Alex Gallacher

Following our other End of Year lists, here are the best Folk and Alternative EPs, Compilations, Live Albums and Reissue selections chosen by Folk Radio’s editor.

The Editor of Folk Radio shares their top 100 Best Folk and Alternative albums of 2023. A year in review capturing a diverse selection of albums and reflecting the breadth of music covered over the past year.

Featuring music from Alice Gerrard, Michael Hurley, Cian Nugent, Ida Wenøe, Elkhorn, The Circling Sun, Jude Brothers, Marta Del Grandi, Juni Habel, Libby Rodenbough, Joseph Decosimo, Liam Grant and Dougie Poole.

In 2016, Michael Tanner (Plinth, United Bible Studies, The A. Lords) put together this evocative Winter Solstice Mix…Featuring Shirley Collins, Jean Ritchie, Dick Gaughan, Martin Carthy, Mike Waterson, John Renbourn and more.

This Mixtape went out in January 2021 – a music and poetry special featuring Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Ursula K. Le Guin & Todd Barton, Hairetis Harper, Soundwalk Collective and Patti Smith, Adam Horovitz & Liz Berry and more.

Gatineau, Quebec-based composer Nick Schofield announces his new album, Ambient Ensemble, and shares his first single and video ‘On Air’ – “I imagined the music accompanying a painter in her studio, the windows open and the song flowing in and swirling around the artwork.”

On what would have been her 100th birthday, Mississippi Records is today celebrating the brilliance and vision of Emahoy Tsege Mariam Gebru with a new single and the announcement of a major new release, her self-recorded vocal album, Souvenirs. 

This month, Scissor Tail Records release Gary Peters’s “Beginnings: Collected Pedal Steel Works”, a rewarding album that both challenges and engages.

Scottish singer songwriter Adam Holmes shares the video for his new single Go Lassie Go, taken from his new album ‘The Voice of Scotland’. “This album is a commitment to this life as a communicator via the medium of songs and stories.”

Recommended: Out now on Sean Conrad’s Seattle-based ambient/devotional Inner Islands label, Wide Ranging Rider is the latest offering from Stefan Beck, aka Golden Brown…emblazoned with originality throughout.

The award-winning ‘broken folk’ duo Lunatraktors have a festive alter-ego – Yulatraktors. Their new album ‘Solstice Wyrd’ drops tomorrow. Watch their new video for ‘Remember the Poor, ‘ an old ballad that is increasingly relevant today.

A new Monday Morning Brew ft. Piers Faccini & Dawn Landes, Anna Mieke, Daniel Bachman, SUSS, Lee Baggett, L CON, Niall Summerton, Gunn – Truscinski -Nace, André 3000, Daudi Matsiko, Daisy Rickman, Wes Tirey and Adrianne Lenker, Alabaster DePlume, Joanna Sternberg and more.