West

The Scottish harpist and singer – one quarter of the acclaimed Furrow Collective, and winner of the 2017 BBC Radio 2 Folk Musician of the Year – offers her fourth solo album, following on from the excellent Here's My Heart Come Take It. Recorded in her late grandparents' croft house in Achnahaird, Wester Ross, West hears Newton alone, with just her acoustic and electric harps and voice, and no other supporting musicians in earshot. The croft house was where she spent her childhood summers; those years inform the album. While suggestive of the epic scale of its locale, there is a quiet intensity of focus and invention.

One of her most beautiful albums to date, West draws its inspiration from the surrounding landscape and Newton's memories, showing her the way into the interior of tunes such as ‘Maid of Neidpath’, Peggy Seeger's ‘Once I Had a True Love’ and Dolly Parton's ‘Jolene’, a perhaps surprising choice but a memorable album closer.