Here we've got two new records emphasising traditional songs, both recorded by English performers, both totally acoustic, but quite different in approach and result.

Gail Williams has been singing in public for about a quarter of a century, gaining many friends, among them Martin Carthy and Tom Paley, who both contribute with sleeve notes. Steve Tilston has been playing even longer; my first encounter with him was in 1972. As well as being an accomplished guitar player and a fine singer, he is generally considered to be one of Britain's best songwriters.

Williams sticks to American songs on her album. But many of them have originally come from England and travelled stateside, where they have developed. One newly written song, "Silver Threads and Golden Needles," makes its way onto the record. Some others may be familiar to many of you, like "Our Captain Cried All Hands" (to the same tune as Steeleye's "The Blacksmith"), "The Carlisle Lady" (as recorded by Pentangle on Solomon's Seal), and "Wayfaring Pilgrim."

Tilston stays on the British Isles, with one short excursion to the US with "Going to the West." He has included one of his own songs, "Willow Creek," on the album. Quite a few of the traditional ones are well known to most of us, like "One Night As I Lay On My Bed," "The Leaving of Liverpool," "Barbry Allen," "Spencer the Rover," and "New York Gals."

Williams has used the services of only one musician, Jim Younger on banjo and guitar, apart from herself playing banjo on one track. And about half of the songs are performed a capella. Tilston, on the other hand, enjoys the company of seven others, including Martin Simpson, Nancy Kerr and Maggie Boyle.

So what about the results of all this? Well, both singers have made a fine new album, and I really like them both, but for different reasons.

Gail Williams has a fine voice, which she uses to great effect. She can change from a powerful, traditional "finger-in-the-ear" folksong voice, to a softer, more microphone oriented approach to singing. The whole record is focused on her voice and the songs, with the instrumentation only used to enhance the voice. No extra instrumental work here.

There are a number of gems on the album. I especially like "The Titanic," sung unaccompanied, the funny "The Snoring Maid," the soft "Silver Threads and Golden Needles," which gains from the sparseness of background instrument, and "The Carlisle Lady," where she really brings out the story in the song.

With Tilston being the guitar player he is, there is a more even balance between instruments and voice on his album. He is no stranger to adding intros, interludes and outros to the songs, as shown in "One Night As I Lay On My Bed," where he includes a lot of his own guitar playing and some nice fiddle Nancy Kerr. As a nice gesture to us aspiring guitar pickers, Tilston has included information on the different tuning he uses for each song.

Williams is a stronger and more versatile singer, but Tilston also has a fine voice, and he makes fine use of it. But much of the album might come across as low key, until you have listened enough to appreciate the soft nuances of it.

Tilston also gives us a number of diamonds. I especially like his reworking of "The Leaving of Liverpool." To me, it has always been a loud and boisterous song. Tilston transforms it completely, to a sad lament of leaving your dear. He then adds a bit of rhythm to "Spencer the Rover," with Chris Parkinson's harmonica giving it a slightly bluesy feeling. "Lovely Hanna" is given a lovely instrumental intro, repeated between verses, with Tilston and his fellow musicians creating a nice tension between the sadness of the tune and the lyrics and the bubbly instrumental work underneath it. And I have not really appreciated the clever rhythms of "Willow Creek," with lyrics by Tilston set to a tune by Chris Parkinson, until I heard this version. Do not misunderstand, Fairport Convention does it very well on Over the Next Hill, but here it really shines.

So here you have got two good albums by two accomplished performers, which one should you choose? Well, I think I will go back to the Williams CD if I am looking for songs to sing. But I will probably listen more to the Tilston one, and not only to get new ideas for how to play a guitar.