News

Featuring Ríoghnach Connolly, watch the accompanying video for ‘Curlew Song’, the new single from Clare Sands, taken from her upcoming album ‘They Tried to Bury Us’, out on October 9th. The album is a collection of songs that gives voice to the silenced: from the endangered curlew to those seeking refuge.

Bill Nace & Mike Polizze have announced “Live at Pageant : Soloveev”, recorded in 2025, following the release of Mike’s second solo album ‘Around Sound’. Thankfully, Mike captured this taishogoto and guitar face-off on his iPhone, allowing this unhindered exhibition of full-spectrum free string playing in its rawest form to be captured for us all to enjoy.

The Male Pattern, the project of Queens songwriter, novelist and English professor Will Schwartz, shares “Charlie (The Robbery)” from the forthcoming album “I Was Shot in the Heart!”, out September 25th via Barely Out Recordings. A character-driven narrative ballad featuring Danny Bateman of Frog on piano, it’s darkly funny, clever, and “sneakily beautiful”.

David Murphy & Ether Ensemble have shared “The Rain Song”, a reworking of the Led Zeppelin ballad for pedal steel guitar and seven-piece ensemble, with all Bandcamp proceeds going to Doctors Without Borders. The single follows Murphy’s acclaimed debut “Cuimhne Ghlinn”, which Glenn Kimpton called “an extraordinarily great album” in these pages. A new studio album is due in 2027.

Jon Wilks releases his rendition of “Geordie” on September 4th, marking fifty years of Martin Carthy’s “Crown of Horn.” Carthy’s version was so definitive that recording his own “always felt like turning up to a house that was already lived in.” The Songs of Martin Carthy tour changed that — two semitones up, with a new jaunt and swing.

Allison de Groot and Rich Ruth have today shared their second single, ‘Distance From Then’. With its earthy birdsong opening and unadorned banjo and violin, Ruth soon creates a whole world around it. As Allison says, “Like so much of the music on this album, our two very different musical worlds sent the tracks in unexpected directions.”

Watch the video for “Green Grow the Laurels”, Josienne Clarke’s stark new rendering of the traditional song, directed by Alec Bowman_Clarke. The single accompanies the announcement of “Regenerene MMXXVI”, a 12-track album that reveals her recent standalone singles are part of a larger return to the traditional material that first shaped her career.

Combining stop-motion animation made from leaves, seeds, and flowers with live footage, Mamas Broke share the video for ‘Wildflowers’, a stunningly beautiful, lyrically enigmatic ballad with a deceptively simple acoustic guitar at its heart. It’s taken from their new album, Reunion, out today on Free Dirt Records/Forward Music Group.

Chicago trio Bitchin Bajas, featuring Cooper Crain, Rob Frye and Dan Quinlivan, share a live video for “Ajami”, filmed at their Los Angeles Lodge Room show on miniDV tape by Shambling History. The track is from their new EP Isle Peaks, out today on Drag City. They’ve also announced a new show at Chicago’s smartbar, adding to an already packed autumn of both US and EU/UK dates.

Sam Beam, the visionary multi-instrumentalist behind Iron & Wine, announces ‘Hen’s Teeth (Deluxe Edition)’, out 22nd September via Sub Pop, featuring four previously unreleased songs along with acoustic versions of two fan favourites. Listen to the new single ‘California Sober’, released today, along with an acoustic version of fan favourite ‘In Your Ocean’.

Jeffrey Silverstein’s new single “Patchouli” is out now and accompanied by a beautiful visualiser whose analogue Kodacolor vibes are the perfect match for this rhythmic, road-ready track that blends krautrock with wide-open Americana; it’s taken from his new album ‘Doggone’, out on October 23rd, via Full Time Hobby.

Animal Collective’s Geologist (Brian Weitz) began 2026 with a sonic bloom when his debut solo album, Can I Get a Pack of Camel Lights?, dropped on Drag City. This November, he’ll be presenting his rippling songscapes across stages in the UK and the Iberian Peninsula. Watch the new Nick Ciontea video for the album closer “Sonora”.