Blair Dunlop

"Time and tide wait for no man," so the saying goes. But ever since her EP, Tide & Time, came out in 2016, many have been waiting expectantly to hear Somerset singer-songwriter Kitty Macfarlane's debut album. On September 21 the wait will be over as this fine young acoustic artist unveils the beguiling release 'Namer Of Clouds.' Produced by fellow musicians Sam Kelly and Jacob Stoney and released on Navigator Records, this is a captivating album. Her sharply observed narrative songs are pure poetry, rich with visual imagery and written with an eco-eye woven loosely together into a theme of mankind's relationship with the wild. Gathering inspiration from the sky to the seabed, Kitty's lyrics touch on intervention and rewilding, climate change and migration and one singular song which is a magical aural tapestry of woman's historical relationship with textiles and the land. The album is augmented by all kinds of 'found sound' recorded in locations from Somerset to Sardinia birdsong, waterfalls, the click of knitting needles- and is bookended by sounds of the wild.

Southern roots rockers Larkin Poe were formed around core members Rebecca and Megan Lovell, formerly the Lovell Sisters. A bit edgier and rockier than the Lovell Sisters, Larkin Poe's electric and slide guitar riffs quickly earned them comparisons to the Allman Brothers. After introducing their sound on a set of seasonal EPs in 2010, they topped the Billboard blues chart with their fourth long-player, 2018's Venom & Faith. Based in Atlanta, Georgia, Larkin Poe took shape after the Lovell Sisters called it a day in 2009. The sisters, a bluegrass/Americana trio comprised of siblings Rebecca, Megan, and Jessica Lovell, had started performing professionally in 2005 when all three were still in their teens.