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The ethically correct Putumayo albums not only make us feel good but generally they sound good as well. This collection pulls together 12 diverse and strong examples of Americana, a category so broad that, like America, almost anything fits. So we have folk-soul, country-soul, country-folk, bluegrass, Texas swing and whatever you're having yourself. There is also a good blend of the tried and trusted and some newer names. Highlights include Chip Taylor and Carrie Rodriguez's light-fingered, swinging Sweet Tequila Blues, the Little Willies' It's Not You, It's Me(with Norah Jones in seductive mood) and Ruthie Foster's rousing Hole in my Pocket. There is nothing earthshifting here, but then that is not Americana's strongest suit - this is music of the heart not the head, although there is plenty to provoke thought. www.putumayo.com - Joe Breen

Download tracks: Sweet Tequila Blues, Prayer for My Friends, Harrisburg

Hawaiian-born roots singer/songwriter/guitarist/harmonica player Chad Dughi may have made Galway his home but the style and inspiration for his music still lies in America. And if the specific inspiration for this, his third album, is homelessness in the world's only superpower today, then the style is borrowed from the 1950s and 1960s heyday of social protest songs, Sing Out! magazine and Woody Guthrie. It is hard to resist his clarion-call harmonica, which punches out an emotional brace of notes just when spirits flag. And spirits can flag because the songs seem to dance too much to the same time while the storyteller lyrics err on the side of loquaciousness, an inevitable product of the type of talking blues in which Dughi specialises. But songs such as Many People, Buckeye Road Bluesand One of these Daysshow the strength of his writing, his singing, his nimble finger-style playing and his convictions. - Joe Breen

Download tracks: Many People, One of these Days