This week's roots releases reviewed

SAM BAKER

Cotton Music Road Records *****

This is the third of a remarkable trilogy of albums by a singular artist. Mercyand Pretty Worldsought reconcilation with a world that could turn beauty into bloody mayhem, as Texan Sam Baker found out when caught in a train bomb in Peru some 20 years ago. Cotton explores the concept of forgiveness; it's that simple and that complex. Baker's voice is a rasping soft brush on words, chiselled from experience and washed with tears. The sweet country/folk melodies are swathed in sombre piano lines and rich female harmonies, which create a stage of contrast – beauty, sadness, pain, forgiveness, life. This is also an album about searching; you can almost sense Baker's need to find resolution in these songs about fragmented lives, to find some form of closure, as he sings in Snow: "Talk about forgiveness/Help me understand." www.sambakermusic. com

Download tracks: Cotton, Angel Hair, Snow

JEFF & VIDA

Selma Chalk Rosebank Records ***

This duo has played various nooks and crannies around Ireland for the past month – and no doubt made as big an impression as they do on Selma Chalk, their fourth album. Jeff Burke and Vida Wakeman have been together since they met up in New York more than a decade ago, sharing a love of bluegrass and presumably the road. They are not your typical bluegrass duo (Wakeman was born in Calfiornia and raised in Europe, while Burke hails from New Jersey), but their blend of voices, intricate souped-up interplay and traditonal songcraft coated with a modern sensibility make them a name worth remembering. (They also played on one of my favourite recent albums, Jim White's Transnormal Skiperoo). This collection was recorded with a number of leading Colarado musicians whom the duo had met on their travels, and clearly the sessions went well with the likes of Heartache Train, Crushand Sharp as a Knifeamong the standout tracks. www.jeffandvida.com

Download tracks: Crush, Heartache Train