Elizabeth and Jameson
Way Out West
(Self-Released )
⭑⭑⭑⭑☆

HANNAH ELIZABETH and Griff Jameson first met whilst performing on the folk roots scene and released their debut album in the year of their marriage, five years ago. This second album contains 13 original tracks (one hidden) covering themes of loss and family legacy, and taking us from the Welsh valleys where Jameson comes from to the American South.

There is a folk-pop feel to the first two tracks The New Town and Mother Please whereas the up tempo YCH A FI!  reflects a Welsh anger at growing wealth inequality. The Valley and The New Town also reflect Jameson’s Welsh roots with themes of loss and industrial decline.

Inspired by a visit to Nashville, the song Tennessee explores themes of migration but asks if this is what you hoped for and there is a rockier feel to Taffy on the Mississippi. A reflective album encompassing a variety of genres.

Martyn Joseph
Troubled Horses
(Pipe Records)
⭑⭑⭑⭑☆

WELSH troubadour Martyn Joseph has often been compared to Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen and has an impressive back catalogue of 28 studio albums since the start of his music career in 1983. This latest offering contains 11 new songs with some social commentary included.

The scene is set with the opening Let Me Hear Your Voice and the title track considers migration and the reasons people may flee oppression whilst emphasising we were all children once. There are also songs dealing with the pressures of day-to-day life such as Getting Older and In A World That Breaks Your Heart.

There is a celebratory feel to Last Night I Heard America referencing the many great musicians and songs and expressing a hope that the country comes home before everything gives way. Appropriately the final track is entitled Let’s Take Care Of Us.

Jon Wilks
Needless Alley
(Grizzly Folk Records)
⭑⭑⭑⭑☆

THE title track of this new album by Jon Wilks is inspired by a street in Birmingham where he frequently had cause to travel to in his teenage years. The experiences surrounding this have resulted in a collection of 10 songs reflecting a sense of place and memory.

More autobiographical than previous albums the opening track Could You Be The One? is both enigmatic and expressing a sense of harmony whereas Gotta Keep An Eye On My Lover deals with the more problematic aspects of jealousy and insecurity in a relationship.

Whilst most of the songs are self-penned, Montague Whaler is a more traditional song written by Nigel Bruen about a type of boat used by the Royal Navy from the 1900s but falling into disrepair. Ending with Willow a lament to a lost cousin the album takes us through a range of emotions we may all experience at some point.