Bellowhead finally did it. They managed to get the band together - a bit difficult when it's the size of a football team - to record their first album, Burlesque (Westpark). The 11-piece outfit, led by the extraordinary talents of Oxford duo John Spiers and Jon Boden, have taken the folk world by storm since their debut at the Oxford Folk Festival. Sure, folk music has had strings and brass arrangements before but rarely combined in this way. Bellowhead have grabbed the genre by the scruff of the neck and thrown it into a musical melting pot, mixing in jazz, reggae, techno, and anything else that fits to create what one critic called "a kaleidscope of sound". At times it seems cacophonous but the band knows exactly where it's going - and boy does it work.

As the album title suggests, there is a theatricality about their music, suggesting music hall and the cabaret of the Weimar era, with echos of Frank Zappa in there too. Burlesque is pretty much their live act and the stage is where they make their true impact, but the album re-creates that presence superbly. Led by the charismatic Jon Boden on vocals, they tear straight from the off into the traditional Rigs of the Time and only let go with a truly glorious acapella rendition of the Copper family's One May Morning Early and a favourite with the fans, Courting Too Slow. It's deservedly nominated for folk album of the year and selling like hot cakes.

From relative newcomers to stalwarts of the folk world. A four-CD box tribute to the much-loved Ralph McTell has been issued by the same people who released similar tributes to Sandy Denny and June Tabor. The Journey (Leola Music) marks Ralph's 40 years in the business, with nearly half of the 64 tracks previously unreleased. It is extraordinary when listening to the collection that, for a man who is known for that song, just how much he has produced in his career - from the supreme blues and ragtime guitar playing, to the bedsitter images of the sixties to the classic songs that have weathered the storms. From Clare to Here, Peppers and Tomatoes and Bentley and Craig, about the tragic case that took place in his home town of Croydon, have become folk standards, while Red and Gold, about the Battle of Cropredy, the site of the festival where he regularly appears with his friends in Fairport Convention, to Barges, about the canal at Banbury where he spent much of his childhood, reflects his strong associations with Oxfordshire. To complete a sumptuous set, there is a full-colour book with a foreword by Rory McGrath.

Finally, another stalwart who has established a musical friendship with Fairport Convention over the years, has released another album of class. Bob Fox's The Blast (Topic) features mainly traditionals, with a voice that McTell rates as one of the best in the country, and produced by the genius of John Tams.