Kate Rusby
Philosophers, Poets and Kings
Pure Records
★★★★

PAYING tribute to her musical heritage and family upbringing in Yorkshire, Kate Rusby’s 17th studio album is a combination of traditional songs, covers and her own compositions which reflect   different musical memories, among them singing with her parents and attending folk festivals at an early age.

Traditional songs like Bogey’s Bonnie Belle sit alongside innovative covers of Richard Thompson and Dave Swarbrick’s Crazy Man Michael and, somewhat unexpectedly, Noel Gallagher’s Don't Go Away.

But it's Rusby’s own compositions that give this album its special quality. The Wanderer is about a man in her village suffering from Alzheimer’s and the final track Halt the Wagons commemorates the 180th anniversary of the Huskar Pit disaster,  where 26 children working in the mine lost their lives.

It’s a heartrending end to what is a deeply personal collection of fine songs, on perhaps Rusby’s best album yet.

Gifford Lind, Alex Black and Guy Burgess
Weave Trust with Truth
(Mactoots Recordings)
★★★★

AN ALBUM devoted entirely to songs and poems about Dunfermline weaving might seem a bit too specialist for many.

Yet this enjoyable and pretty cheerful collection pays fitting tribute to the centuries long-history of cloth weaving in the town, with the opening title track — which has to have some contemporary relevance today —  referencing the early motto of workers in the industry.

Subsequent songs reflect the development of the industry and its changes over time, including the introduction of Damask, the development of power looms and a lament for the decline and disappearance of the weaving trade.

No album of songs about weaving would be complete without album closer The Work o’ The Weavers. With a powerful combination of voices and instrumentals, this is folk music as social and economic history.

What a great way of learning about it.

Harbottle and Jonas
The Sea is My Brother
(Brook View Records)
★★★★

MARRIED DUO David Harbottle and Freya Jonas live near the Devon coast, hence the nautical themes of their latest album come as no surprise.

Though the title track is inspired by Jack Kerouac, others penned by the couple reflect on historical figures — lifesaving heroine Grace Darling and Friar Thomas Byles, who stayed aboard the sinking Titanic so he could absolve all passengers from sin before his own death.

On a lighter note, the traditional The Saucy Sailor Boy is performed with gusto but the two best songs are those dealing with recent events — the cockle pickers who perished in the disaster at Morecambe Bay and a tribute to Lillian Bilocca who fought for better safety measures within the fishing industry and was  blacklisted for her pains.

A thought-provoking album from a duo we ought to hear more of.