According to her laudably bonkers biography, 19 year old Beth Jeans Houghton was born in Transylvania to a pack of albino werewolves who raised her on a diet of chewing tobacco and stuffed clams. Luckily, this feral existence doesn’t seem to have done her any visible harm. She clearly has the personality to win over the mainstream in a way that many of her fellow antifolk musicians might find more difficult. However, it’s her music that really deserves the attention. Spiking the safe waters of the new folk scene with something a little more edgy and less predictable, Houghton has the potential to cross genre lines and make a much bigger splash.

• Folk