Following Ramsey Thornton’s “I Called It!”, released on Gar Hole Records earlier this year, the Tulsa multi-instrumentalist and composer has just released “Meantime”, a 4-song live band EP featuring tracks from that album. He originally recorded the album in Brooklyn, and he “just wanted to have a reason to play a handful of the songs with a band here at home”. Watch the video session in full.

Dean Johnson covers The Replacements’ “Swingin’ Party”. The original marked a shift from their raucous, punk-inflected bar rock to a more melancholic sound: ideal cover territory for Johnson’s quavering tenor and pedal steel. He shares: “I just had to learn to play this song because I love it so much and have always felt strongly connected to the beautiful lyrics…”

On his latest album, “What Still Survives”, Blair Dunlop sounds like an artist finding a distinct voice and refining his craft quite masterfully. He talks to KLOF about his formative years, his all-time folk-guitar heroes, songwriting tips, unintentional inspiration drawn from a Richard Thompson classic, recording techniques, wish-list collaborators, and more.

Julián Mayorga’s tenth album, “Chispeaba la sangre en el hierbal”, arrives on Glitterbeat on January 15th, 2027. His lead single and video, Mi Mama, is a strangely intoxicating offering, drawing you in to his vivid reimagining of South American music and folklore – dreamlike visions and avant-cumbia experimentation.

Courtney Werner announces her debut solo album, “Tritium Forests”, out February 26 on Thrill Jockey. Werner worked as an ecologist at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, where she installed acoustic monitors in contaminated forests. She and Nathan Taylor developed improvisations from the recordings over two evenings in July 2025. Listen to lead single ‘sierra one whiskey eight’.

Naima Bock’s new single “Rocks” is out now on Breakfast Records / Fire Talk. It is her first studio release since “Rolling” in June 2025. Like her last studio album, “Below a Massive Dark Land”, there are elements of clever experimentation at play here. She heads out on an extensive UK and EU tour from April 2027.

Radie Peat has shared “Willow Garden” ahead of her debut album “No Human Tongue Can Tell”, out this Friday. While Ireland seems to have lost this traditional murder ballad, it has survived in the Appalachians, from where Radie picked up a final verse she’d never come across before.

Bill MacKay and Michael Zerang announce “Scarlet Hour”, their first collaborative long-player, out January 29th via Drag City. Both are longstanding pillars of the Chicago music scene. The eight tracks take inspiration from Arabian, Turkish, Indian and Iberian folk music. Lead single “New Song” is accompanied by a video directed by fellow Chicagoan Michael Vallera.

Out today with a video directed by Allyn Quigley, “Innisfree” is Sam Amidon’s joyous setting of the W.B. Yeats poem and the first taste of “Willing Brother Knowing”, his ninth album, produced by Big Thief’s James Krivchenia. He replants the 1889 lyric in a contemporary landscape, with Isaac Alderson drawing out the stanzas on uilleann pipes and Thomas Bartlett (Doveman) dancing in the song’s inexorable margins.

Laura Gibson shares new single “Sylvia”, her first new solo music since 2018’s “Goners”, after signing with Loose Music and Fluff & Gravy Records. She calls it “one of my favorite songs I’ve ever written.” She has also announced EU/UK tour dates for April 2027, with tickets on sale now.

Artist of the Month

Blair Dunlop – What Still Survives
Cecil Sharp House 2026 events. Nov–Dec. 2 Regent's Park Rd, NW1. Book now at Folk England.

On Heavy Rotation

Jeffrey Silverstein – Doggone
Mali Obomsawin – Automatic
Buck Curran – Illuminations
Baby Dee – Child of Joy
Shovel Dance Collective – Everything in Readiness
Darren Hayman – I’m Your Team
Powtes – Destroying A Living
claire rousay – on holding

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