Nanci Griffith: "Other Voices, Too (A Trip Back to Bountiful)" (Electra)

This 18-track collection is not merely the second instalment of a sound idea - covers of great songs by great songwriters in the (mostly) folk idiom - but an impressive and affectionate recording in its own right. Surrounded by heroes and heroines, supported by a fine band and supervised intelligently and sensitively by producer Jim Rooney, Griffith and friends breath life into songs as disparate as If I Had A Hammer, Walk Right Back, Desperadoes Waiting For A Train and Wings Of A Dove, each a party piece worthy of its place. And there is none better than Woody Guthrie's Deportee with Lucinda Williams, Tish Hinojosa, Odetta, Steve Earle and John Stewart helping out on an epic version. Joe Breen

Moving Cloud: "Foxglove" (Green Linnet)

The tune itself - or better, the turn in the tune - is all-important to this lively, waltz-coloured Clare five-piece with their old-style, set-dance bounce. Bigger in America than here, they're backed by Ringo McDonagh, Garry O Briain, Gerry O Connor and Trevor Hutchinson. The tunes are local or researched from manuscripts, tune books and old Irish-American recordings, with the odd Cape Breton or French musette thrown in. The emphasis is less on virtuosity than robust renditions, but there are no flies on the musicians: flutter-fingered Paul Brock's accordions and melodeons; fiddlers Maeve Donnelly and drowsy Manus McGuire. Underscoring all this melody, apart from Kevin Crawford's overdubbed flute/whistle harmonies on Knocknagoshel, Carl Hession is definitive to the mix, tilting every tune with his bright, frolicsome piano. Mic Moroney

Theresa Larkin and Noel McQuaid: "In The Middle Of The Night" (Rosemount Music)

From Erris direction, an album of mostly simple sessions of reels, hornpipes and jigs with a solid old-fashioned groove, recorded with some very interesting layering. Larkin divides her skills between fife, whistle, fiddle, accordion and piano, while Noel McQuaid takes melodic lines on mandolin, bouzouki and banjo. They break into French waltzes here and there, and O'Carolan's Mister O'Connor is very nicely done with cello. The whole album has this bouncy, borderline-baroque feel, and you often wonder where the edgy little rhythms are coming from, until you spot Steve Cooney's name, written somewhere small as producer, or credited with playing various instruments. And hark the "pastoral" of the title track: it's got the Midas paw-prints of Cooney all over it. Mic Moroney