Roots/Traditional

Sean Tyrrell: "The Orchard" (Longwalk Music)

There's a serious Roy Harper-ish originality to this guy, even though he sings a lot of other people's songs and trad anthems such as Wild Mountain Thyme, letting the songs trail off into disintegrating a cappella in space-tinged, ambient soundscapes. Excellently produced by himself and Davy Spillane, it's got guitar texturist Greg Boland, alongside native music from Liam Lewis, Josephine Marsh and John Kelly. Superb is the feeling satire of Bad Luck To This Marchin, a 19th-century poem by Charles Lever ("Sure it's better beat Christians than kick a baboon") chillier still is The Ghost Of Billy Mulhihill, a song worthy of Nick Cave, or Ruth Dillon's One Eye Open. My eyes, or ears, certainly were. Mic Moroney

Marc Ribot: "Y Los Cubanos Postizos (The Prosthetic Cubans)" (Atlantic)

Ribot's name should ring a bell in the heads of Tom Waits and Elvis Costello fans. His fractured, slightly off-centre guitar playing has graced their albums in the past. This solo collection is inspired by, and is a tribute to, Arsenio Rodriguez; "the late, great Cuban composer, guitarist, tres player and bandleader". Most of the 10 mainly instrumental tracks were either written or recorded by him during a career of almost three decades before he died in 1972. That's the background. The music, however, is timeless, especially as Ribot and his friends imbue it with the kind of sepia cool that makes listening a sweet, swinging pleasure. as or the opening Aurora en Pekin. This is clearly a labour of love, executed with a deft touch and a genuine affection for the music. Recommended. Joe Breen

Various Artists: "Songs of Irish Labour" (Bread & Roses)

Whatever culture the working man has nowadays, this album digs into the quicklime for James Connolly's A Rebel Song and The Watchword Of Labour, amid other ballads. They're delivered in great stout diphthongs of old Dubbalin by various singers over a mournful rubbly banjo, to solemnly commemorate 1913, Connolly, Larkin and Robert Noonan, author of The Ragged Trousered Philanthropist. Apart from those by Martin Whelan (Talk To Me Of Freedom Ain't Bad), Tommy Sands and Ewan McColl i Mhurchu), they're the songs are mostly of "soldier's song" vintage, including Peadar Kearney's Labour's Call. As for Connolly, they don't write lines like "the serf who licks the tyrant's rod" any more. Definitely one for special occasions. Mic Moroney