Fern Maddie: Ghost Story review – an unnerving, arresting folk debut
Maddie’s young, welcoming voice belies a darkly evocative lyricism creating an album that is both unsettling and thrilling
Joan Shelley: The Spur review – timeless and vital Americana
Pretty but unsentimental reflections on putting down roots inform the singer-songwriter’s elegant seventh album
Jessie Buckley and Bernard Butler: For All Our Days that Tear the Heart review – a mesmerising debut
(EMI)The actor and the former Suede guitarist deliver a beautifully produced folk-inflected set that showcases Buckley’s magical voice
Alison Cotton: The Portrait You Painted of Me review – eerie, filmic incantations
Cotton’s album renders traditional music in uncanny colours with influences from her native north-east England
Mavis Staples & Levon Helm: Carry Me Home review – a final blaze of glory for the late Band musician
On poignant yet defiant recordings made in 2011 shortly before Helm’s death, Staples’ commanding vocals give enormous vibrancy to blues, folk and soul standards
Angeline Morrison: The Brown Girl and Other Folk Songs review – precision and poetry
A collection focused on the place of people of colour in British folklore is abundant with meaning and feeling
caroline review – a heady, up-close gig for our fractured times
The south London band’s mix of loud-quiet folk-rock and drone instrumentals is transformed live into a bewitching exercise in musical brinkmanship
Nick Hart: Nick Hart Sings Ten English Folk Songs review – stark and sweet
The East Anglian singer’s humanity and sly humour crackle through these simple, stripped-down traditional songs
Arun Sood: Searching Erskine review – elegy to a Hebridean past
This gorgeous sonic tribute to the abandoned island of Vallay, where the artist’s grandmother once lived, is filled with folk memory and longing
Judy Collins: Spellbound review – nostalgic first album of originals
The folk legend’s first ever collection of self-written songs gazes back over a life lived with exquisite effect
Oki: Tonkori in the Moonlight review – joyous celebration of a dying art form
The Ainu maestro curates a collection that gives his people’s endangered ancient sound a modern lease of life – with dub, harmony and dazzling percussion
Anaïs Mitchell: Anaïs Mitchell review – walking out of Hades
After her Broadway success with Hadestown, the indie folk artist returns with a set of lowkey but polished melodic gems, boasting sharp lyrics and striking emotional gear-changes
Ben McElroy: How I Learnt to Disengage from the Pack review – shining a light in tough times
A shivering seabed of sound, haunted by barely there vocals and stitched together with lo-fi production – McElroy has made a beautiful early year listen
Jerusalem in My Heart: Qalaq review – bearing witness to a manufactured apocalypse
Radwan Ghazi Moumneh and avant garde peers collaborate on a defiant, vulnerable lament for Lebanon
Spell Songs II: Let the Light In review – a magical return to nature
In this captivating follow-up, the stellar folk collective give voice to more magical meditations on nature from Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris