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Joan Shelley: The Spur
New album: Pure of voice, with gently acoustic accompaniment, perfectly weighted melody and perceptive lyric, a gorgeous new ninth album by the Kentucky folk musician, including a number with Bill Callahan
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Laura Veirs comes out of a darkness
New album: Sensitive, quirky, melancholy, intimate, candid, and wonderfully beautiful folk-pop by the Portland singer-songwriter dappled with acoustic instruments and arresting lines is her 12th, but first LP after splitting from her husband and longtime producer
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Fern Maddie: Ghost Story
Debut album: Terrific first LP by the Vermont singer-songwriter, guitarist and banjo player who draws influence from English, Irish and Scottish folk who has a talent for poignant lyrics, beautiful playing and a quiet, but striking voice
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Jessie Buckley and Bernard Butler: For All Our Days That Tear The Heart
New album: An outstanding collaboration between the Irish actress and singer and the former Suede guitarist with this beautiful album of passionate, dramatic, folk music of various international styles, with all the added depth, subtlety, dynamism of emotional power of both Jeff Buckley and Joni Mitchell
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Wilco’s double album, Cruel Country
New album: With a double-edged title referring to both style and content, the Chicago band return with a strong, 21-track double album of country-edged music brimful with fine melodies, melancholy but sharply pointed lyrics
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Kevin Morby’s vivid new album This Is A Photograph
New album: Tender, uplifting, sensitive and moving, the seventh LP by the Texas-born, Kansas-raised singer-songwriter is full of richly vivid lyrics wrapped in strong Americana folk-pop and a vocal delivery that echoes mid-70s Bob Dylan
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Sharon Van Etten’s sixth album
New album: Powerful, passionate, personal and one of her best yet, this sixth album by the New Jersey singer-songwriter has hugely relevant themes, her songs addressing how we might protect the things most precious to us from destructive forces beyond our control
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Sarah Beth Tomberlin
New album: Gentle, beautiful fragility and vulnerability abounds in this second album by the Brooklyn singer-songwriter, who sings about insecurity, isolation and relationships with great tenderness with minimal instrumentation
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Kurt Vile pictured with daughters on his new album cover
New album: As laid-back in style as anyone out there, but also strongly personal and filled with vivid lyrical detail, the Philadelphia singer-songwriter’s seventh solo album is deliciously melodious and worth several listens
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Midlake’s fifth album, the first since 2013
New album: Very welcome fifth LP from the Texas folk-rockers after nine-year gap, again with Eric Pulido taking on lead vocals, but a more settled sound than 2013’s Antiphon, and a dedication to the deceased father of keyboardist and flautist Jesse Chandler
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New album: The Atlanta duo of Mattiel Brown and Jonah Swilley return with their third album, a splendid set of songs filled with sharp, profound lyrics and strong melodies, expressing a dusty US highway, spanning indie, rock, and a dash of country, and Cake
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Nicely worn in: Widowspeak’sThe Jacket
New album: Laid-back, lo-fi and easy on the ears, the Brooklyn duo of Molly Hamilton and guitarist Robert Earl Thomas return with they sixth LP of indie-Americana of slow, but self-assured numbers
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Debut album: Wonderful debut by the Irish pop-country singer – Dublin’s Ciara Mary Alice Thompson has the melodies of Dolly, the panache of Glen Campbell, the range of Kate Bush, but above all a searing wit powered by self-deprecation and a caustically humorous instinct for tragedy
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Sasami’s Squeeze - appearances may deceive
New album: This second LP by the LA-based American Sasami Ashworth is one of strikingly eclectic genre contrasts of shade and light, from full blast nu-metal and rock, to gorgeous melodies of country-pop and folk, and even a coda of classical music
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Carson McHone’s Still Life
New album: Tremendously high-quality writing and performance by the singer-songwriter from Houston, Texas in this dynamic third album which mixes folk-country and Americana-rock, acoustic with electric, poignant lyrics and excellent vocals
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Perfectly paced: The Delines’ new album
New album: Wonderfully minimal, emotionally strong, yet also becalming third album of Southern soul by the Portland, Oregon band that includes guitarist and songwriter Willy Vlautin and the perfectly paced delivery of singer Amy Boone
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Big Thief’s campfire of inspiration
New album: Brooklyn’s Adrianne Lenker, Max Oleartchik, Buck Meek, and James Krivchenia return with a fifth and landmark double album of gorgeous, intelligent, free-flowing songwriting, mixing folk, pop, rock and country
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Anaïs Mitchell’s self-titled latest album
New album: Beautiful, classic singer-songwriter sixth LP from the Vermont folk artist, best known for Broadway success with the 2010 album and musical Hadestown, these finely crafted low-key piano and guitar-led numbers compare favourably with 1970s Joni Mitchell or Aimee Mann
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New album: Beautifully smooth guitar picking and a warm, mellow voice mark out this glowingly lovely latest LP by the folk artist from Columbus, Georgia, in a collection of traditionals and originals with a theme of loss and renewal
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Decorated with one of his own paintings, Michael Hurley’s The Time of the Foxgloves
New album: Gorgeous new LP by the veteran 80-year-old American folk singer-songwriter, cartoonist and painter, whose first album was released in 1964, and this latest still employs his trusty, hissy four-track recorder, as well as duets with guest singers
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