Watch North Carolina’s Joseph Decosimo, joined by Stephanie Coleman on fiddle, Matthew O’Connell on drums, and Jay Hammond on guitar, performing “Billy Button,” the vibrant final preview of his new album Fiery Gizzard, arriving August 15 via Dear Life Records. Filmed at Fuzzy Needle in Durham, NC, the session perfectly captures the song’s intimate and collaborative spirit.

On Music for Writers, his first solo instrumental album, Steve Gunn masterfully blends guitars, synths, and field recordings from his travels. The album blurs the line between performance and nature, or life, resulting in music that ‘listens as much as it speaks.’ The pure, meditative sound features beautiful guitar parts that shift from innocent to anxious, creating an immersive experience that invites close listening and encourages stillness and calm.

Following a landmark year that saw his seminal 1980s band, The Loft, finally release their debut album, Everything Changes Everything Stays the Same, indie icon Pete Astor delves deeper into his personal archives with Unsent Letters (Home Recordings 1984-2024). Released on July 25th via Tapete Records, this new collection offers an intimate and unvarnished glimpse into a forty-year songwriting journey, a perfect companion piece to his band’s recent forward-facing return.

Emerging from dislocation and a traumatic break-up, Yoshika Colwell’s “On The Wing” is a raw, disturbed song cycle. This profoundly heartfelt and honest album explores challenging feelings with unflinching intensity. The elegant, baroque folk-pop, with echoes of Nick Drake, analyses a turbulent life chapter, allowing cracks of hopeful light to break through its elegant melancholy in a work that feels honest and real.

GECKØS, the new super-trio of M. Ward, Howe Gelb (Giant Sand), and Mark McCausland (McKowski), will release their debut self-titled album on September 26th. Born from an impromptu jam at a Tucson wedding; you can hear the band’s distinctive sound on their new single “El Techno.” The hypnotic track features a career-first for M. Ward, who takes the vocal lead entirely in Spanish.

This week’s Monday Morning Brew opens with Geckøs, a new project featuring Howe Gelb, M. Ward and Mark McCausland of The Lost Brothers, also in the mix: Msafiri Zawose, James Yorkston, The Barr Brothers, Orchestra Gold, Madi Diaz, Jeff Tweedy, The Mary Wallopers, The Innocence Mission, Nat Myers, Junior Brother, Joseph Decosimo, John Smith, Natural Information Society and more.

Pioneering British folk artist John Smith will celebrate his 20th anniversary in music with his new album, Gatherings, releasing October 17th. The record revisits and reimagines cherished songs from his early career with guests including Lisa Hannigan and The Staves. The first single and video, a beautiful new version of “Salty and Sweet” featuring Hannigan, is out now, offering a first taste of the celebratory project.

Indie rock stalwart Kurt Vile teams up with Nashville songwriter Luke Roberts for the new five-track EP, Classic Love, out today, July 25th. Released via Verve Records, the concise and infectious collaboration was heralded by a playful music video for its title track. The project is an unvarnished entry in Vile’s canon, embodying an energy he describes as “sad and funny at the same time.”

Italian sound artist Luca Formentini will release I Am Ghosts on October 10th via Curious Music. The album compiles his personal ‘Ghosts’ EPs, a journey through ambient, electro-acoustic, and experimental soundscapes that suggest rather than dictate. Exploring themes of absence and the unseen, the release will be available on vinyl and as an expanded digital collection featuring new immersive mixes by Robert Rich.

Californian guitarist Mason Lindahl announces dual albums, “Joshua / Same Day Walking,” arriving 24th September 2025. Listen to the lead single “Little Sister” which is out now. The albums chart distinct territories: Joshua is warm and hazy, while the Iceland-recorded Same Day Walking is windswept and stark. Lauded as “the greatest living guitar player” by Hayden Pedigo, Lindahl supports the Yeah Yeah Yeahs on 29th July.

Los Angeles multi-instrumentalist Patrick Shiroishi announces his new album, Forgetting Is Violent, out 19 September on American Dreams. Building on his work reckoning with racism, the record features collaborators for the first time, including Aaron Turner and Gemma Thompson. The mournful lead single, “There is no moment in my life in which this is not happening”, featuring otay::onii, confronts how the ignoring of painful history allows injustice to persist.

Cory Hanson delivers a rare combination: clever arrangements and emotional heft. ‘I Love People’ feels like a continuation of 2023’s Western Cum, conjuring up dusty roads and shimmering horizons with rolling country-rock and mature piano ballads. Nailing this many styles is tough, but Hanson’s surefooted songwriting weaves the disparate elements into a vivid, unapologetically American tapestry with an almost magical precision.