Raine Hamilton
Brave Land
rainehamilton.com
★★★★

PRAIRIE songstress Raine Hamilton has spent the last year recording this concept album about mountains and the courage and wisdom they represent.

Releasing one song each month the final product of 11 tracks is well worth the wait.

Hailing from Winnipeg, western Canada, and coming from a musical family, Hamilton is both an accomplished singer and a classically trained violinist.

Backed by a string trio, this combination of skills gives the album a special quality in what could be described as chamber-folk.

The album opens with the queer love song, Love Has Come for Me, celebrating who we are for who we are.

The title track is about the beauty of being alive and grounded in the earth while It Matters demonstrates the need to remember the history of where we are.

In this, her third album, Raine Hamilton is clearly a singer-songwriter likely to bring us more surprises in the future.

Freedom to Roam
The Rhythms of Migration
Goatskin Records
★★★★★

THIS album spearheaded by flute player Eliza Marshall comes out of a project originally conceived during a visit to the Isle of Coll in the Outer Hebrides but under the backdrop of Covid lockdown and lost freedoms.

Can there really be a better context to explore themes of both human and animal migration in seeking safer and greener pastures?

Bringing together eight top-class folk, classical and world music artists, the album is a beautifully haunting odyssey of 14 instrumental tracks with influences ranging from African, Indian and Celtic music.

Sponsored by the Born Free Foundation, the project explores themes of climate change in Artic Lament human displacement in Leaving my Homeland, and human trafficking in Brutal. But there is also hope with Run Wild and Seekers.

Both contemplative and uplifting, this is a musical experience to savour.

Fly Yeti Fly
Make a Ring
www.flyyetifly.com
★★★★

WILTSHIRE based indie-folk duo Lorna Somerville and Darren Fisher recorded this album on their house-boat studio on the Kennet and Avon canal and have produced a collection of songs inspired by connection to the natural world.

With a combination of guitar, mandolin and harmonica as well as good vocal harmonies, the songs reflect stories and themes of community with a variety of musical styles from traditional folk to bluegrass with Blue Yonder.

The title track is inspired by the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain and Dreamer makes reference to river folklore around its wildlife.

Nor does the album shy away from the downside of living close to nature. Firewood is based on a real example of a feuding couple trapped on their boat.

All in all, a cheerful album from a duo we can hope to hear more of.