CORNWALL’S Geoff Lakeman may be a veteran folkie of decades’ standing and the founder of a dynasty as father of Seth, Sean and Sam Lakeman.

But After All These Years (GLAK-01) marks his solo debut at the age of 69 with a retirement project following a lifetime as a Fleet Street journalist.

No slur is intended on his reporting skills or our profession if I say I wish he’d retired earlier because this is a tremendous showcase of what the folk world has been missing.

Lakeman Senior’s rich tenor and deft concertina are augmented by all-star support including his three sons, daughters-in-law Cara Dillon and Kathryn Roberts and the wonderful Devonian singer Jim Causley.

Most arrestingly, the legendary Nic Jones — Lakeman’s neighbour — lends harmony vocals to the understated protest song England Green/England Grey.

Lakeman’s own Tie ’Em Up, a “protest shanty” on the decline of the West Country fishing trade, has that elusive timelessness that allows it to sit comfortably alongside standards such as Jim Jones and The Green Cockade.

It takes decades of experience to produce something this seemingly simple, heartfelt and effortlessly engaging. It’s the hallmark of great folk.

What took him so long?

There’s a strong Scottish flavour to the rest of this month’s standout releases.

Siobhan Miller is a new name to me but her second solo album Strata (Songprint Recordings) makes her an instant favourite.

It’s a collection of songs that influenced her as she grew up, ranging from the miners’ protest Pound A Week Rise to Si Kahn’s disability anthem What You Do With What You’ve Got, via the trad likes of Bonny Light Horseman.

Miller weaves her soulful vocal spell amid wide-screen, often foot-stomping arrangements from a big electric band who hit their peak in the rambunctious closer The Ramblin’ Rover.

One not to be missed as she heads out on tour in February and March.

The Top Floor Taivers’ sparkling gem of a debut A Delicate Game (TFT Records) belies its title, with such pulsating full-throttle energy it’s a surprise to learn that it’s powered by little more than fiddle, piano, harp and percussion plus spine-tingling four-part female harmonies.

The quartet’s tastes are eclectic — Scottish standard The False Bride rubs shoulders with Leonard Cohen’s Everybody Knows and a bold, if not entirely successful, stab at Richard Thompson’s 1952 Vincent Black Lightning.

And closer 10 Little Men, a rewritten nursery rhyme, has a brooding intensity that could almost pass for trip-hop.

Robert Burns albums are practically a cottage industry to themselves in Scottish folk but a singer of the calibre of Robyn Stapleton (pictured) is still worth dropping everything to listen to.

Songs Of Robert Burns (Laverock Records) beautifully showcases the stunning warmth and power of her vocals with a selection that also highlights the range of the “People’s Poet,” from the tenderness of Ae Fond Kiss to the radical rage of Parcel O’ Rogues.

Back south of the border Chris Wood’s So Much To Defend (RUF) is a sort of state-of-the-nation survey looking for hope in the disintegrating Britain of 2017.

Wood’s songwriting is up there with the great social observers and his weatherbeaten delivery calls to mind Martin Simpson.

James Miller