Oxlip is some elegant and enchanted alchemy at work – somehow weaving together a mystical Celtic dream-like state (Trimble is originally from Northern Ireland) with ancient folk-lore, and the magic of myth & legend – blended in to a curiously enigmatic and rich folk sound which, frankly, is impossible to define.

After picking up a batch of folk awards, this Scottish five-piece have been touring the world with impressive results. Astar is Scottish Gaelic for “journey”, and this classy travelogue is remarkable for its variety of collaborations. The band is best known for featuring highland bagpipes along with fiddle, guitar, whistles and double bass, but this is Scottish-influenced global fusion. The bravest track, The White Sands of Jervis Bay, starts with a powerful ceremonial song from the Australian Aboriginal singer Yirrmal Marika from the Black Arm Band, backed by yidaki didgeridoo, then segues into a lament from fiddler Megan Henderson. On Muriwai, a jaunty pipe tune eases into a gutsy New Zealand Maori haka from Scott Morrison, while elsewhere there’s Quebecois fiddle from Olivier Demers and Norwegian hardanger fiddle from Olav Luksengård Mjelva, who contributes to an emotional treatment of Dick Gaughan’s on-the-road ballad Outlaws and Dreamers.

Look out for a new star in the pantheon of great Irish singers. With the release of her album THE LAST STAR, Heidi Talbot is truly set to shine. She first gained recognition during the five years spent as lead singer with the all female Irish-American super group Cherish the Ladies, quickly followed by high praise for her two previous solo outings, Distant Future (2004) and In Love + Light (2008). On THE LAST STAR, Talbot applies her talents to a broader, bolder musical canvas accompanied by a stellar cast of guests musicians including vocalists Eddi Reader and Karine Polwart, vocalist/guitarist Kris Drever, guitarist Boo Hewerdine, fiddler/producer John McCusker and flute/whistle virtuoso Michael McGoldrick.

This CD showcases Maggie Reilly's silky, melancholy voice through several genres in the last two decades. Notably, "Every Time we Touch" is a much different arrangement than the previous album or single versions. Those familiar with her singing for Mike Oldfield will find her rendition of "To France" a fresh interpretation, more evocative of the Scottish highlands than Mike Oldfield's original arrangement.

Introducing the first new Secret Garden collection in 18 years. Secret Garden features Norwegian composer-keyboard artist Rolf Løvland and Irish violinist Fionnuala Sherry. The band first came to international prominence when they won the 1995 Eurovision Song Contest with the song ‘Nocturne’, which features on this collection.

Finnish prog-folk trio Auri is the side project of Nightwish members Tuomas Holopainen and Troy Donockley, together with the former's wife, singer and violinist Johanna Kurkela. The trio had planned to record an album together as early as 2011, but had been unable to do so owing to their commitments to their other musical projects. In 2014, they worked together on Holopainen's solo debut, The Life and Times of Scrooge, but that album did not stray too far from the bombast of his day job. Finally, in 2017, during downtime from Nightwish, they managed to pursue their alternative sound. Naming their project Auri after a character from Patrick Rothfuss' popular fantasy novel series The Kingkiller Chronicle (which also inspired some of the lyrics), they set about recording their self-titled debut album at Peter Gabriel's Real World studios in Wiltshire, England.

With their ringing, bagpipe-like guitars and the anthemic songs of frontman Stuart Adamson, Scotland's Big Country emerged as one of the most distinctive and promising new rock bands of the early '80s, scoring a major hit with their debut album, The Crossing; though the group's critical and commercial fortunes dimmed in the years to follow, they nevertheless outlasted virtually all of their contemporaries, releasing new material into the next century.

The tracks on The Best of the Chieftains are drawn from The Chieftains 7, The Chieftains 8, and Boil the Breakfast Early–three of the band's recordings from the late 1970s. This was the period when former Bothy Band and Planxty flautist Matt Molloy and vocalist/bodhran player Kevin Cunniffe joined up and finally fulfilled Paddy Maloney's vision of what the band should sound like. It also marks the last time the Chieftains recorded pure, unadulterated traditional Irish music.

Steeltown is the second studio album by Scottish band Big Country. The album was recorded at ABBA's Polar Studios in Stockholm with Steve Lillywhite producing. It was released on 19 October 1984, in the UK and 29 October 1984, in the United States. Steeltown is the band's only UK number 1 album, topping the chart for 1 week in October 1984. The title track Steeltown was written about the town of Corby, telling how many Scots went to work at the Stewarts & Lloyds steelworks when it opened in 1935, at the height of the Great Depression, but later found themselves unemployed when the steelworks declined in the early 1980s. The 1996 reissue contains all of the B-sides from the album's single releases as well as the extended version of "Wonderland".

With producer Steve Lillywhite at the helm, Scotland's Big Country managed to deliver earnest, socially conscious arena anthems in a similar vein to U2 and the Alarm. The twist was their trademark bagpipe sound, achieved through the use of E-Bow. The unique sound of "In a Big Country" garnered the band considerable attention and a Top 20 single in the U.S. The Crossing, however, is an album whose richness goes beyond the single. The more subdued "Chance" is sparser and its personal lyrics are every bit as heartfelt as the more populist-inclined anthems like the wonderful "The Storm" or the thundering "Fields of Fire." The lyrics are straightforward and, despite the grand themes of many of the tracks, manage to steer clear of being overly pretentious. While this album earned the band a gold record, Big Country's sound and image (reinforced by the members' tartan checked shirts) resulted in them being tagged a novelty, and they never duplicated their initial success in America.

Eliza Carthy officially inherits the British folk crown from her parents with the willfully traditional Rough Music. Described in the liner notes as "a form of community punishment practiced all over England" (basically a public beating for a heinous social crime), Rough Music sounds like a lost pre-percussion Steeleye Span record filtered through A.L. Lloyd's whaling collection Leviathan! Carthy's strong fiddling and powerful vocals – she really is beginning to surpass Norma – are ably enhanced by the chiseled performance of her backing band, the Ratcatchers. Together they celebrate longstanding English traditions like public execution ("Turpin Hero"), syphilis ("The Unfortunate Lass"), and alcohol ("Tom Brown") with equal parts reverence, earnestness, and mischief. Primarily arranged for violin, viola, double bass, and melodeon, Rough Music also features lovely a cappella cuts like "Maid on the Shore" and enough fiery instrumentals to keep your feet on the cobblestones during the long walk home from the pub. In fact, there's not a moment on Rough Music that isn't essential listening. Highly recommended.

Springing from an immensely creative family of painters, woodworkers, sculptors, tapestry weavers, dancers and musicians, this band has always been comfortable with thinking outside the box. The Gothard Sisters are a dynamic group of three sisters, whose impressive array of talents have set them apart as one of the most refreshing and compelling acts in Celtic-roots music today. They have a new disc out – Midnight Sun, just in time to beat the summer rush of releases and get under your skin for all it’s worth. Twelve of the best Folk, Pop and Celtic sounds to be heard in the industry, especially coming from the PNW.

Scaled smaller than 2012's double-album Privateering, Tracker also feels suitably subtle, easing its way into being instead of announcing itself with a thunder. Such understatement is typical of Mark Knopfler, particularly in the third act of his career. When he left Dire Straits behind, he also left behind any semblance of playing for the cheap seats in an arena, but Tracker feels quieter than his new millennial norm. Some of this is due to the undercurrent of reflection tugging at the record's momentum. Knopfler isn't pining for the past but he is looking back, sometimes wistfully, sometimes with a resigned smile, and he appropriately draws upon sounds that he's long loved. Usually, this means some variation of pub rock – the languid ballad "River Towns," the lazy shuffle "Skydiver," the two-chord groove of "Broken Bones" – but this is merely the foundation from which Knopfler threads in a fair amount of olde British folk and other roots digressions. This delicate melancholy complements echoes of older Knopfler songs – significant stretches of the record are reminiscent of the moodier aspects of Brothers in Arms, while "Beryl" has just a bit of the "Sultans of Swing" bounce – and this skillful interweaving of Knopfler's personal past helps give Tracker a nicely gentle resonance.

The first album by the trad folk duo of Tim Hart and Maddy Prior, Folk Songs of Olde England, Vol. 1, is as interesting for what came of it as for what it is. This album, recorded in 1968, led directly to the formation of Steeleye Span, whose early albums were an electrified variation on this album's traditional acoustic British folk-rock. It could also be argued that Hart and Prior's example was influential in Fairport Convention's decision to move from a California-style folk-rock sound into something more uniquely British. In light of what came after, Folk Songs of Olde England, Vol. 1 sounds a bit tentative and at times slightly twee (Prior's voice has not quite matured into the rich, expressive instrument it would soon become), but on their own merits, these sensitive renditions of traditional British folk favorites like "Maid That's Deep in Love" or "A Wager a Wager" are respectful of tradition but not bound to it, performed with an infectious enthusiasm quite similar to what the Young Tradition were doing around the same period.

The bagpipe became known worldwide during the expansion of the British Empire, due to the use of the Scottish Great Highland bagpipe by British military forces that included Highland regiments. That, coupled with the large number of pipers trained for military service in the two World Wars, led to a surge of popularity during the twentieth century. Not only are the pipes heard at formal events, ceremonies, and military observations, they are listened to for pleasure. This album features a rousing and proud collection of pipes music from Scotland and all of the UK, and from Nova Scotia in Canada. Marches, strathspey, jigs (including Galician and Asturian jigs), reels, solo pipes as well as Saor Patrol’s ‘Celtic rock’ with pipes, drums and electric guitar are all included here.