Kevin Bryan delivers his verdict on some of this week's CD releases.

Back Street Crawler,"Atlantic Years 1975-1976" (Cherry Red)-The sadly short lived Back Street Crawler project was the brainchild of former Free guitarist Paul Kossoff, who had recorded a solo collection of the same name after his old outfit's sad dissolution in 1972. Kossoff retained the same instrumental line-up when he formed Back Street Crawler soon afterwards, recording a couple of albums for the Atlantic label before his untimely death in March 1976. This richly rewarding retrospective brings together some fine examples of their bluesy rock sound, drawing on the contents of both long-players alongside a selection of studio outtakes and seven live tracks which were captured for posterity at the legendary Starwood Club in Los Angeles in what would prove to be Kossoff's final gig with the band.

"Evangeline Gentle" (Sonic Unyon Records)-The vast majority of the gifted young singer-songwriters that I come across these days seem to hail from the other side of the Atlantic, but Evangeline Gentle represents a welcome,albeit partial, exception to the rule. This sweetly expressive performer was born in Peterhead on the Northeast coast of Scotland but relocated to Canada as a child ,where her creative musings finally found a receptive audience after years of uncertainty and self doubt.Evangeline's eagerly anticipated debut set was three years in the making as she joined forces with producer Jim Bryson to assemble a roots music package of rare depth,subtlety and charm. "Sundays," "Neither of Us" and "Good and Guided" are the best of an excellent bunch.

Mary Chapin Carpenter,"The Dirt and the Stars" (Lambent Light/Thirty Tigers)- "The Dirt and the Stars" is Mary Chapin Carpenter's first collection of freshly minted new material since 2016's critically acclaimed "The Things That We Are Made Of," and a more impressive introduction to her thought-provoking brand of music-making would be difficult to imagine. The five time Grammy Award winning artist's latest batch of musings on the human condition were recorded live at Peter Gabriel's Real World Studios in Bath, giving them a warmth and immediacy which sets them apart from the work of many of Carpenter's contemporaries in the singer-songwriter field.