Alex Gallacher

The pastoral vibes of this week’s Monday Morning Brew arrive courtesy of Mark Fry, Cinder Well, Vic Chesnutt, Jessica Pratt, Smog, Roy Harper, The Innocence Mission, John Fahey, Bert Jansch & Hope Sandoval, Michael Chapman, Marina Allen and more. And since Allen’s Candlepower surfaces in the playlist, we’ve paired this week’s Brew with a feature tracing her arc from that 2021 debut through to last year’s Eight Pointed Star.

Thirteen tracks from KLOF’s recent listening pile. Kevin Morby, Creekbed Carter Hogan, Mary Hampton, Cinder Well, Yo La Tengo, Daughter of Swords and No-No Boy sit alongside two new arrivals — Damian Dalla Torre and Ts Bayandalai — plus a reading from Beat Poet Gregory Corso, and Jeff Parker closing things out on “Like Swimwear”.

BBC Folk Award winner Sam Carter has shared a new video for “Canadee-i-o” to herald his live album “Sam Carter Sings Nic Jones: Live At Celtic Connections,” recorded with the Jones family’s blessing. Drawing from across Jones’ catalogue, the album is the latest chapter in Carter’s lifelong devotion to an English folk revival giant, due 26th June via Captain Records.

Abigail Lapell, whose new album “Shadow Child” is out now, selects ten meaningful objects from her home for KLOF’s Off the Shelf series. Her picks span a wooden dala horse picked up in Stockholm while touring with baby Charlie, sand timers that help with focus, marionettes from a favourite music video, and the hood ornament of a beloved camper van.

Félicia Atkinson announces “SANS VISAGE,” a reimagined score for Georges Franju’s 1960 horror “Les yeux sans visage,” out June 26 via Viernulvier Records. Following her recent collaboration with Christina Vantzou, the 34-minute album embeds piano in electroacoustic textures and is dedicated to Gisèle Pelicot. Lead preview “Les Yeux II” is available to hear now.

Sofra Trio release their debut EP “New Dawn” today via Worlds Within Worlds — a powerful meeting of musical traditions from Syria, Türkiye and the Balkans. Recorded live in a single take in Helsinki, the trio of Melisa Yıldırım (kamancha), Merve Abdurrahmani (piano) and Hadi Hrekes (percussion) move fluidly between composition and improvisation.

Trans folksinger Creekbed Carter Hogan announces “Peasants Revolt”, out 24th July via Gar Hole Records. The lead single “Cutbank of Cleves” — paired with a video directed and edited by Lexi Kiecker — finds Hogan playing court jester in the halls of a dying empire, sketching a rollicking medieval-Americana fable for an age of upheaval, transition and collective survival.

Peals — the Baltimore duo of William Cashion (Future Islands) and Bruce Willen (Double Dagger) — return on 31st July via Thrill Jockey with twin live albums: “The Compound 76” on limited LP and “Le Pantoum 46” digitally. Lead single “Essential Attitudes” comes from a 2016 set at Baltimore’s The Compound, with the digital album drawn from a 2013 Quebec City performance.

Sir Richard Bishop returns to Drag City on July 31st with “Hillbilly Erotica”, a sequel of sorts to 2025’s “Hillbilly Ragas”. Eight tracks, one acoustic guitar, no overdubs — and save for the closing piece, entirely improvised. Bishop again wrangles with John Fahey’s “American Primitive” tag, finding clearings, hills and valleys glimpsed in the distance… Watch his video for the lead single “Finger, Tennessee”.

Following his place on KLOF Mag’s Albums of the Year 2025 with “Fiery Gizzard” — leaning into the weird and psychedelic side of Old-time music — Joseph Decosimo returns with a solo guitar take on “Cumberland Gap,” filmed in his Durham backyard amid white-throated sparrows. The multi-instrumentalist (“fiddle, banjo, guitar, droney things”) is also touring the UK this month (May 2026) with Joe Danks.

Shearwater announce their new album “The New World,” due July 31st via their own Polyborus label in partnership with Secretly Distribution. Jonathan Meiburg’s long-running outfit shares singles “More and More” and “Daydream Unbeliever,” with the latter, accompanied by a video Meiburg filmed and edited during research in Antarctica, billows out with classic Shearwater grandeur — soaring strings, a gong smashed by Xiu Xiu’s Jamie Stewart.

Jonathan Day returns as Jonathan Hijr Day Quartet with his new single, Cafe in the Valley of the Fire Church, born from his travels among the Amazigh and recorded at Gavin Monaghan’s Magic Garden Studios. Featuring Simon Smith on bass, Meinir Olwen on harp, Niimi Day Gough on voice and Adam Knight on vibraphone, the track fuses Celtic soul with Songhoy blues.