2025

Eli Winter has never put out a bad record, but his music seems to grow in confidence and prowess with each release. A Trick of the Light is a barnstormer – sharp, vital and pretty damn thrilling. Oh yes.

Taken from The Gentle Good’s forthcoming new album, Elan, watch ‘To Be in Summer’, a song about the rural idyll, and a bit of a nod to bands like Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci and Super Furry Animals.

For their latest project, Remscéla, Milkweed engage in vibrant and vital ways with the Táin Bó Cúailnge, a foundational myth of Irish literary and historical tradition. They remain the most exciting band in folk music.

Celebrated American guitarist and composer Marc Ribot will release his first-ever vocal album. Thirty years in the making, “Map of a Blue City” will be released later this month. Watch the video for his current single, Daddy’s Trip to Brazil.

Nashville guitar wizard William Tyler’s new album, Time Indefinite, is a pretty special effort; Glenn Kimpton met up with him to dig a little bit deeper…”It’s definitely the most personal record I’ve ever made”.

Some 54 years after his 1971 debut, Steve Tilston releases his final album, Last Call. As valuable and worthy as any of his previous recordings, it secures his place as a stellar member of the folk music elite.

This week’s Monday Morning Brew Playlist features Lisa Knapp & Gerry Diver, Toby Hay, Quinie, Aidan O’Rourke, Appendix Out, Jackie Oates, Joseph Allred, James Yorkston, Iona Lane, Trembling Bells, Eight Point Star, Remorae, Pelt and more.

Watch the new video from Glasgow-based musician Quinie for her new single ‘Sallow Buckthorn’, a mesmeric sea of swirling sound and Scots poetry.

With Altogether Stranger, Lael Neale has cooked up a concoction of her own that will be ripe for inspiration to many: an exquisitely crafted masterclass in retro minimalism and free expression.

Watch Alex Rex’s ‘Boss Morris’ video, a tribute to his favourite all-female Morris dancing side, the titular Boss Morris – energy, colour, self-invention and profound knowledge of the tradition all collapsed into something that has reinvigorated the form.

After 15 years of performing together, the much-loved Yorkshire folk duo of Belinda O’Hooley & Heidi Tidow say farewell for now in order to explore other adventures that are beckoning to them. Don’t miss their final tour of their favourite venues.

Iona Lane’s Swilkie is a masterful album full of heartfelt emotion and breathtaking songwriting, and the additional disc of live recordings casts the whole album as a journey from solo endeavour to collaboration, from the bud of an idea to a fully-realised work of art.

Christina Alden and Alex Patterson’s long-awaited second album, Safe Travels, is released on 9th May. Watch them performing the heartfelt ‘A Hundred Years Ago’ live.

On Annie A’s ‘The Wind That Had Not Touched Land’, the boundaries between song, sound art and poetry disappear in a flicker or a haze, and the results are quietly mesmerising.