2021 has continued to be a challenging year. It has, however, seen some excellent records released. In no particular order, these are the ones that have resonated with me the most.

There are 85 on my list. I hope you enjoy investigating them. And it’s always lovely to hear your thoughts and comments so please do post here or on my Twitter account. Think of it as a digital note pushed under the door…..

Josienne Clarke ‘A Small Unknowable Thing’

Will Varley ‘The Hole Around My Head’

Rachel Baiman ‘Cycles’

Jacob and Drinkwater ‘More Notes from the Field’

The Little Unsaid ‘Flux’

Laura Fell ‘Safe from Me’

Declan O’Rourke ‘Arrivals’

Cassandra Jenkins ‘An Overview On Phenomenal Nature’

The Weather Station ‘Ignorance’

Quarterman ‘Carondelet’

Katherine Priddy ‘The Eternal Rocks Beneath’

Sarah McQuaid ‘The St Buryan Sessions’

Damien Jurado ‘The Monster Who Hated Pennsylvania’

Jez Hellard and the Djukella Orchestra ‘The Fruitful Fells’

Hiss Golden Messenger ‘Quietly Blowing It’

Matt Hill ‘Greedy Magicians II – Return of the Idle Drones’

Haiku Salut ‘The Hill, The Light, The Ghost’

The August List ‘Wax Cat’

Billy Bragg ‘The Million Things That Never Happened’

The Felice Brothers ‘From Dreams to Dust’

Grace Petrie ‘Connectivity’

Serious Child and Andy Ruddy ‘Talk About the Weather’

Big Red Machine ‘How Long Do You Think It’s Gonna Last?’

Karine Polwart and Dave Milligan ‘Still As Your Sleeping’

Son Volt ‘Electro Melodier’

Roxanne de Bastion ‘You and Me, We Are The Same’

Suzie Ungerleider ‘My name is Suzie Ungerleider’

Chris Cleverley ‘Live from the Glass Isle’

Mr Alec Bowman-Clarke ‘No Place Like Home EP’

Christina Alden and Alex Patterson ‘The Hunter’

John Smith ‘The Fray’

Katy Rose Bennett ‘Alone on a Hill’

Peter James Millson ‘The Accidental’

Jim Ghedi ‘In the Shadows of Common Place’

Karima Walker ‘Waking the dreaming body’

Boo Hewerdine ‘Collected Works’

William the Conqueror ‘Maverick Thinker’

Danny George Wilson ‘Another Place’

Anna Tivel ‘Blue World’

The Frank Burkitt Band ‘Silvereye’

Flo Perlin ‘Characters’

Faeland ‘When I Close My Eyes’

Findlay Napier ‘What It Is’

The Story Song Scientists ‘Quantum Lyrics EP’

Malcolm MacWatt ‘Settler’

Bess Attwell ‘Already, Always’

2Private Matters ‘Doubts Run Out’

Buffalo Nichols ‘Buffalo Nichols’

Karen Peris ‘A Song Is Way Above The Lawn’

Ana Ege ‘Between Us’

Amethyst Kiah ‘Wary + Strange’

Mishra ‘Reclaim’

Robb Johnson ‘Minimum Wages’

Ric Robertson ‘Carolina Child’

Eric Bibb ‘Dear America’

Margo Cilker ‘Pohorylle’

Martyn Joseph ’60’

Eamon O’Leary ‘The Silver Sun’

M.G Boulter ‘Clifftown’

Lawrence Illsley ‘Trees’

Amy Speace with The Orphan Brigade ‘There Used To Be Horses Here’

Jon Wilks ‘Up the Cut’

Aerial East ‘Try Harder’

Chuck Johnson ‘The Cinder Grove’

Jon Boden ‘Last Mile Home’

Vanessa Peters ‘Modern Age’

Liz Simmons ‘Poets’

Harbottle and Jonas ‘The Beacon’

Esther Rose ‘How Many Times’

Will Stratton ‘The Changing Wilderness’

The Magpie Arc ‘EP 3’

Jesse Terry ‘When We Wander’

Kimon Kirk ‘Altitude’

Emily Barker ‘Flight Path Rhymes’

Lewis Barfoot ‘Glenaphuca’

Neilson Hubbard ‘Digging Up The Scars’

Lady Nade ‘Willing’

The Deep Dark Woods ‘Changing Faces’

Alison Russell ‘Outside Child’

Adam Holmes ‘Dreamweaver’

Johanna Samuels ‘Excelsior!’

Adrian Crowley ‘The Watchful Eye of the Stars’

Paper Beat Scissors ‘La Mitad’

Harbottle and Jonas ‘The Beacon’

Ray Cooper ‘Land of Heroes’