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Website: http://www.myspace.com/garyfulton

"Dark Water" should be the album that turns Gary Fulton from being one of the best underground troubadour style folk and blues artists to one that stands on a par with the likes of Nick Harper and Rory McLeod, at least for his generation. "Dark Water" is a regularly occuring theme in folk music. It's mention in song is normally accompanied by a loss or at least a fight against adversity and it's good to have a contemporary singer adding to that particular canon. It's an album rich in imagary, stories, journies and people, fingers crossed it's enough to bring Gary the recognition he deserves.

Fran McGillivray Mike Burke

Album:The Road That You Believe In

Website: http://www.franmike.com

Having taken time out from being a folk/blues duo back in the late seventies to raise a family, Fran McGillivary and Mike Burke, returned to performing and recording with "Restless", an album they've just trumped with a new album "The Road That You Belive In". Stripped back to the basics, it's an album of such subtle beauty it could breathe life into the coldest of hearts. Similarly it's and album that'll have you convinced the Thames Estuary feeds into the Mississippi Delta. The songs are a collection of self penned and traditional, I don't think I've heard a stronger "Wayfaring Stranger".

Website: http://www.myspace.com/zacharris

Zac Harris is a name that's probably only recognised in East Dorset and it's environs at the moment, but his star continues to rise since his victory in Blandford's Battle Of The Bands a few years back. "Episode 2" sees him moving forward as a songwriter and performer, identifying the next development in his career. The EP is harder, than his previous cut, more band driven, but not at the expense of his writing or fretboard work. Harris already hasa maturity beyond his years and he seems to have learnt from his experiences well and moves forward in leaps and bounds.

Website: http://www.thinkermusic.co.uk

It's not long ago that Thinker would have been labelled a crustie band and having been catagorised thus been put out into a field and left to rot. Fortunately times have swung back the other way and it's easy to see the likes of Thinker can be seen as the natural successors to the likes of The Men They Couldn't Hang. Support slots with Mark Chadwick and 3 Daft Monkey's are helping to raise their profile, but not as much as delivering a passionate, powerful and at times political debut album will. Essentially a folk power trio, there's a real drive to both band and sound.

Album:Tell Me One Thing New

Website: www.louiselemay.com

If you could imagine The Sundays with a slightly more French dream pop sound, rather than English indie influenced, you would be close to getting under the skin of Louise Le May. "Tell Me One Thing That Is New" is quite an apocryphal album, whilst it wears it's influences on it's sleeve, it's the way it combines those influences into something that can only be described as Louise Le May. The richness of the vocal, the depth of the instrumentation, always finding new things to reveal. It's just such a natural feeling album. Part dream, part cathartic, wholy inspiratopnal songs.

EP:A Handful Of Pennies

Website: http://www.myspace.com/lucydayband

It can still be tough being a female vocalist trying to break through on the circuit. Too much from your own experience and you're a diary singer. Add a bit of character and the words quirky will surely follow. Sing with an accent, wait for affected. Actually it doesn't matter a jot, if being a good songwriter with individuality and a strange take on the world counts against you the world really hasd turned on it's head. "A Handful Of Pennies" from Lucy Day may only be four tracks, but it's a damnsight more than a pocketful of loose change. Great hooks and melodies makes this eminently listenable

Album:Bread And Buddha

Website: http://www.myspace.com/harrymanx

I may not be sure about the title, but I'm definitely sure about the contents, Harry Manx has a genuine spiritual feel to his blues that seems to be inherent regardless of the genre he's combining those blues with, folk, country or even Indian tabla, perhaps the latter more than most. He also appears to have a knack of finding backing and supporting vocalists capable of adding a really sympathetic finishing touch. The one flaw is that occasionally it becomes a little too mawkish, too sentimental. It's an awkward line to walk on and sometimes he just tips over it.

Album:Time To Get Real

Website: http://www.myspace.com/benreelband

I guess when it comes to the blues, growing up in Ireland gives you a real introduction to spirit and passion and not always in a good way. There's lots to inspire and Ben Reel has absorbed those influences and let them inform his particular style of travelling blues. "Time To Get Real" isn't a calssic troubadour album, but it is deep hearted blues packed with characters, places and just a wee bit of drinking. The songs are strong through out, all could standalone without being thought of as filler. Time to step up from being a solid support to being the headliner.

Album:All Will Be Well

Website: http://www.myspace.com/customblue

If Simon & Garfunkle had developed an interest in trippy pop rather than a hatred for each other then we may be talking about Custom Blue as a tribute band, but as they, we can talk about "All Will Be Well" as a luscious dream pop album, rich in harmonies and tinged with enough electronica to give it that other worldly feel. There is a layered feel about the album, a sense that the song peels it's self open to reveal more of it's self to the listener. It's a hook that works well most of the time, ensuring it holds your attention enough to give the lyrics a chance to weave a spell.

Woodpecker Wooliams

Label:Autumn Ferment

Website: http://www.myspace.com/woodpeckerwooliams

One of the things I love about the natural world is that it's not always the well order aspects of the world that hold beauty, a stone stack, seemingly weathered at random by wind and storm holds as much beauty as the well ordered columns of a honeycomb. Similarly in music non harmonised, almost dischordant instruments can be pulled together to make a cacophony of sound and ideas that seem to work even though you feel they shouldn't. Whilst Woodpecker Williams' voice often has a gentle flowing quality to it, the instrumentation on "Diving Down" is clashing and abrupt.

Website: http://www.myspace.com/sukilove

More indie rock and electric than we'd normally cover, Sukilove hail from Belgium and are due to tour in the UK later in the year. The reason we've included "Static Moves" is because it's an album of two halves. Songs like "Contemplaying" have a really mellow acoustic undertone that offsets the more aggressive driving tracks that would otherwise power a relentless drive. There's also a few jazz techniques thrown in for good measure which allows individual songs to turn on a note or time signature. It's well thought out and elevates the album rfrom it's peers.

Album:Help The Overdog

Label:Autumn Ferment

Website: http://www.myspace.com/flakebrown

Flake Brown has already had the term alt.folk applied to his music, but it really goes beyond that. "Help The Overdog" is well thought out, orginal and quirky, but as with much that pushes the envelope, it's not consistent. It reminds me as a folk equivilent of Monty Python or Spike Milligan, there are moments of real genius, sketches(songs) that will be long remembered by those that saw them, but it's mixed in with material that doesn't quite work, doomed to be mentioned by hardcorp fans when they explain how a better idea came along based on this idea a few years later.