2025

Lisa Knapp and Gerry Diver share their new single and video, Train Song. Both the visuals, by Marry Waterson, and arrangements are woven together so unconventionally that those everyday scenes take on a magical curiosity as if noticing them for the first time.

Today sees the release of The Ballad of Mic and Susie, the honest and heartfelt new single from Serious Sam Barrett. To celebrate the release, watch Sam performing the song live.

In an age of ‘homogenisation and mass amnesia’, Cynefin’s ‘Shimli’ looks to the diversity of the past for answers, a role he’s well placed to comment on as a researcher and cultural historian. Beautifully presented, it is another remarkable release from this unique musician.

Taken from his impressive 2024 album, One Evening and Other Folk Songs, and filmed by the talented David James Logan, watch Buck Curran with Adele H, Jodi Pedrali, Dave Barbarossa, and Roberto Frassini Moneta performing Deep in the Lovin’ Arms of My Babe.

With their retro-sounding harmonies, there is an attractive nostalgia to The Ocelots’ new album, Everything, When Said Slowly. It’s a bittersweet, anthemic affair and a joy to listen to, with a salient groove lifting the whole thing ever so slightly—a haunting and majestic album.

The music Seth Lakeman makes and the passion with which he makes it has never faltered; The Granite Way is another exemplary reason why he’s the benchmark of contemporary English folk music.

Rhiannon Giddens and her former Carolina Chocolate Drops bandmate Justin Robinson are to reunite on ‘What Did the Blackbird Say to the Crow’, an album of North Carolina fiddle and banjo music. Watch the video for the album track ‘Hook and Line’.

Chicago-based Whitney Johnson and Lia Kohl announce their debut album, For Translucence, and share their new single and video “73|74”. Their goal is “for translucence”: for each successive part to add clarity to its others.

Nadia Reid’s ‘Enter Now Brightness’ is an album unfettered by generic pigeonholes and working in complete service to artistic expression. Alongside moments of reflection and introspection, we witness joy, light and a piercing optimism that ruptures this album with vibrant colour.

While Blue Lake’s ‘Weft’ may be a mini-album, it feels like a major work with the delicate, complex music drifting away after five songs and leaving us grateful for the experience and wondering where this craftsman will take us next.

Musically, Ekoya is an engrossing listen in which Jupiter and Okwess succeed admirably in achieving a global outlook while celebrating their Congolese identity. 

Guitarist Cameron Knowler announces his second full-length album, CRK, and shares stunning lead single ‘Felicity’ alongside a video shot on Super 8 film by Steven Perlin.

Macie Stewart announces her International Anthem debut, ‘When the Distance is Blue’, and shares her lead single “Spring Becomes You, Spring Becomes New”. Watch the accompanying video, filmed and directed by Mikel Patrick Avery.

David Grubbs shares his latest single, “Queen’s Side Eye”, described by his label as a taut, intensively scaled guitar piece with Grubbsian, serpentine changes unfurled in a measured, lucid abstraction.