I Speak Because I Can - Laura Marling

Here it is at last:

It includes 'Alpha Shallows' and 'Goodbye England (Covered In Snow)' which, if you are a fan of 7" vinyl, you will recognise from that format.

I've just listened to it all for the first time, twice back-to back, and the result is oddly as damning as it is a revelation. The album is quite remarkable and yet I should have known that this kind of music could be so rooted in time and simultaneously so fresh.

There are two sides to this observation: I now think I could be better versed in the first wave of new-folk, realized well before she was born and 'Rambling Man' is a case in point; and I'm now acutely aware that this is not something in isolation here in the UK but rather that it lies on a wider plane.

I could find out about a new artist of this genre every few days without trying, which makes me think that this summer's festivals could be very interesting indeed and more on that soon, but equally I now know I need to listen to the classics of the first blooming that have to some extent passed me by. Joni Mitchell is one that comes to mind but I can think of plenty of others...

It is not that the new generation necessarily sounds like them, rather it is the influence and the ethos that matter.