George Sansome

One third of BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Award nominees Granny's Attic, Sansome releases his solo debut. This self-titled album is a set of traditional songs produced by Ben Walker and beautifully performed by Sansome. The songs are captured up-close and personal – Sansome's high level of performance means that as a listener you can all but climb inside them and roam around, taking on their weights and measures. It opens with ‘Collier Lass’, a vivid depiction of hard labour and hardier spirit; its lines ‘for we would provide you with life's greatest blessing/so do not despise a poor collier lass’ will find a strong echo in the hailing of frontline workers in the current pandemic. ‘The Bold Princess Royal’ is a classic seafaring adventure, our bold heroes fighting off French privateers in a big, popular song handled by everyone from Walter Pardon to Bob Copper.

Other choices are less familiar, but no less absorbing, such as the seduction song ‘Gown of Green’, wherein a lone mother with babe in arms is reunited with her wounded soldier lover, or ‘The Bleaches So Green’, a more gimlet-eyed take on love, marriage and seduction. As with many a classic folk ballad, all of life – good, bad and outrageous – can be found herein.