Sam Grassie shares “The Burning of Auchindoun,” a stirring reimagining of a traditional Scottish folk ballad from his forthcoming debut, “Where Two Hawks Fly,” due 10th April via Broadside Hacks. Coloured by ponderous double-bass, mystical flute and compelling fingerpicked guitar, it’s flighted with equal parts fantasy and foreboding. A UK headline tour kicks off later this month.

Spencer Cullum finds comfort in retellings of folk narratives that seek to make sense of the present day. With Spencer Cullum’s Coin Collection 3, he’s provided a richly satisfying conclusion to his trilogy of albums. Born from a need to reconnect with the place that shaped him, the trilogy has also become a platform for the generous, collaborative spirit of the Nashville community he now calls home.

Many of the songs on Joshua Burnside’s “It’s Not Going to Be Okay” can disarm you or take your breath away from their very first lines. Burnside is the most consistently human and the most surprising of songwriters. Details spring out at you like spiders from the cracks between floorboards. Meteors and energy-efficient light bulbs, blackbirds and bears, spaceships and Peugeots. The profound and the quotidian occupy the same arena.

The video for River Days — visuals by Nina Maria Moslechner — shares the same sun-bleached, grain-softened quality as Natalie Wildgoose’s music: images that already look like memory. The song itself is a midsummer diary entry, caught at its edges rather than its centre. Rural Hours arrives April 15th via state51.

It is more in-your-face than much of their recent work, thematically if not musically. More engaged and more engaging. The sound of a band alive to the changing world with all its problems and all its wonder. News from Planet Zombie is another important dispatch from the Notwist’s entirely unique corner of the musical world, an album full of closely-observed detail that warrants rapt attention.

This week’s Monday Morning Brew runs from Ry Cooder’s easy-rolling “The Old Man and Me” to Brion Gysin’s cut-up disco, recorded at nearly 70 with Don Cherry on pocket trumpet. Pharoah Sanders steps out of Coltrane’s shadow, Bex Burch beckons spring, and Andrew Wasylyk sends songs to six singers who post their vocals back…like postcards.

This week’s Mixtape stretches, twists, and shapeshifts — from Glasgow’s Uzganc choir to a collaboration between Weirs and The Magic Tuber Stringband, recorded inside Virginia’s pitch-black Crozet Tunnel. In between: music from Spencer Cullum, BIG|BRAVE, Wendy Eisenberg, Bill Orcutt, Mongolian artist Hugjiltu, Colleen, Prymek & Sage, balladeer Wheatie Mattiasich, harpist Rhodri Davies, and Oliver Barrett’s tender memorial to family and memory.

Spencer Cullum opens the door to his Nashville garden shed for the latest Off the Shelf — the makeshift studio where Coin Collection 3 came to life. The final chapter of his trilogy finds the British pedal steel player turning to English folklore for solace amid the noise of the modern world. His ten objects tell the story.

Bill Orcutt follows up the celebrated “Music for Four Guitars” with “Music in Continuous Motion,” his second studio album for four guitars. If anything, Music in Continuous Motion is a more enjoyable album, with soulful compositions working alongside the gnarlier playing. A fully realised and finely honed set by a master of experimental guitar, this is unmissable. Bring on the live shows.

Bristol’s Tara Clerkin Trio share a video for the title track of their new album Somewhere Good, out 5th June via World of Echo. Built from droning harmonium, upright bass and Clerkin’s hypnotic vocals, the album spans avant-pop, modern classical and kraut-folk across forty-plus boldly intuitive minutes — their most fully realised work to date.

Chaz Prymek and Matthew Sage announce Shelter, their first duo full-length in six years, out April 10th on AKP. Built on first-take live improvisations and layered with yearning slide guitar, accordion, clarinet, and delicate synthesizers, the album is a pastoral meditation rooted in the Mountain West. Lead single Hill Blocks View is streaming now.

Animal Collective’s Dave Portner (Avey Tare) and Brian Weitz (Geologist) have announced Croz Boyce, a new instrumental duo project. Their self-titled debut, out May 8th via Domino, was built across state lines — Portner sending guitar themes from North Carolina, Weitz responding with electronics from D.C. Watch the video for debut single Hanging Out With a Blueberry Pop now.