Album of The Week

A skilled guitarist, fiddler and songwriter, Shetlander Barry Nisbet is inspired by stories, both historical and contemporary. Performing in dialect and English, his songs give a sensitive, occasionally humorous take on past and contemporary events. Nisbet’s fiddle style derives from the local Cullivoe Fiddlers tradition. As likely to be seen at the wheel of a […]

The Often Herd, a four-piece band from Newcastle, mix boldly contemporary and soothingly familiar sounds on their latest release, Where The Big Lamp Shines. Their ten tracks are steeped in personal experience while drawing from a wide pool of influences ranging from old-time to psychedelia with fiery instrumental skills evident throughout as well. The band […]

This exceptional transatlantic collaboration is the brainchild of Scottish musician Norrie McCulloch who started it all off by recording lead vocal and acoustic guitar parts for Canyons & Highlands in his campervan in the driveway at his home during the first pandemic lockdown. Then the recording process continued with musicians here in Scotland and the […]

Award-winning indie-folk band Elephant Sessions have a simple aim with their eagerly anticipated fourth studio album. “We want our music to make people move, to get lost underneath the lights – that’s what For The Night is all about,” the Highlanders say. It would seem audiences have responded in the way they wanted. The stirring tracks, written […]

Multi-instrumentalist and songwriter, Ivan Drever’s role in the Scottish music scene for three decades is well recorded through records and live appearances. The Orcadian’s new 12-track album, Decade, is the latest instalment in a glowing, stylish career in which he has worked solo and with bands such as Celtic rockers, Wolfstone, as chief songwriter. Ivan […]

Compelling contemporary roots adorn Beelines, Robin Miller’s debut album to make it a thing of beauty. It features thirteen tracks of deft, melody-driven fingerpicking that hint at the holy trinity of 60s’ British fingerstyle guitar playing by the likes of Bert Jansch, Davy Graham, John Renbourn. Robin, originally from Islay in the Hebrides, in the […]

Multi award-winning Scottish supergroup Mànran “loved every minute of making” their latest album, ‘Ùrar.’ And they “really hope” everyone will “enjoy it just as much.” Given the favourable reaction to it, the internationally-renowned seven-piece can deservedly relax as Ùrar – the title translates from Gaelic as “flourishing” – is receiving widespread acclaim for its carefully-crafted […]

Multi-award-winning Scottish folksinger, songwriter and storyteller, Karine Polwart and pianist and composer, Dave Milligan’s ‘Still As Your Sleeping’ release is an intimate and elegant collaborative album. Recorded in Pencaitland, East Lothian, during summer 2021, it is threaded through with images of stillness and flux, leaving and returning, and pivots of change. Karine says that “one […]

This week’s Album of the Week – When Feathers Appear by Catriona McKay & Alistair MacDonald – is described by its creators as “slow music to submerge yourself in, exhilarating sounds for embracing the storm, music of love, loss and transformation.” Catriona, who plays Scottish harp with Alistair providing live electronics, were missing making new […]

Rest In Blue is the latest album from Gerry Rafferty – and it has been released 10 years after his death. Thanks to the determination of his daughter, Martha Rafferty, this terrific collection of 14 songs can now be heard, reminding everyone of the singer/songwriter talent the man from Paisley clearly was. Many of the […]