Alasdair Roberts and Friends - Too Long in this Condition

(Navigator)

The List can think of no other artist who has dished out props to their manicurist within the immortal confines of their sleeve-notes. But that’s what Glasgow-based folk bard Alasdair Roberts does on his excellent sixth album, Too Long in This Condition. (Here’s looking at you, Fingertips Salon in Battlefield).

This is his third long-player of traditional song, and it’s his most confident – upbeat, even – to date: his re-animations of murderous and bawdy Scottish ballads – gloriously embellished by the fiddles, rhythms and harmonies of his ‘Friends’ – reinforce Robert’s singular calling. Long may his voice remain clear and his fingernails polished.