Rooted

After 2017's Trails & Tribulations, Rooted again boasts contributions from Nancy Kerr, John Smith and Andy Cutting and also includes another nod to Jackson C Frank with ‘Kimbie’, leading on nicely from Trails' ‘Blues Run the Game’. Political concerns feature throughout, wrapped in beautiful music; ‘Neo’ is a fun singalong version of ‘Ragtime Millionaire’ with sharp teeth and David L Grimes' ‘Born Human’ is a disguised comment on environmental disaster, here played to a cracking banjo tune.

Juxtaposing the heavier topics are songs like album highlight ‘Kingfsher’, which showcases Simpson's picking skills in a gorgeous piece of Traveller folk music set to a Dick Gaughan tune and ‘Who's Going to Shoe Your Pretty Little Foot?’, a lovely little sentimental piece and the lightest here. The final song, ‘More Tan Enough’, is a touching tribute to Simpson's late father-in-law Roy Bailey, who carried it in his repertoire for many years. It completes a highly listenable set of songs, old and new, all impeccably performed, with insightful liner notes. And if you go for the deluxe version, you also get Seeded, a charming EP of instrumental versions of selected album tracks.