Originally released in 2008 and now reissued with two bonus covers, Hayman, Watkins, Trout and Lee — the quartet of Darren Hayman, David Watkins, Dan Mayfield and David Tattersall — is an absolute joy to rediscover. East London bluegrass played with close-knit, co-operative DIY warmth: witty, lovelorn originals and artfully chosen covers. Think The Basement Tapes with more banjos.

Monday Morning Brew #153 features new tracks from Jim Moray, Emily Portman, Chris Brain, Henry Parker, Ajeet, Rachel Sermanni & Aisling Urwin, and Rónán Ó Snodaigh & Myles O’Reilly — a span that takes in Shetland song reimagined through squelchy synths, music inspired by a backpacking trip across Bleaklow and the Upper Derwent ridges, and a 16th-century Gaelic lament turned lullaby from The Furrow Collective.

May Day wears two faces — one rooted in nature and ritual, one rooted in struggle – International Workers’ Day. This extra-long Mixtape honours both, with Gil Scott-Heron’s enduring call to action, a Wampís-Aboutface collaboration drawn from the Peruvian Amazon, The MerKaBa Brotherhood’s hermetic ritual textures, the deep blues of Robert Petway, Bonny Billy’s communal warmth, and strange new turns from Tenniscoats, Trio Tekke and Wax Machine.

To celebrate the release of Gallants, Jim Moray is sharing a live performance of “The Nightingale,” recorded at The Arch — a 140-year-old former church in Southport — with his full live band. The recording is taken from a complete live session premiering at 8pm on Sunday May 3rd on YouTube, free to watch with a pay-what-you-want donation ticket available.

Maisy Owen’s debut Dark On A Sunny Day is a singer-songwriter album that, for a first attempt, shows remarkable maturity and a kind of timelessness in her style. Even when stripped down to the bare bones of voice and guitar, it still has enough detail to hold its spell. Maisy Owen sounds like she has a fascinating journey ahead.

White Fence’s Orange, out now via Drag City, is Tim Presley’s first album in seven years — and it sounds freer and more expansive than ever. With Ty Segall again in the producer’s chair, these songs are built for electricity, celebrating melody whilst unafraid to show hurt, fear, and despair. There is an audible joy in the playing.

Junior Brother has shared an intimate live video for New Road, the closing track of his third album The End, captured by filmmaker Myles O’Reilly. Released last September via Strap Originals, the record earned the Co. Kerry songwriter a Choice Music Prize nomination and Artist of the Month status at KLOF. Watch the new video and read our full review and interview.

Irish alternative trad/folk trio Rattling Ark — featuring cellist Kevin Murphy of Slow Moving Clouds, with Thomas Haugh and Lizzi Murtough — announce their debut album Top of a Mountain, out 19 June 2026. The first single, ‘Leprechaun’, taken from the singing of Maggie Barry, arrives with an astonishing video by Brian Kelly and a deranged violyra solo from guest performer Aki.

Yorkshire-based folksinger and guitarist Chris Brain’s fourth album, Red Sun Rising, replaces the wide optimism of last year’s ‘New Light’ with a sense of knowing, yet still manages to focus on the brightness of life and the idea of new beginnings. Adept fingerpicking, considered guest musicians, a philosophical focus on finding beauty in the now — Chris just keeps getting better.

The Huntress and Holder of Hands, the musical project of MorganEve Swain, have shared Doctrine, the second single from their forthcoming album, Babylon, due June 5th. Written in 2017 and reshaped through several iterations into this thumping protest song. “Honestly, I was hoping it would be obsolete by now,” Swain says.

Cinder Well returns with new album “A Blooming Body,” out July 17th via Hen House Studios. Lead single and video, “While the Womb Screams Silently” is out now — inspired by Céline Sciamma’s Portrait of a Lady on Fire — “about listening to your inner knowing, which often screams loudly but is ignored for the sake of conforming -constantly trying to break out of the restraints and projections of patriarchy…”

Of all the artists that emerged from the freak folk/New Weird America boom of the early noughties, Josephine Foster is one of the most enduring, and certainly one of the most interesting. On her new album Adormidera, she and Víctor Herrero have created, through a kind of alchemy, an artefact that seems to grow more beautiful with every listen.