Hannah Peel

Broken Wave Static Caravan***

Quite a few more-than- interesting artists have been crossing over from the UK folk music scene, notably Karine Polwart, The Unthanks and Tuung, who have all of fused tradition with sensible approaches to modernity. Yorkshire-raised Hannah Peel is the latest, a woman strongly influenced by Irish traditional music courtesy of her musician father. What Peel brings to the cross-fertilisation party is in some ways similar to Polwart's approach: stitch fragile folk melodies with steely threads of highly serviceable singer- songwriter pop and just the right degree of alt.folk quirkiness (which, in Peel's case, might be down to the production by Tuung's Mike Lindsey). Such a beguiling mixture is what makes original songs The Almond Treeand Solitude so downright lovely, and traditional tracks The Parting Glassand Cailin Deas Cruite No Mboso durable. See myspace.com/hanpeel

Download tracks: The Almond Tree, Solitude, Unwound