Kate Rusby - Ghost (2014)

Kate Rusby has always delivered wonderful interpretations of traditional folk songs and that does not change on her 2014 album Ghost, which includes versions of Three Jolly Fishermen, The Outlandish Knight and Martin Said.

But there is something different about Ghost, on which her husband and guitarist Damien O'Kane acts as co-producer. The album has a pleasing freshness, and part of that is down to the way they have blended in the electric guitar playing of Stevie Iveson. But folk music isn't jettisoned here by Rusby; it's just brought together in a subtle, textured way, as on the delightful The Bonnie Bains. That tracks also features Duncan Lyall on double bass and the superb Michael McGoldrick on flute. Among the other accomplished musicians on Ghost are Julian Sutton and Nick Cooke (accordion), John Doyle (guitar), Ron Block and Leon Hunt (banjo) and Rex Preston (mandolin).

There are three original Rusby compositions on the album: After This (a love song partly inspired by the Cornish coastline), We Will Sing and Ghost, written about the (appropriate) folk ghost Rusby says lives in her Yorkshire home. On the title track her voice, accompanied only by her delicate piano playing, can really show its haunting power.

Rusby, who will be starting her usual enjoyable Christmas tour in December, has delivered another lovely gift with Ghost.