COUNTRY/ FOLK

Marty Van Wells returns for a third time with Songs To Send, an album that finds folk intimacy meeting a more upbeat, full-bodied sound. Still rooted in the simple relationship between a voice and a guitar, Van Wells allows the arrangements to breathe a little wider this time, bringing in…

Kenny Mehler’s Cornbread & Whiskey is the country-rock album that wears its personality loudly. It is playful, nostalgic and full of movement, blending pop-country warmth with big harmonies, sturdy rhythms and hooks that seem designed to stick around. Across the record, Mehler moves between mischievous memories, relationship fallout and outright…

Dave Hill Jr. turns the search for inspiration into something tender and deeply ordinary with “Chasing Stars.” Rather than romanticizing the creative process, the Seattle singer-songwriter places it right in the middle of everyday life, where there are children running around, practical responsibilities waiting and barely enough time to sit…

Sometimes the people closest to you are the ones who know exactly where to press. Scott A. Flaxman turns that painful realization into “The Love of Strangers,” a moody indie singer-songwriter ballad about creative isolation, dismissal and the unexpected comfort of being understood by people who barely know you. The…

Sean Coats turns heartbreak into a three-song journey through disappointment, anger and the slow acceptance that follows. Released August 30, Hello Cloudy Skies is the Pekin, Indiana singer-songwriter’s most personal and expansive project yet, blending fictional storytelling with emotions drawn from real experience. Recorded largely in his home studio while…

John Muka Band’s “Bus Stop” arrives from another era, but its questions feel strikingly current. Originally written in the early 2000s amid the fear and uncertainty surrounding 9/11, the Jacksonville indie-rock/Americana band’s latest single finds a new home in a world where people can communicate constantly and still feel strangely…

There is something wonderfully strange about music that feels less like it was recorded in a studio and more like it was discovered somewhere in the wilderness. Man From The Woods has built precisely that kind of atmosphere. The enigmatic English artist, best known for “Migration Song,” which found a…

Hardy White gives reinvention a pair of boots and a whole lot of attitude in “Alabama Girrl,” a country-rock single that follows a familiar woman into an entirely unfamiliar version of herself. Released September 4, 2026, the song puts its heroine at the center of the story, while White takes…

Caleb Elliott steps into a quietly expansive new chapter with “Without Warning,” a soulful piece of noir Americana that finds comfort without pretending anxiety does not exist. Rooted in the storytelling traditions of Louisiana and Muscle Shoals, Elliott has built his sound around haunting vocals, literary songwriting and atmospheric arrangements,…

Suchetana Sinha opens a door into the hazy space between memory and desire with “Khwaab – A Night and an Unfinished Melody,” a delicate Hindi nazm that draws from the richness of North Indian semi-classical music while floating comfortably within a contemporary arrangement. Built around reflections on longing, the song…