Tim McGraw: A Place in the Sun (Hit/London)

This is the sound of Nashville today - big, pumped-up emotions and a big, pumped-up sound. It may not be drug-induced but it is equally synthetic. There are references to country's less sophisticated past, but for Hats like Tim McGraw the past is another country; these days the primary influences are more likely to be Garth Brooks than Hank Williams. The songs are tailored to the audience; the themes range from glowing memories of youth (Seventeen) to paeans to My Best Friend and, inevitably, a short philosophical digression (My Next 30 Years) plus the essential deep and meaningless love songs. Catch me on a good day and I'd say it was well produced and that he had a strong, distinctive voice; but days like that are few enough.

- Joe Breen

Martina McBride: (RCA)

I heard a few wise ones trashing this album on the radio last week but was surprised to find that it is neither as offensive or as vacuous as was made out. However, it's no hidden gem either. The shadow of Shania Twain looms large over this collection, as it does over many other young country singers. Twain's secret is a pop-savvy producer, such as hubby Mutt Lange, and an overheated image. McBride tries to emulate the look but her music doesn't exude the same snap, crackle and pop. She is at her best when the song has a little attitude, such as the spiky Love's The Only House - but there is an awful lot of soft, squishy stuff as well.

Joe Breen

Cathal Hayden: Cathal Hayden (Independent)

This well-respected Tyrone man is normally stuck so deep in a session, it's hard to hear him, but you'll get a good fix on him here, for all the relentless shaggy garden of Arty McGlynn's strings, Brian McGrath's keys and the nice shuffle of Liam Bradley's percussion. Hayden has beautiful bow technique, articulating and embellishing the phrases at building speed; dithering in spiky bow triplets, droll little cat's-miaows, cascading rolls. He even hammers out tunes on banjo (including a John Carty one called Seanamhach Tubestation), playing fiddle on the other track in a virtual mini-orchestra of himself. The session guys push the pace, but there are times they're only trying to keep up with Hayden's rapid, rangy, uplifting fiddling.

- Mic Moroney

Old Blind Dogs: The World's Room (Green Linnet)

This tasteful Aberdeenshire outfit have a well-evolved groove: the shorthand, gently African rhythms of Paul Jennings underpin stringsy arrangements around Jim Malcolm's nicely understated Robbie Burns accented vocals on auld rollicking bothy songs, or the affecting "muckle ballad" Mill o'Tifty - over beautifully textured male harmonies. The same philosophy spills over into fiddler Johnny Hardie and Rory Campbell's whistles and small-pipes, like their baroque interplay on the old descriptive air, Roslin Castle. The boys contribute original tunes but most come from tradition or manuscript, like the branle court-dance. The tempos aren't exactly tearing at the bit, but despite the tendency toward jazz-rockified sugar-trad, somewhere in there, there's always the manly lash of the older lilt.

- Mic Moroney