IAN SINCLAIR draws attention to the powerful role that literature plays in foreseeing the way humanity will deal with climate crisis
Album reviews with Ian Sinclair: January 13, 2025
New releases from Mary Chapin Carpenter, Julie Fowlis, Karine Polwart; The Weather Station; and Sam Amidon

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.
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