In All Weather is a new collection of songs, in which Josienne Clarke goes it alone; musically, as this is her first solo record, and in her own life, laid bare and played out in the leave-it-all-behind-and-start-anew nature of the lyrics. The songs were written in on the Isle of Bute in 2018, where Josienne relocated for a year, overlooked by a snowy Ben Nevis.

« In the Manding languages ​​of West Africa, Balimaya means "kinship", "fraternity".This is the idea that I wanted to express in this CD - of ​​family in the broad sense, of friendship, of solidarity - a “family” brought together around my percussion duo with Ibrahima Diabaté, mixing djembe, dundun and drums. Our collaboration started in 1994 in Bamako and continued in Paris. It enabled us to develop an “anything goes” way of combining playing styles, ranging from the formal structure of traditional ceremonies to the freest improvisation. This is a new direction, inspired by my way of playing jazz and improvising.The album Balimaya feeds on Mandenka dance rhythms. They are not reproduced in their original format but, all the same, they remain a source of inspiration to create a music where voices intertwine. Bass, saxophone, vibraphone and marimba join this family in compositions conceived like games, varying grooves, colours, dynamics, opening the way to improvisation ». Julien André

As 2006 nears its end, no one can argue that the world of country music isn't, at this moment, the most adventurous in the mainstream pop music industry and that Nash Vegas is taking more chances on its acts as the rest of the biz relies more on narrowing things into smaller and smaller niches that can easily be hyped and digested. Sure, as always, artist's images and many recordings are calculated to score big as in any pop industry. The difference is in approach. The country-listening audience/demographic has widened considerably; therefore, there is a need – as well as an opportunity – for experimentation to see what sticks. This is the most exciting the music's been since Willie and Waylon hit the charts in the '70s, or perhaps to be a bit more fair, when Garth Brooks turned them upside down in the early '90s…

A mixture of utterly trad folk and country tunes with some hipsterish indie touches, The Black Dove is uneven, but it works more often than it doesn't. The songs sung by Sharron Kraus, a British folksinger whose voice bears comparison both to U.K. folk icons like June Tabor and American country singers like Gillian Welch, fit uneasily against those featuring Christian Kiefer's hushed bedroom-rock murmur. Imagine Norma Waterson collaborating with Elliott Smith and the parameters of the project's influences will become clear, as well as its flaws. However, the songs featuring Kraus are uniformly excellent, as are the atmospheric instrumental interludes between songs, which occasionally recall Dolly Collins' fantasias for harmonium on her albums with sister Shirley. Kiefer's whispery material, which works better on his solo records, simply sounds out of place in these surroundings.

With Wilson's longtime friend Pat Sansone of Wilco producing, Wilson and the band recorded in Studio A at the Sound Emporium, the late country maverick Cowboy Jack Clement's studio. The musicians included Nashville’s premier session players including bass player Dennis Crouch, Russ Pahl on pedal steel, multi-instrumentalist Jim Hoke, and world renowned Fiddle master Mark O’Connor. Working with this Nashville band gave Wilson the same kind of feeling he had as a kid, strumming along with those bluegrass bands.

Hunker down with music to make you feel good about the future. Namely, 15 new tracks by Laura Marling, James Elkington, Frazey Ford, Rose City Band and Brigid Mae Power and more.

A limited guitar player at best, and with a voice that hardly spans a couple of octaves, Leonard Cohen has nonetheless fashioned a legacy of gorgeously realized songs that reach deep into the heart of lust, ill- and well-fated romance, hope, and redemption, and if he doesn't sing like an angel, he could certainly mesmerize one with the melody, lilt, and power of his songs…

The latest album from Nicole Atkins, Italian Ice, was recorded in the greatly respected Muscle Shoals Sound Studio and features members of the Bad Seeds, Dap-Kings, the legendary Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section and more. Genre-hopping is a feature on this album and its influences range from soul to Roy Orbison. Speaking of soul, Nicole Atkins’ voice is full of it. That is the immediate feeling that hits you as you dive headfirst into the sweeping landscape of the first track on this musically moving album. AM Gold has all the throaty soulfulness of an Aretha Franklin track with the atmospheric beachcomber feel of a Morcheeba album. Nicole describes Italian Ice as “an acid trip through my record collection” and she couldn’t be more right. This is the sound of the perfect summer spent on beautiful deserted beaches with the waves lapping at your toes and the sun caressing your skin. This album is just divine and listening to Nicole’s voice is like diving into cool, clear sound waves.

Music for The Native Americans is a 1994 album by Robbie Robertson, compiling music written by Robertson and other colleagues (billed as the Red Road Ensemble) for the television documentary film The Native Americans. The album was Robertson's first foray into writing music specifically inspired by his Mohawk heritage. Robertson brought in his son Sebastian Robertson to handle the drums on "Golden Feather", "Skinwalker", "It Is a Good Day to Die" and "Words of Fire, Deeds of Blood". His daughter Delphine Robertson sings backing vocals on "Coyote Dance".

The Rough Guide to the Music of Kenya and Tanzania is a world music compilation album originally released in 1996. Part of the World Music Network Rough Guides series, it focuses on the music of Kenya and Tanzania, two countries which share Swahili as a common language. The release was compiled by Phil Stanton, co-founder of the World Music Network. Artwork was designed by Impetus.

From the guitar artistry of jazz-fusion legend John McLaughlin to Skandi-jazz innovators the Karl Strømme Quintet, this Rough Guide showcases some of today’s pioneering artists who share the same goal of pushing the boundaries of jazz with truly remarkable results.

From the avant-garde folk/jazz of Poland’s Chłopcy Kontra Basia to Serbia’s ‘King of Apocalyptical Cabaret’ Boris Kovač, the music of Eastern Europe is as diverse as the geography it represents. This Rough Guide showcases today’s artists who preserve valuable traditions whilst enabling the music to evolve in new and unexpected ways.

“I want it to feel like the past, the present and the future, all at the same time” Erlend Apneseth. Hardanger-fiddler, composer and bandleader Erlend Apneseth follows up the acclaimed 2019 Hubro release, ‘Salika, Molika’ – a game-changing folk-meets-experimental-sound project where Apneseth’s regular trio was augmented by the addition of star accordionist Frode Haltli – with the richly collaborative ‘Fragmentarium.

When Jennifer Warnes recorded this 1987 collection of songs by Leonard Cohen, Cohen’s career was in undeserved decline and Warnes, who served as one of Cohen’s back-up singers in the early ‘70s, had been experiencing great success with a series of country-pop and romantic movie-themed adult-contemporary hits. “First We Take Manhattan” and “Ain’t No Cure for Love” turned out to be previews for Cohen’s comeback album, 1988’s I’m Your Man, and Warnes’ interpretations forced critics to seriously evaluate her as a talented, often overlooked and underrated singer. The arrangements are less quirky than Cohen’s own attempts at mainstream pop. Unlike Judy Collins whose Cohen covers emphasize his solemnity and stick to the songs’ folk roots, Warnes takes a liberal approach, unafraid to turn “Bird On a Wire” into a dance number, or locate the nite-jazz and cinematic heart lurking within the title track, or use guitarists such as Robben Ford and Stevie Ray Vaughan on “Manhattan” to make a grander musical point. Her duet with Cohen on “Joan of Arc” is riveting and grandiose. A classic, impeccably written, arranged, performed, sung, and produced throughout. This 20th Anniversary Edition adds four tracks, including a live version of “Joan of Arc” and a delicate read of “If It Be Your Will.”

In a world starved of roars of applause, hollers from excitable concertgoers and the warm, worn acoustics of venerated music venues, Margo Price has shared a relic of times gone by with her new live album, Perfectly Imperfect at The Ryman.