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Album reviews with Ian Sinclair: January 13, 2025
New releases from Mary Chapin Carpenter, Julie Fowlis, Karine Polwart; The Weather Station; and Sam Amidon 
IS

Mary Chapin Carpenter, Julie Fowlis, Karine Polwart 
Looking For The Thread 
(Thirty Tigers) 

★★★

CONCEIVED and written in Scotland and recorded at Real World Studios near Bath, Looking For The Thread is an enchanting album from three top musicians — US singer-songwriter Mary Chapin Carpenter and Scottish folk artists Julie Fowlis and Karine Polwart. 

A Heart That Never Closes is classic Carpenter, a mid-tempo tune full of affecting, philosophical lines. Elsewhere, Polwart contributes Rebecca, a tribute to a 100-year-old beech tree in West Lothian, and Hold Everything, inspired by John Berger’s 2008 book Hold Everything Dear: Dispatches On Survival and Resistance. 

The Weather Station 
Humanhood 
(Fat Possum) 

★★★★ 

Sam Amidon 
Salt River 
(River Lea) 

★★★

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