AS the title of her new album would suggest, English folk singer Martha Tilston is drawn to woodland and the power of imaginative storytelling on Lucy & The Wolves.

“A lot of this album is inspired by nature; it’s quite introverted, this record, with politics with a small ‘p’,” says Martha, who will perform with her band, the aptly named The Woods, on Tuesday in York.

“I’m just questioning things, like dreaming I was dying in this beautiful dream in Who Turns, and asking who turns the wheel? “They don’t seem such big questions, but somehow it all makes more sense when you’re surrounded by nature, whereas usually we get into our little boxes, our cars, and distract ourselves.”

Lucy & The Wolves is Martha’s first album since she was nominated for Best New Act in the 2007 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards, and her first since taking a break from live shows last year to have a baby.

“I do feel a bit more pressure now after that nomination, but having a kid reminds you of what’s really important,” she says.

“Creatively, you want to take things further, and the problem is that it’s a gamble but you have to experiment. It just takes bravery to do that but this album is definitely not as immediate as Of Milkmaids & Architects. You have to peel back the layers.”

As the daughter of singer-songwriter Steve Tilston and stepdaughter of London-Irish folk singer Maggie Boyle, Martha is steeped in folk music and can recall the days when Bert Jansch, Ralph McTell and John Renbourn would play in the kitchen with her father.

Likewise, Maggie taught her traditional songs and one such song now receives an impromptu rendition on the album, recorded in an exultant moment in a Somerset wood.

“We didn’t mean to record a song that day; we just thought we’d record a babbling brook, but when the crows started circling, it set me off singing Searching For Lambs. So what you hear is just me, the crows and the brook,” says Martha, below, revelling once more in the freedom of the natural world.

• Martha Tilston plays Fibbers, York, on Tuesday, supported by Richard Walters and Holly Taymar. Box office: 0844 847 2424. Lucy & The Wolves is available on Martha’s label, Squiggly Records.