to a new level, as she presents her bright, shimmering soul at the alter of folk, there is healing in her work for every sore heart. This song in particular, to me reminds me of standing in a duvet looking at the stars, It is transcendent, warming and spectacular.

Lyrically this is one of the finest pieces of writing I have discovered on Bandcamp this year… Morphing and rolling, unfolding like an origami bird, this exquisite construction is like a soaring bird in a bright sky. It deals with being separated from loved ones, and the sense of longing that is baked into the heart of this whole album, throbs and hums like a restless heart.

Devon based Wild Fenn, and the soft vocals of Jess Illingworth bring me to an ocean vista, slightly wind worn, but somehow solid and enduring. I love this song deeply and it has led me to discover a deep and rich seam of outstanding music.Some text about the track – copy and pasted to the track notes Blurb in Bandcamp

This chilling and haunting lament about a lost love, is quintessentially Maz. Deeply felt emotions tingle in this great track, with Anna Rheingans on banjo gently prickling under the surface, there is something under the bonnet of this song which hooks me back over and over again.

Sam Lee, has a reassuring and warming voice, like good strong coffee, too long in the percolator, his silky sound packs an emotional punch that is as bitter as it is invigorating. Sam collected this song from the wonderful Nan Connor, rescuing it and reconstructed it from fragments. This deeply beautiful song should be treasured like a faded old picture of everything you ever loved, as if such a thing existed.

The whole “Postcards From Lost Places” collection is a musical arrangement that demands our attention. Cole has constructed a song cycle recorded in some outstanding venues around the country, like postcards from enchanted and forgotten places. It leaves this album drenched in a history and authenticity which is rarely found in music these days. There is a care and a love baked in to every note of this music which cannot be ignored.

The world needs this poignant and cutting assesment of life under the framework of biting exploitation. Paris makes the obvious point here that “You’re working exactly as intended” and asked pointlessly, “Has any of the money tricked down yet”? This is a true of the music industry as it is any other modern grind stone you might find yourself at?

I have loved the East Pointers for years , but now more than ever, the fusion of outstanding and musicianship and a bubblegum pop, danceable thumping beat, is a romp that brings such a fun to a dark work. It is hard not to tap your feet to this, but full-on dancing on the tube is something I regret… lol

I was so sorry to hear Tucker passed away in January, leaving behind a beautiful and outstanding collection of music. A sad and tragic loss to the world of music. I chose this sultry and introspective gem for the list, because it has eaten into my brain and claws me back over and over again. Containing the lamenting lyric which is also the title to the album “Music By River Words By Ear” this song is steeped in nostalgia for a dusty river bank at dusk. If music had a smell this would be whisky and oak smoke, and if it had a colour it would be dusk. Simply brilliant.

Like a dry and smoky whiskey, Zach Thompsons Dylanesque sound, burns on the way down and warms from the inside. This EP is chilling and insightful in equal measure, lyrically excellent and gently reassuring. I love the ideas of “revolutions ending in despair”, “you will be the guillotine waiting in the square” as if perhaps you are to be your own judge and executioner perhaps?

This is a prerelease – We will embed the track when it is released.

We be soldiers three, is the latest release from The Trad powerhouse that is The Water Chorus. This Ep marks a true evolution in there music. An actualisation if you will, watch out for, Ali Lawrenson, Caitlin Chalmers and Jack Saville they have unleashed something which is infectious and exciting … I can wait for the general release of this new EP !

I am not sure how much more authentic you can get, than this. Georgia Shackleton, long descendant of Sir Ernest Shackleton, singing about the Ice King, bearing a the image painted on board The Endurance expedition. It Features two sister instruments by Steve Burnett. The Il Mare violin and the Orca viola – each sharing a piece of driftwood with the Shackleton Violin, three voices bound together by the sea.

Couldn’t help include this gorgeous reimagining of Little Jack Frost. I know its February and this is lifted form a Christmas album… but it is wonderfully wintery and looking out my window the gentle warming strokes of this lovely song, and Rusby’s warming voice kept coming back to me… So here it is…. A treat for a frosty February.

This is such a heartwarming track… Dreaming of home and the things that make life bearable, the sense of returning to a warm couch surrounded by the jigsaw of things that make us who we are is such a lovely idea in this song. I find this centring and grounding, as it serves to remind us “where the fire burns to keep us warm”.

Let no man steal your time is infectious, chilling and cold. It is as haunting as it aloof. Henry Edmonds brings something magical with the Double Bass, which sounds like hot wax dripping on a skin drum. This, sits exquisitely against the etherial soundscape, and Claire’s ice cold vocal. I have not been able to stop listening to this glorious lament since its release.

This is the total track from a sensational song cycle, inspired by a long-orphaned photo album. Its complex and haunting soundscapes stitched with a tender vocal, hang together like a delicate silk, carefully woven, beautifully imagined and rare. If you have not discovered Adam work, now is the time to go and explore – it is a wonderful surreal world that you can get truly lost in.