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1 Lula Pena Troubadour (Mbari 09). Por- tugal’s sole ‘phadista’ dropped this second disc 12 years after her debut. Accompanying her unique but sometimes overwrought voice with her own varied and original guitar play- ing on very long pieces, she mixes original songs with reinterpreted traditional fados, and two folk songs from Alentejo. An acquired taste, for sure. www.myspace.com/lulapena


1 Majid Bekkas, Ablaye Cissoko, Khalid Kouhen Mabrouk (Bee Jazz Bee 023). Oud, guimbri, kora, three fine voices and economi- cal percussion combine in serene, fluid harmo- ny. Each individual tune is engaging enough, but as a whole it never quite sparks into life. www.abeillemusique.com/Bee-Jazz/clelab- 215.html


2 Nick Dow My Love You’ve Won To Keep (Old House Music OHM 705). Dow makes an overdue return with a grand collec- tion of songs both traditional and inspired by tradition. He’s admirably sturdy-voiced, and his own guitar accompaniment suitably fine- ly-graded as ever. Faithfully recorded and informatively annotated, this release is one of straightforward, old-fashioned quality. thedows@atchintan.freeserve.co.uk


2 Michi Sarmiento Y Su Combo Bravo Aquí Los Bravos! The Best Of Michi Sarmiento Y Su Combo Bravo 1967–77 (Soundway SNDWCD028). Colombian tenor sax-clarinet player Sarmiento and his combo took Cartagena by storm in the late 1960s, turning local costeño music into a popular pan-Caribbean tropical sound. Kudos to Soundway Records for resurrecting this puls- ing undisciplined full-bore dance sound. www.soundwayrecords.com


1 Colin Wilkie “Bangter Rites!” (Greenhill Media ghm 10311). Germany-based singer- songwriter with extensive UK folk club pedi- gree comes up trumps at age 76 with a new collection of well-crafted songs, entertain ingly arranged with musical support from Julian Dawson and others. Sometimes seems overtly locked into a ‘70s s/s template, however. www.greenhill-media.com


@ Danny O’Mahony In Retrospect (Own label DOM CD001). Metronomic button accordeon playing on a hackneyed selection of Irish dance tunes – the man should clearly spend some time listening to Joe Cooley or Jackie Daly. www.dannyomahony.com


2 Moonlight Benjamin Mouvman (Mosa- ic Music REF: 397882). Benjamin brings a dra- matic vocal instrument to her own songs, tra- ditional material and interpretations of Haitian activist-artists, sung in French and her native Haitian Creole to acoustic guitar, strings and percussion. Notes in French. www.moonlight- benjamin.com


2 Al Petteway & Amy White High in the Blue Ridge (Fairwood Studios FW031). An American husband/ wife duo whose multi- instrumental abilities support and comple- ment their source material. Evocative tone poems and affectionate nods to traditional roots neatly avoiding preciousness. Exquisite acoustic string-based music down home and cosmopolitan by turn –highly recommended. www.AlandAmy.com


2 Teófilo Chantre Mestissage (Lusafrica 562512). Paris-based Cape Verdean guitarist- singer-songwriter Chantre, perhaps better known for Cesaria Evora’s interpretation of his work, offers a beautifully crafted, acoustic jazz-tinged rendering of his morna- and morabeza-based compositions. Notes in French; lyrics in French and Portuguese. www.lusafrica.com


2 Rumba Vella Els Ignorants (Taller De Músics TMDM 051) Rumbamazigha Rumba- mazigha (Taller De Músics TMDM 050). Rumba Vella takes an expansive approach to Catalan rumba, incorporating tango, salsa, rock, reggae and Latin pop à la Julio Iglesias. The highlights are their essays of Ray Barret- to’s Llanto De Cocodrilo and the Rubén Blades-Juan Formell classic Muévete, a pan- Latin shout-out. Much the same personnel comprise the core of Rumbamazigha, but they cultivate an evocative, ringing banjo- tinged North African feel, taking the base genre in a new direction. Notes in Catalan. www.tallerdemusics.com


1 Sexteto Major Vida Pasión Y Tango (Intuition INTCHR71301). At the press release declares, this tango sextet (founded in 1973) “respectfully continues the philosophy and tradition of the founders of the genre”. “Without really adding anything new”, it should add. Their impeccably-played original and classic material (Piazzolla, etc) sit perhaps too comfortably together; surprises are con- spicuously absent.


@ Enda Seery The Winding Clock (Own label ESTWC00). The tin whistle’s not at all bad on this selection of Irish tunes, but the guitar sounds as though it’s been strung with cheese wire and there’s apparently a cat try- ing to escape from a cardboard box though it’s credited here as a bodhrán player. http://endaseery.com


2 David Gibb There Are Birds In My Gar- den (Hairpin Records Hairpin 001). On his sec- ond album, Derbyshire-based BBC Young Folk Award nominee brings a passionate and sur- prisingly invigorating twist to folk tradition that complements his own exuberant songs, here with his band The Pony Club setting out to capture the energy of his live shows. www.davidgibb.com


2 Eddie & Charlie Palmieri Salsa Broth- ers (Nascente NSDCD024). Lubo Jovanovic penned the informed bios for this two-disc retrospective, one devoted to each of the Nuyorican brother pianists whose work helped to define salsa and Latin jazz via the mostly mid–1970s historical tracks featured here. www.demonmusicgroup.co.uk/nascente


2 Various Artists 4 Blues Guitar Masters (Dixiefrog DFGCD 8703). Magic Slim, Bill Perry, and Joe Louis Walker get four numbers apiece to wield their axe expertise while Lucky Peterson gets five. The down-home style of Magic Slim provides a rough contrast with the highly developed contemporary fretwork of the other three guitarists, giving the album an added spectrum. www.bluesweb.com


2 Bidaia Agur Shiva (Own label VOC2238). Meaty third album from Basque singer- guitarist/multi-instrumentalist Mixel Ducau in strong harmony with singer/hurdy-gurdyist partner Caroline Phillips, with leading ses- sioners including stone txalaparta and oud, creating distinctive celebration of traditional forms such as zortziko, banako, fandango and arin-arin, touched by Indian, Middle East- ern and blues. www.bidaia.com


1 Lura The Best Of Lura (Lusafrica 562652). Cherry-picking the first decade of the Cape Verdean hopeful’s output, this col- lection of morna, coladeira, funaná, batuku and the odd dodgy/MOR diversion is a decent introduction, with two previously unreleased tracks (including her duet with Cesaria Evora) plus a DVD but no sleevenotes. No real sparks but plenty of smoulder. www.myspace.com/luracaboverde


Lula Pena


@ Blima Express (Tierra TDCD 012). Tunes and songs from Asturian melodeon-led quin- tet with guitar, fiddle, bass, plus sessioners on fuzzed electric guitar, brass, drumkit etc. Material largely Asturian trad or original, but without checking the sleeve, and if it weren’t for the limp female vocals in Asturiano, in sound it could be a folk band from almost anywhere in western Europe. www.myspace.com/blima


1 Vindrosa Østenfor Sol (Vagabond Music VM001). Stavanger-based 12-piece reworking Norwegian trad songs with inno- vatively varied approaches – folk-rock, jazzy swing, Middle-Eastern and Caribbean hints – and wide instrumentation including Iranian santoor, Portuguese guitar etc. An impressive project, though the female lead singer’s over- emoting Britney gasp’n’sob technique could be irritating. www.vagabondmusic.no


2 Nils Økland & Sigbjørn Apeland Lysøen (ECM 274 0246). In tribute to Nor- way’s famous 19th Century violinist, compos- er and improviser Ole Bull, Økland on hardanger fiddle and gut-strung violin and Apeland on piano and harmonium play, with calming stillness and airy delicacy, material traditional, composed and improvised, associ- ated with or inspired by Bull, beautifully recorded in his ornate wooden villa on Lysøen, ‘island of light’. www.ecmrecords.com


2 Dolores Solá Salto Mortal (Ojo! Records OJO004). A varied and imaginative take on songs previously known from the repertoires of early 20th Century Argentinean legends Carlos Gardel, Ignacio Corsini and Agustín Nagaldi. Solá’s voice has something of Cristóbal Repetto’s ‘old gramophone’ feel, and the arrangements for tango, waltz, fox trot, pasodoble and more add contemporary twists. (UK distribution: Discovery.) www.discovery-records.com


2 Andreas Bjørkås Veiskille (Etnisk Musikklubb EM52). Tunes from Norway’s Oppdal – largely sprengleks and waltzes – played with robust lift and accessible direct- ness by winner of the top prize for ordinary fiddle at 2010’s Landskappleik, with the foot- stamp that helps so much in understanding the rhythms. Jjoined for some by second fid- dle, octave fiddle, guitar, mandola or man- dolin. www.emcd.no


DVD


1 Various Artists The Co-operative Cam- bridge Folk Festival 2010 (DVD) (Delphonic DELPH008). Two-hour showcase for one of the biggest names on the UK festival calendar, bringing its typically eclectic menu (Lakeman, Fowlis and Americana to Imagined Village, Levellers, Eliza C) directly into our homes. Usual caveat (too much a taster maybe, but still worth dipping into); nuff said. (UK distri- bution: Proper.) www.properdistribution.com


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