Alex Gallacher

Jason Dungan and Johan Carøe have shared “Mornings with Rita”, the second single from “Routine”, their first album together. Built over several years, they traded home recordings between Copenhagen and rural Sweden, setting zither, clarinet and cello against tape, drum machine and a Yamaha DX7. Out on Tonal Union on September 25th.

Angela Autumn releases her second album, “Believer”, on September 11th via Gar Hole Records, and shares its opening track, “Heavy Tobacco”, with a video she choreographed herself. The song came from thinking about tobacco as both a purifying spirit and a habit that turns harmful, and about choices that carry consequences both ways.

Lee Ranaldo has reworked “The System”, his score for Joris Postema’s documentary on three climate activists, resequencing it to fifteen tracks and adding two pieces held back from the 2025 release. Out today on Bandcamp via Silver Current Records, with vinyl in October, and featuring Leila Bordreuil, Jim Jarmusch and Brian Chase.

Glen Hansard has died aged 56 following a motorcycle crash in Dublin on Wednesday 29th July, just over a month after releasing the second half of “Don’t Settle”, a live retrospective cut at Berlin’s Funkhaus. Tributes have come from President Catherine Connolly, Bruce Springsteen and Bono.

Charlie Parr will release “Rooming House”, a seven-song folk opera, on Smithsonian Folkways on 16th October, and has shared an animated video for the title track. Drawn from Parr’s years in Minneapolis rooming houses, the album follows people facing poverty, illness and unstable housing, and the small generosities that keep them going. Dave King of The Bad Plus is on drums.

Flora Hibberd has shared “Shelley”, the latest track from her second album “Mammoth”, out 16th October via 22TWENTY. Built on lush minor-key chords, pedal steel and close harmonies with J.E. Sunde, it’s a country-leaning turn she describes as a boxing match around the kitchen table. The video was filmed in Paris and elsewhere, in summer with pals.

“Made In Senegal” is Orchestra Baobab’s first album in over ten years, out October 23rd on Strut/Madoky. Second single “Ana Maria” was written by the late Rudy Gomis for the grandmother who alone supported his career in music, drawing on Casamance Creole imagery to send the wind as a messenger between generations.

Elanor Moss has shared “Fixer”, the final single before her debut album “The Knife, The Needle”, out 21st August on Merge Records. It opens the album and gives it its name, the chorus turning a knife into a needle that might stitch the wound instead. The video is by H. Hawkline.

Richard Thompson will release his 20th studio album, “Hippies, Thugs and Heroes”, on October 16th via New West Records, and has shared the first single, “Cocaine Walking, Booze Talking” — a hustling London song carried by strutting, raw-nerve riffs. Recorded live in New Jersey with his touring band, the album is, in his words, “less them and more me”.

Clara Mann has announced her second album, “Wishbone”, out 23rd October via state51, and shared the lead single and video “News From Home”. Produced by Fabian Prynn in Norfolk, it follows 2025’s “Rift” — where that debut sat in a single strange, isolated shade of blue- “Wishbone” is built on contrast. A UK and European tour runs from September.

This week’s Monday Morning Brew features new tunes from M.G. Boulter & Jenny Sturgeon, Alex Dupree, Colin Stetson & Brighde Chaimbeul, Bitichin Bajas, Cinder Well, Minna, Jeffrey Silverstein, Le Ren, Ben McElroy, Jackson Hoyt & Kaia Kater, Karine Polwart, The Deep Dark Woods and more.

Eliza Carthy pays tribute to Martin Carthy on her new single ‘Mr Sits in the Dark’, out today on Hem-Hem Records and accompanied by a video created by Marry Waterson. Her new album, Frenemies, will follow in the Autumn, featuring special guests, including Jools Holland, Robyn Hitchcock, Miranda Richardson, and more, with a special album launch party at Dingwalls on October 22nd.