The Driving Test
A Musical Car Ride
Whilst we would love to give every album/EP/single a full indepth review,we are only human and don't have a time turner so we aren't able to give every release the time and attention it deserves.
In the past that would have ment that we either reviewed a release or we didn't, but now we have a third option, a middle way.
The solution here has been a simple one. Rather than review individual artists' CD's at length, we play them one after the other on a long car journey. The simple listening test is: "are they bearable in the car - interesting, enjoyable, not distracting". This may not be how the artists want us to hear their work, but it's how a lot gets listened to for the first time and at least raises awarenes! The rating system is simple and provides a shorthand for reference.:
Cambridge Ceilidh All Stars - Copper And Brass ****
ccas.bandcamp.com/album/coppers-and-brass
As they say it's an ill wind that blows nobody any good. The Cambridge Ceilidh All Stars only exist because there wasn't a Cambridge Folk Festival in 2025, but there was a family festival at Cherry Hinton and The Cambridge Ceilidh All Stars were put together by Keith Day to provide the dance band for the occasion. What was assembled was a ceilidh band taken from the top of the crop of local musicians, including a brass section. Hundreds of people danced and everyone, in the field and on the stage had a great time, such a good time that the band headed into the studio to male a metaphysical record. Copper And Brass is the fruit of that session, raw in places, but definitely catching the spirit of what it's all about and there's some more dates in the pipeline. NK
Matt Tighe and Tad Sergeant - Home Grown *****
matttighe.bandcamp.com/album/home-grown
There is an irony in this review being late, given that we reviewed the launch gig at the Green Note back in January, a cracking night by the way. Home Grown is an album that seems to be a constant victim of circumstance. Fiddler Matt Tighe and multi-instrumentalist Tad Sergeant were rising stars of the instrumental scene at the turn of the decade, Matt's debut album and session appearances had seen them rising in stature, the studio beckoned and Home Grown, was laid down and then covid hit. Tad headed off to Wales and Matt to Glasgow and Home Grown gathered dust. Another music project brought them back together and the decision was made, now. The dust was blown off, a bit of polish applied and Home Grown finally got to see the light of day. It's an album that not only fulfils the promises of the expectation it was under at the time, this Brian McNeill produced cut really is full of the joys of life. NK
Erik Stucky - Bag Of Bones ***
www.erikstucky.com
Raised in Western Colorado and based in Nashville, mandolinist Stucky follows his two albums with a 5-track EP that slides between blues, Americana and folksier colours. The pursued by the devil title track opener is a brooding blues lurcher with a voodoo groove with a similar mood informing the closing 'Crying Side' with its Latin-flavoured hand percussion rhythm and pulsing strings. Again with strings, 'Night Train' is of a more chugging Americana persuasion with appropriate railroad rhythm and a hook refrain, the stand outs though are the cello coloured, slow melancholic country of the hard scrabble life etched in 'Jealous Of The Wind' and, with fiddle and plucked mandolin, the slow walking, crooned dusty troubadour restless soul ache of 'Because You're Right' with its memorable refrain "because you're right doesn't make me wrong". MD
Lisa Cerborn - No Where I Have Been ****
www.lisacerbonemusic.com
Lisa Cerbone's Nowhere I Have Ever Been feels like the quiet unveiling of a songwriter who has spent decades learning how to make small moments glow. As her sixth release, the album carries the ease and assurance of someone who has been writing and producing music since the 1990s, yet it still arrives with the intimacy of a whispered confidence. What strikes you first is the gentleness of her storytelling - Nosongs shaped by family lore, New Jersey memories, and the soft ache of inherited histories. Cerbone has always had a gift for turning the ordinary into something luminous, and here she leans into that strength with a kind of unhurried grace. The production, shaped alongside Mark Kozelek, wraps her voice in warm, spacious arrangements that feel lived in rather than polished. AI
Vilma Talvite - Olio/Alien***
www.vilmatalvitie.com
Finnish singer songwriter Vilma Talvitie returns with her second album, Olio / Alien, a work steeped in movement, memory, and the strange beauty of feeling out of place. Released on Eclipse Music, it's an acoustic exploration of otherness-emotional, cultural, and geographical. The title track, born during her first visit to Istanbul, captures that moment when the world tilts and everything familiar dissolves. Across the album, she leans into what she calls nomad folk, a style shaped by a decade of travelling through more than 30 countries. You hear it in the Hungarian folk reinterpretation, in the echoes of Finnish runo song tradition, and in the subtle threads of Balkan and Turkish influence woven through the arrangements. These songs feel like postcards from shifting identities. Talvitie's Piano Body Percussion concept remains central: claps, snaps, knocks, and the thrum of her own body become part of the instrumentation and whilst I've only awarded three stars, I acknowledge that this is not an instant album and will probably grow on me with more playing. I intend to make the effort. AI
Quartet Draig - Gwlad y Gân ****
quartetdraig.co.uk
Gwlad y Gân is an album steeped in the living grain of Welsh musical heritage, drawing together works that speak to Wales as a true Land of Song. At its heart is a new commission from North Wales composer Cameron Biles Liddell, set alongside the first ever recording of Huw Watkins's String Quartet No. 1, and Quartet Draig's own folk touched creations from their evolving collection Am Awen. After touring the programme across north Wales in late 2024, the quartet captured it at T? Cerdd Studios in April 2025. Cellist Tabitha Selley describes the project as "the result of the months of work spent bringing this project to light", recalling how it began with Biles Liddell's desire to write another quartet and a shared wish to explore Welsh heritage through "landscape, imagery and song". The group also wanted to honour the dialogue between Welsh and English composers, celebrating "their complementary musical output". This is something really special, chamber folk with a Welsh accent. AI
Fatea Showcase Sessions
The Fatea Showcase Sessions are a series of downloads featuring acts that we've really enjoyed and think that more people should get the chance to hear.
Pirate is the current session and features 16 fantastic artists check out the website to find out more about them and download your copy
www.fatea-showcase-sessions.co.uk for all the artist information.