Edwina Hayes has made a fine new CD. Pour Me A Drink is a collection of beautiful songs simply recorded. Her previous album 'Out On My Own' is also worth listening to, especially 'I Can't Believe'.

Previously...

Well, this week's favourite has got to be Ruth Notman's 'Threads'. I heard 'Roaming' on the Bob Harris show and before the track finished I was on Amazon's site ordering a copy. I was certainly not disappointed by the rest of the album. This is folk fare, but after thirty or forty years of listening to traditional songs they get a little tired. Ruth Notman does them with just enough of a twist to make them interesting again. Excellent! (Buy it from Fish Records)

I put Unglamorous by Lori McKenna into the machine with great trepidation. Bittertown is such an amazing album and Pieces Of Me is almost as good and I knew the only way was down. I was prepared for disappointment. I'm so happy to report that it didn't happen - Lori McKenna has done it again! If you like songs that are keenly observed glimpses of real life beautifully performed this is the album for you.

Sometimes you just don't get what somebody is doing. That happened to me when I first heard Yasmin Levy on the Charlie Gillett show. He was absolutely captivated by her live performance and I just didn't understand what he was on about. Years later I picked up a copy of 'Romance and Yasmin' and it was some of the most beautiful music I have ever heard. I can't really say what happened in the intervening years to change the way I listened but it may have something to do with the music of Loreena McKennit which in places shares the same Middle Eastern roots.

I didn't pick up on Mari Boine for years either. This time it was because I hadn't heard anything by her - it seems that the Scandinavian music scene is a bit isolated from the rest of Europe - you won't be surprised at me saying that if you've ever tried to buy a CD from a Scandinavian web site...they seem to entirely disregard the rest of the world. So far I have managed to lay hands on Balvvoslatjna, Gávcci jahkejuogu, Gula Gula, Idjagiedas and Leahkastin and they are all excellent. Mari doesn't have her own web site but you can find her on MySpace.

I also missed Over The Rhine until I happened to hear a song in the background of a TV programme. It's great that you can use the Internet to figure out what is being played on the TV these days and I quickly found that it was 'Latter Days' from Good Dog, Bad Dog. Since then I've picked up Ohio, Discount Fireworks, Films For Radio and Drunkard's Prayer. They have a new release that you can hear in full on their website - it will give you a flavour of their music but if your taste is like mine I'd start with Good Dog, Bad Dog.

At least I didn't miss Catherine Feeny. Bob Harris played a track in May and I was instantly captivated - you can hear the album on her site. They're playing Mr Blue on the TV adverts - that track doesn't sit well with the rest for me so make sure you hear 'Shape You're In' before you decide if you like her music.

If you're looking for something a bit more bluesy and powerful I can heartily recommend the Black Keys. Once again it took me some time to see what they were trying to do but Magic Factory is certainly a great album.

Chantal Kreviazuk, who I have previously recommended, has a new album called Ghost Stories. It's not an earth-shaker and I'd choose Colour, Moving and Still as a starting point if you haven't heard her music before, but it's well worth buying.

Here are the top twenty artists by hitcount: