The latest CD releases reviewed

DEVON SPROULE
Keep Your Silver Shined City Salvage Records ****

You'd want to be an awful hardass to dislike this engaging, slightly wacky, always musical album of delightful coffee-shop folk-country-pop-swing. This is Sproule's second album after an avalanche of praise for her debut, Upstate Songs. That kind of attention can make life difficult, but Virginia-native Sproule has an easy way with a colourful lyric, chronicling the giddy bohemian life of herself and her inner circle, including husband musician Paul Curreri. And yet the most arresting song carries a darker tone. Dress Sharp, Play Well, Be Modest is part Lucinda Williams, part Lou Reed, a more bleached-out view of the world. But mostly she is redolent of a together Victoria Williams, and her singing, songwriting and musicianship signals a serious talent. (Mary Chapin Carpenter fans might note that she sings on the final track, a heartfelt verion of the traditional The Weeping Willow). www.devonsproule.com  Joe Breen

ANDY PALACIO & THE GARIFUNA COLLECTIVE
Watina Cumbancha ****

Vernacular music reached its peak with the recording of The Buena Vista Social Club, and thanks to Ry Cooder our ears have been tuned more enthusiastically in the direction of the Caribbean ever since. Wátina is a fascinating stroll through the music of Belize, Honduras and Guatamala, and specifically the music of the Garifuna peoples, descendants of a consignment of west African slaves shipwrecked off the coast of St Vincent in the 17th century. Belize's Andy Palacio brings a laconic presence to a mix that's got one foot firmly in the present (acoustic guitar, dobro) and the other dabbling unselfconsciously in the past (where rum bottles double as claves and kitchen tables metamorphose into the most sublime percussion instruments). The seamlessness of this musical time travel will spellbind the most indifferent listener. www.cumbancha.com  Siobhán Long