This Mercury prize nominee continues to shake up the folk scene with this second album packed with drama and surprise. Sam Lee again concentrates on traditional songs he learned from Gypsy travellers; they are performed in no-nonsense, almost crooned style, but with startlingly original settings. So the opening Jonny O’ the Brine matches edgy, insistent percussion against wailing brass and ukulele effects, while Bonny Bunch of Roses starts with an archive recording of an eastern European cantor mixed with flute, violin and percussion. The most emotional songs are bravely straightforward but quite unexpected: on Lovely Molly he is backed by the exquisite massed voices of the Roundhouse Choir, while the poignant Moss House features just the piano of co-producer Arthur Jeffes, of Penguin Café. Surely one of the albums of the year.
