Martyn Joseph
This is What I Want to Say
(Pipe Records) 
★★★

THIS latest album by Welsh singer-songwriter Martyn Joseph takes him on a reflective journey of the last two years since his previous album 1960. Having lost his father and becoming a grandfather and father again, the 11 songs deal with aspects of his own history and the world outside. 

The opening song, Folding, uses the Welsh word hiraeth to reflect the sense of longing for a place of home. This theme of welcome runs throughout with Waiting for the Rain that imagines a new kind of home in Wales for those forced to flee conflict in Syria.

Albert’s Place chronicles the work of volunteers at Sunderland community soup kitchen helping people with food, clothing and shelter and the penultimate track You’re Still Here pays tribute to those who stay with you despite life’s setbacks.

Overall, a thoughtful and reflective album.

Honey and the Bear
Away Beyond the Fret
(www.honeyandthebear.co.uk) 
★★★★★

East Anglian folk duo Lucy and Jon Hart have released their third album paying tribute to the landscape, community and history of their home county of Suffolk. 

Dear Grandmother starts the album exploring the deep connection of three generations of women, and the album goes on to pay tribute to local women like Elizabeth Garret Anderson, the first female doctor, in the song Daughter written from the perspective of her father. Head in the Stars tells the story of another female trailblazer, astronomer Celia Payne.

The fret of the title refers to the sea mists over East Anglia’s shores and there are songs about the sea such as 5500 Miles and The Mighty Oak, about a tragedy in the history of the RNLI.

Ending with Stay with You, a lullaby-like song for their child, the album is a celebration of nature, history, family and community. Truly in the folk tradition. 

Hirondelle
Hirondelle
(Self-released) 
★★★★★

HIRONDELLE is the French for “swallow” and is the debut album of a band of the same name which could be the first Provencal, classical and northern English folk fusion collaboration. 

Specifically, the band consists of Northumberland folk duo The Brothers Gillespie, Classical group Trio Mythos and Tant Que Li Siam, a polyphonic, Occitan dialect vocal group. Starting with a concert in a Provencal church in 2019, then interrupted by lockdown the album was eventually completed in a cottage in East Lothian.

It has been well worth the wait. Opening with the Brothers Gillespie on Golden One, we then have Tina’s Song, a political song about anti-fracking activist Tina Rothery and the Nanas protest group.

There are then two more classical sounding tracks led by Tant Que Li Siam before we return to the Brothers Gillespie’s tribute to Northumberland and an instrumental by Trio Mythos. Ending with the traditional I Drew My Ship this album, like the eponymous swallow, really does soar.