The Carrivick Sisters
Illustrated Short Stories
(Self-Released)
★★★★

TWIN SISTERS Charlotte and Laura Carrivick have just released their seventh album with twelve original tracks. Using various stringed instruments and sharing vocal arrangements the songs are generally inspired by legends from the West Country.

The opening song In the Oldstock Churchyard tells the story of a curse on a church in a village near Salisbury. There are two songs, 1912 House and War Games, which have a WWI theme but also seem sadly relevant today.

Already Gone has an environmental message paying tribute to all the species which have become extinct over the past century, and Sally in the Woods tells a dark tale of a woman who lost her baby and now haunts a road outside Bath. This is followed by the more cheerful waltz tune Amsterdam.

With influences spanning from American Bluegrass to English folk this album does what its title suggests.
 
 
Lady Maisery
Tender
(Self-Released)
★★★★

THE TRIO of Hazel Askew, Hannah James and Rowan Rheingans have shown themselves to be one of the most exciting acts on the folk festival scene with their beautiful vocal harmonies. 

Due to the individual band members exploring other projects this is their first studio album in six years.

The title song opens the album and speaks of both worry and hope for friends going through dark times. Echoes tells a story of a loved one’s descent into dementia, and the sadness of not being able to hold her hand during lockdown.

Rest Now is a tribute to Anna Campbell who died fighting with the Kurdish YPG in Syria. Feminist themes are also explored in a cover of Tracy Chapman’s song 3000 miles, and themes of nature are to the fore in Birdsong.

With its mixture of political and personal themes this album was well worth the wait.

 
Nat Brookes
Cormorant
(www.natbrookesmusic.co.uk)
★★★★

NAT BROOKES is an accordionist and composer who grew up on a farm in Suffolk, studied music in York, and has lived for the last five years on a narrowboat with her partner Beth.

Cormorant is her debut album and is an exploration of the traditional dance music forms of England and Western Europe. Composed of entirely instrumental tracks and with accompaniment from Deb Chalmers on fiddle, Sam Partridge on flute and Tom Evans on guitar and bass, the album looks at the interaction between these instruments and the accordion and, like a diving cormorant, takes us in different directions.

Starting off with Mushroom Vent/Cormorant we then get the more dance oriented Painted Cuboracle/Bicycle Hunt partly written about the antics of an unruly pet golden retriever. 

There is a playful jaunt to Bootleg Mazurka but overall, this is an album that simply carries the listener along.