Back catalogue: Folk/Americana

Review: A pair of classic Donovan tracks get pressed up to this new 7" from The state51 Conspiracy. They are taken originally from his seminal double album A Gift From a Flower to a Garden and come in a beautifully printed new sleeve with golden details and limited to just 500 copies. Both are mixed in mono and first is the delicate falsetto of 'The Tinker and the Crab' with is Americana overtones and light flute motifs next to the acoustic guitar strumming and 'Wear Your Love Like Heaven' is another lushly layered folk rock sound.

Review: Light In The Attic brush dust off the crates once again, this time lifting Karen Dalton's 1971 classic yet mysterious country LP 'In My Own Time' out from the murk. The Oklahoma singer-songwriter's debut is technically a country-folk-blues covers album, but Dalton's signature vocal style and distinct manner of banjo playing renders each song unique. In time with its 50th Anniversary, this new and remastered LP version contains unseen photos, liner notes and other contributions from artists influenced by her such as Nick Cave and Devendra Banhart

Review: Karen Dalton is one of the most mysterious and enigmatic but also influential artists of her time. Her 1971 album In My Own Time is a real masterpiece that Light In The Attic now presented on newly mastered vinyl. It was originally recorded over a six month time frame at Bearsville and was crafted by producer and musician Harvey Brooks, a key figure in rock-jazz having worked on Dylan's Highway 61 Revisited and Miles' Bitches Brew. It's a wild and vivid record with walking basslines and manic melodies topped off with the expressive vocals.

Review: Here's a treat for all those who love blues and American folk music of the 1960s - a collection of previously unheard material from the late Karen Dalton and her frequent collaborator (turned romantic partner) Richard Tucker. Rescued from long-lost, but recently rediscovered, tapes, the material on show captures Dalton and Tucker performing live at iconic Boulder folk club The Attic in January 1963, and at a benefit concert for Congress For Racial Equality a year or so later. The recordings are intimate, magical and highly atmospheric, featuring a mixture of previously unheard Dalton songs and duets with Tucker. It's a brilliant snapshot of not only a moment in time, but also the vibrancy of America's folk revival of the 1960s. In a word: essential.

Review: It's not often we get next generation county, even less when it has such wild crossover appeal - both in terms of mainstream and more niche tastes. When Rolling Stone magazine spotlit Daniel Donato as a Hot Picker in 2023, the rock & roll bible explained how he had dazzled tourists with covers "in Music City's honky-tonks as a teenager," referring to his formative years playing around Nashville, and was now "eager to take fans on a psychedelic journey". Suffice to say, the Cosmic Country thing certainly fits the bill, although this is a case of surrealism playing second fiddle, or guitar, to the kind of soundtrack that feels destined to take this artist to the very top of the popular country list. Which isn't to say anything here is remotely throwaway - we're talking highly complex instrumentation. Nevertheless, it's impossible to imagine anyone walking away unhappy, so take from that what you will.

Review: As we tick over in 2019 it's been some five years since the release of The Delines' lauded debut album Colfax. The six-piece did come out with the The Scenic Sessions in 2015, and while its members have simultaneously remained active pursuing music elsewhere, there's no denying this Imperial album is what everyone's been waiting for. With swathes of piano keys and strings adding the country blues melancholia of the music, the album paints a picture of times in transitional seasons, maybe somewhere in the midwest; be it winter-to-spring or summer-to-autumn. The slow swaggered back-beat of "Where Are You Sonny?" is a real whiskey soaker, while the emotional twang of "Roll Back My Life" should strike a chord or two, too. Hit dem blues.

Review: Talk about creating a universe for yourself. Die Welttraumforscher, or World Dream Explorer, is an imagined musical trio with cosmic tendencies conjured by the mind of Swiss electronic composer Christian Pfluger. Active since 1981, 41 years in and the project is still going very strong and admired by a cult legion of international fans alongside some of the most influential contemporary synth doyens.

Liederbuch is the first new material in some time, an event that will be celebrated by many. Largely rooted in psychedelic indie-tronica, downbeat lounge-worthy beats, and blissful acoustic alt-balladry, it's a beautiful collection showcasing the ingenuity inherent in the music of a truly enigmatic artist who, despite focusing largely on the same endeavour for four decades now, has never remained still for long.

Review: Swedish band Dina Ogon have become one of the most celebrated groups in their scene. After their well received ;east album 'Oas' they now return with 'Orion', which includes the already well received lead single 'Glitter.' That tune is, say the band, "a journey upwards, forwards and inwards." That message somewhat gets against their previous vibe with has been described as backward-looking and Nordic-nostalgic. There is still plenty rich dreaminess to their work here with soaring Balearic-pop delights such as 'Jag Vill Ha Allt', glistening cosmic ditties like 'Det Lacker' and the late night soul of 'Mellan De Sju Fjallen' all swelling your heart.

Review: Brazilian guitarist Fabiano do Nascimento and American saxophonist Sam Gendel join forces for The Room: ten tracks of broken jazzdance instrumentals conjoined by an almost telepathic synergy between artists. Springboarding from an initial collaborative gig at a restaurant owned by Gendel's cousin, the duo was thus born as a before-you-know-it gestalt; and in so coming together as a studio project, the artists realised their mutually jazz-laden upbringings, discovering even that both saxophonists had first picked up the brass at exactly the same age; both shared a fascination with environmentalism and ecology; both were superfans of experimental musician Hermeto Pascoal; et cetera. A serendipitous match, then, the album is synchronous to match, balancing five tracks per side in a sublime homeo-ecstatic equilibrium. Recorded in two days in a basement studio in Pacific Palisades, each track its own dive into the rhythms and regions of a South America without borders.

Review: .While Brazilian guitarist Fabiano Do Nascimento and American saxophonist Sam Gendel first met and played together at the dawn of the last decade - at a Los Angeles cafe both used to frequent, fact fans - it was only last year that they decided to collaborate on a release. The Room, the resultant album, was reportedly recorded in two days in a studio in the Californian countryside. It's an undeniably magical and sun-soaked affair, with Gendel teasing fluttering, flute-esque improvisations from his soprano saxophone while Do Nascimento delivers impeccable, finger-picking meditations on his seven-string acoustic guitar. The latter is undoubtedly a virtuoso with his own distinct style - a Brazilian take on classical guitar, incorporating nods to lesser-known regional music - but instinctively knows when to step back and allow Gendel the limelight. Impressive stuff all told.

Review: Although it's only appearing now, Bob Dylan's 40th album was recorded back in 2021 and formed the soundtrack to Alma Ha'rel's intimate concert film, Shadow Kingdom: The Early Songs of Bob Dylan. The concert depicted in the film, in which Dylan ran through songs from the first part of his career on a sound stage in Los Angeles, was something of a fiction, with the actual recordings featured being captured in a West Hollywood studio. That's what we get here: Dylan delivering decidedly bluesy folk and Americana interpretations of songs from the formative years of his career, ably supported by a cast of musician friends including Don Was (up-tight bass) and country legend T-Bone Burnett (guitar). Dylan's superb songs have never sounded better.

Review: "It's grown on me as well. I think this song has something to do with the classical world, something that's out of reach. Someplace you'd like to be beyond your experience. Something that is so supreme and first rate that you could never come back down from the mountain. That you've achieved the unthinkable." So said Bob Dylan himself in a 2020 New York Times interview when asked why 'When I Paint My Masterpiece', his 1971 sleeper hit, had made its way to the forefront of live shows in more contemporary times. Opening with that track, this album reflects the score of the 2021 concert movie, Shadow Kingdom, which in itself reaffirms the artist as one of the 20th, and 21st Century's greatest songwriters. There's really nothing more to say.