Album: Seth Lakeman, Poor Man’s Heaven Relentless

Seth Lakeman, the 31-yearold Devonian whose name sounds like a shady minor character in a Thomas Hardy novel, is folk’s crossover poster boy.

Now on his third album, he maintains that status not by taking risks, but by playing it entirely by the book. The thumping drums and martial fiddles of the ‘Wicker Man’-ish opener “The Hurlers” could be the Chieftains, and ‘Poor Man's Heaven’ continues to leave no cliché unused (he actually employs the phrase “watery grave” at one point).

If you really dug Mike Oldfield’s “Moonlight Shadow” and Chris De Burgh’s “Don’t Pay the Ferryman”, this is the album for you.