Albums by Bob Dylan; Ruthie Foster; and Arty McGlynn, Chris Newman, Nollaig Casey and Máire Ní Chathasaigh impress.

RUTHIE FOSTER

The Phenomenal Ruthie Foster

Proper

If ever there was an album for the times we live in, The Phenomenal Ruthie Fosteris it. This is a bling- free zone, where songs of hope, friendship, love and pride are pulled together into old-style country-soul-gospel by Malcolm "Papa Mali" Welbourne's tasteful production and Foster's compelling, sonorous voice.

This east Texas singer-songwriter has been around for a decade or more, though this is the first of her albums to cross the Atlantic. There are traces of Tracy Chapman and the likes of Aretha Franklin in Foster's singing of these confident, outspoken songs, packed with rural wisdom.

Five of the 11 tracks are her own, but she manages to make the rest her own as well, with an intense delivery buttressed by rocking Wurlitzer piano and soaring gospel choruses. Impressive.

www.ruthiefoster.com

JOE BREEN

Download tracks: Phenomenal Woman, I Don't Know What to Do With My Heart, People Grinnin' In Your Face

ARTY MCGLYNN, CHRIS NEWMAN, NOLLAIG CASEY AND MÁIRE NÍ CHATHASAIGH

Heartstring Sessions

Claddagh Records

Arty McGlynn's and Nollaig Casey's individual and shared contributions have reverberated in the work of everyone from Van Morrison to Riverdanceto John Carty.

Nollaig's sister, Máire Ní Chathasaigh, and Chris Newman have quietly forged a formidable reptutation for themselves as well, a harp-and- guitar pairing that's long jettisoned cosy notions of how these strings might intertwine.

Heartstring Sessionsis a tightrope walk into uncommon worlds. Chris and Arty trade drumtight licks on Merle Travis's Saturday Night Shuffle, while the quartet tackle Lament for Limerickand excavate their souls in the process. This is traditional music at its very best: crossing boundaries, tapping our own tunes alongside bluegrass and ragtime borrowings. Many lifetimes' worth of music.

www.oldbridgemusic.com

SIOBHÁN LONG

Download tracks: Wild Goose Chase, The Old Bush

BOB DYLAN

Tell Tale Signs: Rare and Unreleased 1989-2006 (Bootleg Series Vol 8)

Columbia

This latest release in the official series of bootlegs of songs that never turned up on any of his records proves two indisputable facts about Bob Dylan: that his "cast-offs" are often better than the songs that make it on his albums, and that his protean sensibilities ensure he continuously tinkers with his material to the point where no one is too certain about anything.

A case in point is Mississippi, which Dylan recorded for 1997's Time Out of Mindbut eventually drifted onto 2001's Love and Theft. There are two versions here, which might seem unnecessary, but the arrangements divide them into two distinct songs; each is superb. Highlights are many, and musical filler rare. It's yet another example of the master craftsman singer-songwriter fine-tuning his art.

www.bobdylan.com

TONY CLAYTON-LEA

Download tracks: Everything Is Broken, Huck's Tune, Series of Dreams