Andy Lauth - Lisa Bouchelle - Mon Rayon - VSQ & Girl Named Tom - Teni Rane - Karen Myatt

Andy Lauth - Under Construction.

Andy Lauth is an accomplished drummer and singer with an unmistakable soulful voice. The Lucerne-based artist moves between groovy rhythms, atmospheric art pop, and warm soul. He first attracted international attention with his 2023 single “Beautiful.” The song received numerous plays on indie radio stations around the world and was also added to the rotation of Radio Swiss Pop.

Now, the light-footed “Under Construction” marks the next chapter. Once again, Andy Lauth reveals a personal yet playful side. Stylistically, he combines elements of art pop and soul pop with an organic band sound and a strong attention to detail. Catchy melodies meet groovy arrangements, while the lyrics move between self-reflection, a playful wink, and emotional openness.

For the recordings, Lauth brought his live band into the studio: Andreas Meili, formerly a member of Mothers Pride, on keys; Steve Werle on guitar; and Simon Kaufmann, known among other things for his work with Lina Button, on bass. Together, they give the songs a lively, organic character.

“Under Construction” is a preview of the upcoming EP, which will be officially launched on 17. Oktober at the Jazzkantine Lucerne was produced by Manuel Halter, who has previously worked with artists including Luca Hänni, Child, and Remo Forrer. Singers Child and Miss C-Line add further vocal accents, appearing as backing vocalists on several tracks. In 2026, Miss C-Line received the Artist Award.

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Photo - Cristina Arrigoni

Lisa Bouchelle - Vandals, Thieves & Lovers (Album).

Lisa Bouchelle has released her new album Vandals, Thieves & Lovers. Boasting an array of special guests and collaborators including Amanda Shires, Larry Campbell, Waddy Wachtel (Stevie Nicks, Linda Ronstadt) and E Street Band saxophonist Jake Clemons, the record finds the New Jersey singer-songwriter grappling with the full spectrum of the human experience, balancing darkness and light as she navigates love, loss and liberation.

Featuring early singles “Make This World Stand Still” (feat. Amanda Shires), “Vandal” (feat. Waddy Wachtel), “A Light To Come Home To” (feat. Amanda Shires & Larry Campbell) and “Game To Play,” Vandals, Thieves & Lovers sees Bouchelle embracing a collaborative spirit to serve the music. To that end, she invited additional all-star players like celebrated guitarist Clay Cook (Zac Brown Band), pedal steel virtuoso Doyle Grisham (Jimmy Buffett), drummer Rich Scannella (Tonic), fiddle player Tim Carbone (Railroad Earth) and bassist Hal B. Selzer (Joan Jett) to join these sessions. The album takes a similarly wide-ranging sonic approach, drawing on folk, country, rock, blues, gospel, soul and funk as it weaves together the disparate threads of American roots music into a captivating, cohesive whole. Add it all up and you’ve got a timeless work that’s as indebted to Laurel Canyon and Bakersfield as Memphis and Motown, a revelatory exploration of survival and resilience that showcases just how far Bouchelle has come, and where she’s headed.

A relentless road warrior, she has sung backup for Bruce Springsteen, dueted in concert with Jon Bon Jovi and shared bills with the likes of The Wallflowers, Train, Blues Traveler, Bryan Adams, Shooter Jennings and Steve Miller, among others. Now with Vandals, Thieves & Lovers, the spotlight remains firmly fixed on Bouchelle throughout these songs, with arrangements centered around her evocative vocals and infectiously rhythmic guitar work.

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Photo - Emilia Jagerman

Mon Rayon - Pale Memory.

Every so often, a band comes along that feels almost impossible to pin down. Mon Rayon are one of those bands, occupying a world somewhere between “a full English breakfast and the Sanremo Festival in the 1960s”. Behind the duo’s finely detailed arrangements and carefully constructed songs is a strong sense of spontaneity, and above all, a love of playing together. “From the beginning, the whole idea has been that the music should feel alive,” explains Josef Ask. “That we play together and that everything you hear is actually being played. It should feel organic, and that’s probably one of the biggest things we’ve taken from orchestral pop.”

Made up of Josef Ask and Christoffer Zetterlund, Mon Rayon release their debut album Image Repertoire on 2 October. Across its twelve tracks, the duo draw on 1960s French pop, baroque touches of harpsichord, sweeping string arrangements and even Göran Fristorp’s 1974 Melodifestivalen appearance, while French semiotician Roland Barthes provides an unexpected conceptual thread running through the record.

What ties these influences together is Mon Rayon’s instinct for melody, restraint and understated grandeur. The result is an album that feels meticulous without ever becoming rigid. The duo produced the record themselves, with Simon Nordberg on mixing.

“A lot of the songs come from small fragments of life, brief snapshots and memories,” the band explain. “That made us think of Barthes’ concept of the ‘image-repertoire’ - the idea that we carry around an internal collection of images, memories, fantasies, cultural references and emotional associations through which we understand other people. We never really meet someone as a completely ‘new’ person. We filter them through this existing repertoire of images.”

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VSQ & Girl Named Tom - Ordinary World.

Pop-culture-inspired instrumentalists Vitamin String Quartet (VSQ) have teamed up with acclaimed vocal trio Girl Named Tom for a sweeping rendition of Duran Duran’s 1993 hit “Ordinary World,” out this weekend via CMH Label Group/Vitamin Records. The revamp and accompanying performance video is a nod to their upcoming joint “Crazy Ordinary World” Tour, with both groups bringing their captivating arrangements to Nashville, Atlanta, D.C. and more.

"We loved joining forces with Girl Named Tom to create a fresh interpretation of a song as iconic and moving as ‘Ordinary World,'" says VSQ violinist Rachel Grace. "It’s a piece we’re especially excited to share with our audiences when we take it on the upcoming tour and perform it live."

“We love discovering great music from years gone by, and it's been awesome diving into ‘Ordinary World,’” says Girl Named Tom. “Somehow we've lived all our lives without knowing this Duran Duran classic (maybe because our dad was tunnel-visioned on U2, or because Bekah was only 3 years old when it came out!). Upon hearing it for the first time, we'd made a vocal arrangement and demo within 24 hours. It reminded us of the many frantic hours we spent arranging songs on The Voice! We like how this arrangement features the beautiful lyrics and also brings out the best in both our vocals and the musicians of Vitamin String Quartet."

On the upcoming tour, Girl Named Tom adds, “We can't wait for y'all to hear your favorite Girl Named Tom music in this brand new setting - in symphony halls with a string quartet! Working with these tremendous musicians has already been a great joy and we know the music we create on stage will change us - and you - every night.”

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Photo - Tom Netherland

Teni Rane - Never Turning Back (Album).

Teni Rane’s new album Never Turning Back unfolds as a reflective journey through the many kinds of places people inhabit over a lifetime. Rooted in intimate storytelling and atmospheric arrangements, the album traces movement not only across landscapes, but also across inner terrain. Each song acts as a waypoint, capturing moments of arrival, departure, and the quiet in-between spaces where transformation often happens.

Geographic place plays a grounding role throughout the record with tracks like “Arkansas” and “Soil on My Soul” speaking to the pieces of our hearts that we leave behind or that we feel we’ve never fully found. The physical settings are not merely backdrops; they mirror the shifting states of the narrator and reflect restlessness, craved for belonging, and the pull of the elusive feeling of home. Rane’s songwriting uses place as memory, where a location can hold the weight of a decision or the echo of who someone used to be.

Beyond geography, Never Turning Back explores how we define and manage social and cultural place throughout our lives. “Secondhand Memories” and “Driveway Conversations” inspect the roles we are assigned, the communities we navigate, and the expectations we push against or grow into. Throughout the album, the lyrics linger in spaces of relational inflection points and introspective musings about how our inner and outer worlds are reconciled. Rane’s writing asks the listener to contemplate the quiet tension between fitting in and stepping away, between tradition and self-definition.

Rane’s sophomore release makes space for an exploration of emotional places: joy, grief, hope, resilience. The title, Never Turning Back, suggests a threshold crossed, a recognition that the journey must move forward. With warmth and her own brand of moxie, Teni Rane offers an album that feels both deeply personal and widely resonant, inviting listeners to reflect on where they’ve been, where they are, and the unseen places still ahead. 

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Photo - Alma Perreault

Karen Myatt - Valise (Album).

Montreal vocalist Karen Myatt has released her new album Valise. Comprising 9 original compositions (and 2 covers), Valise captures and conveys both the act and the art of sacred travel. Inspired by journeys - internal and external - over the past decade, the new songs explore time travel, spiritual quest, and multi-cultural pilgrimage - experiences that exist well beyond the veil and trappings of tourism.

“Phil Cousineau says in his powerful book The Art of Pilgrimage; ‘What matters most on your journey is how deeply you see, how attentively you hear, how richly the encounters are felt in your heart and soul.’

“This idea had a profound effect on the making of Valise,” shares Myatt, “Travel is engaging, educational and entertaining, and - I believe - vital for healing our world during times of conflict.”

KarenMyatt · Valise

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Soft Loft - Dexys Midnight Runners - Leon Majcen - Vivi Belini - Living Hour

Soft Loft - Gravity's Pull.

Soft Loft celebrate the release of their sophomore album, Throw The Dice, with the focus track “Gravity’s Pull,” a soaring indie anthem about growing up without giving up on the dreams that keep pulling you forward. Inspired by modern masters of open-hearted songwriting, from Big Thief to Sam Fender, the track captures the delicate tension between stability and freedom that lies at the heart of Soft Loft’s music. Out this week via [PIAS] Recordings, Throw The Dice was mixed by Grammy-winning engineer Craig Silvey (Arcade Fire, Florence + The Machine), bringing added depth and scale to the band’s emotionally rich new chapter.

Switzerland-based Indie collective Soft Loft ‘Throw The Dice’ is, in many ways, a reflection on life itself. It’s about what the band learned, what they’ve observed, what has helped and what hasn’t. It questions whether they’re stepping into a new phase in life, or if that idea of clear-cut phases doesn’t really exist at all. It’s about it all being a big game, a huge gamble and you won‘t know if it‘s all gonna turn out fine or if it’s not, let‘s throw the dice. ​

After a breakthrough year of headline touring and festival appearances across London, Berlin, Paris and Zurich, as well as slots at The Great Escape, Reeperbahn and Montreux Jazz Festival, plus tastemaker praise from BBC 6 Music to KEXP, this year is shaping up to be even bigger with their [PIAS] debut and a 2026 EU fall tour.​

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Dexys Midnight Runners - Love (Album).

Produced by Belfast musician / DJ David Holmes, LOVE is a deeply personal and emotionally rich album that may mark the final chapter in Dexys Midnight Runners' extraordinary musical journey. 

Their first release under the Dexys Midnight Runners name since 1985’s Don’t Stand Me Down, LOVE gathers stories spanning Kevin Rowland’s life - from his 2nd generation Irish childhood and family relationships to late-life romance, loss and reconciliation. Built around themes of love in all its forms, the album moves beyond traditional romance to explore aging, memory, and emotional connection. 

Focus single “Once A Man, Twice A Child,” is a soulful track finds Rowland reflecting on a relationship with his father that he once believed could never truly exist, capturing the unexpected closeness and love they found in their time together.


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Leon Majcen - The Leaving Kind (Album).

Won’t ya take a ride with me / On the road dog express / Where living ain’t easy / But life’s the best, sings Leon Majcen on his new album released yesterday, ‘The Leaving Kind.’ Produced by Pat Lyons (Colter Wall, Sam Barber) and engineered by Sean Sullivan (Sturgill Simpson, Old Crow Medicine Show, Sierra Hull), it’s a collection of rugged and romantic cowboy songs that trod on as earnestly as Majcen himself. “This music thing requires life to move a lot more quickly than it should, and racking up fifty thousand miles a year can take its toll,” he says. “But I wouldn’t trade the chance for anything.” In a wind-worn voice, over unpretentiously plucked guitars, Majcen sings of cheap motels, long highways, tackle shops, sinking suns, cokes, smokes, and postcards—you can nearly hear the dust kicking up around him. 

And with all this sepia-tinted wayfaring, where is he headed? In 2025, Rolling Stone proclaimed Majcen “in the middle of a major career rise.” He’d toured with the likes of Margo Price, Trampled By Turtles, American Aquarium, and Turnpike Troubadours, putting borrowed spotlight to good use; audiences locked into his backroads balladry, a vagabondish blend of wit and grit frequently compared to Prine. Majcen’s prolific output—four albums in five years—gathered continuous acclaim and landed him on Holler. Magazine’s list of 20 Best New Country and Americana Artists for 2026, further solidifying his place in the modern Americana canon. 

The son of Bosnian refugees, Majcen may gravitate toward an open road by instinct. But his childhood in Safety Harbor, Florida also instilled in him the power of a stabilizing base. He grew up on his father’s musical influence—Dylan, Kristofferson, Van Zandt—and received his first guitar as a Christmas gift at age nine. “My dad’s been a huge supporter of everything I’ve ever wanted to do, whether it was sports, the outdoors, or music. I’m thankful to have good folks.” This much is clear on “Long Way From Home,” Majcen’s strings-laden, emotional ode to the grounding power of family. Ain’t slipped up yet / Be a shame if I do / Because I’m a long way from home / And they still know my name. “Growing up as an immigrant, my whole life, I’ve watched my parents work jobs they hated,” says Majcen. “I think it’s why they always pushed me to chase my dreams. Getting to a position where I can help my family out has always been a big motivator.”

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Vivi Belini - All Mine.

Fresh from captivating audiences at the “Sounds am See” Open air in Sarnen (Switzerland), musician Vivi Belini now welcomes the approaching autumn with a soulful and funky pop track. Her new single, “All Mine,” brings together influences and ambitions from soul, pop, funk and indie. In it, the Berlin-born artist, who now lives in Switzerland, draws on stories from her life as a cosmopolitan.

Originally from Berlin, Vivi Belini moved to Rome at the age of 18 and, after numerous stops along the way, found her second home in Switzerland more than ten years ago. Her international background is also reflected in her band: Swiss guitarist Sven brings his love of blues, rock and pop; American-Austrian drummer Timothy draws on his roots in jazz, hip-hop and fusion; while Serbian bassist Stefan comes from the worlds of jazz, big band and pop. Together, they give Vivi’s compositions their very own signature sound.

Vivi Belini’s music is often deeply introspective. Her songs explore life and its transience, identity, loss and grief – but also hope, resilience and the desire to keep moving forward despite it all. Her debut EP, “Time,” already captured this tension perfectly. Her motto: “Existential crisis, but make it groovy.” Uncompromising honesty meets a sound that invites you to dance not despite its depth, but precisely because of it.

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Photo - Lucas Pingitore

Living Hour - Magnet.

Acclaimed Winnipeg indie rock quintet, Living Hour released a new single this week, “Magnet” via Paper Bag Records / Keeled Scales. It is the title-track of their forthcoming Magnet EP, a four-track companion of demos and b-sides to their 2025 full-length, Internal Drone Infinity, which is one of ten Canadian releases nominated for The Meridian Prize, being awarded this October at BreakOut West.

The bundle of phrases that make up the EP are from an incubation period of a lot of TV, projecting movies for work, and general dissociative activities. “I was thinking about how people are magnets if they want to be. Attracting what they think about most, interact with or watch on screens,” says lead singer and lyricist, Sam Sarty.

“Magnet” marks a return to the atmospheric and ethereal sonic palette that drew listeners to the band in the early years. The song is pastoral and ambient, with layers of swelling glitchy guitar loops, e-bow, vibraphone, vocal drones, and plain, spoken-word poetry. Far-away harmonies and vocalizing from Lindsey Verrill of Little Mazarn bring a ton of cosmic ear candy.

“I started to think about all the rotted reality TV swirling around on a quantum level and where that stuff is stored in a head, all edited together, and how it switches up life in a way that feels cellular and tangible.” And of the EP as a whole, “The songs are a nice reminder to think we can focus on what we need from that soup of stuff and pull out the details we like and want to keep.” 

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Hank Tree - Sorry Darling - Twice A Man - Oscar Lindsey - Amélie Giardini

Photo - Kersti Nagel

Hank Tree - Tagalong.

Glasgow's Hank Tree return with 'Tagalong', a striking new single that pairs intricate classical guitar with bursts of distortion, electronic percussion and haunting dual vocals to tell a powerful story of vulnerability, exploitation and the need for human connection.

Led by songwriter Fergus MacDonald, Hank Tree have long balanced fragility and intensity, but 'Tagalong' is among the project's most immediate and emotionally affecting releases. Built around fast-picked classical guitar, accordion, electronic beats and rich vocal harmonies from Clarissa Cheong, the track was shaped alongside acclaimed composer and producer Peter Broderick, whose production expands the song's intimate core into something both unsettling and beautiful.

Inspired by MacDonald's experiences working in the care sector, 'Tagalong' reflects on the story of a vulnerable person with learning difficulties who is manipulated into criminal activity by those seeking to exploit their trust. While rooted in real experiences, the song avoids becoming a literal retelling, instead exploring universal themes of dependence, manipulation and the search for acceptance. "I resisted writing about my work in care for a long time," says MacDonald. "But eventually I realised these experiences had stayed with me too deeply to ignore. They're stories that exist all around us, yet they're rarely reflected in music or the arts."

Rather than dwelling solely on darkness, 'Tagalong' invites listeners to consider the ways we all depend on others throughout our lives. "The more I wrote," MacDonald explains, "the more I realised the song wasn't just about care work. It's about relying on other people. Whether that's through family, friendship or love, it's something everyone understands."

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Sorry Darling - Like You.

Brooklyn rockers Sorry Darling released their new single, "Like You," yesterday, the latest preview of their forthcoming EP, Mirrors, out October 6th. Amongst the EP's heavier hitters, "Like You" stands out as the melodic one — melancholic in tone but still driven by the band's signature rock n' roll pulse. Lead singer Liz Wagner Biro brings a smoky, plaintive quality to the track reminiscent of Placebo's Brian Molko, lending the song's ache an extra edge.

"Like You" tackles the way a relationship can erode someone's sense of self and capability. Its accompanying music video follows a pageant queen who places second and wakes up questioning the life she's built. - "It's almost as if you can do everything right, everything you think is being asked of you, and you still might not win," the band add "The real winning is choosing yourself."

The single is the second offering from their upcoming EP Mirrors. The collection  takes its title from the way a mirror can reflect backward, reveal what's around the corner, and throw light, or blame, wherever it's needed, with the EP's songs circling the idea of projection and being truly seen within a relationship. It was recorded with producer Mike Dwyer at The Bunker in Cairo, NY, marking the first time the band decamped upstate together to record — a departure from the day-commute sessions that shaped their self-titled debut LP. 

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Twice A Man - Desert Snow.

Twice A Man unveil a beautiful visualiser for 'Desert Snow', the first to be plucked as an advance single from the electronic environmentalists' forthcoming album "Reveries Before Silence". The Swedes' new full-length has been chalked up for release on November 20, 2026.

Twice A Man comment: "The first single track, 'Desert Snow', is one of our musical footprints in a time marked by uncertainty, division, and change", Karl Gasleben explains on behalf of the band collective. "This song reflects on the world we live in today while reminding us that hope and positive thinking can still be a path toward unity. As modern societies continue to challenge our sense of human connection, we need to find what brings us together rather than what drives us apart.  

If we can discover a common voice that leads us away from war, polarisation, and the climate crisis, there is still a future worth believing in. We want to be able to look our children in the eyes and speak about tomorrow with honesty, responsibility, and hope. 'Desert Snow' is our contribution to that conversation – a song that carries both reflection and faith in a better future."

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Photo - Cole Silberman

Oscar Lindsey - Painting The Walls.

Nashville-based artist Oscar Lindsey recently signed to Mom + Pop Music (Courtney Barnett, Caamp, Tiny Habits, Hudson Freeman) and will release his label debut, Sunshine, on October 16. Described by Lindsey as "every phase of an early-20s, fucked up love story," Sunshine is an honest and vulnerable chronicling of the final shove into "real adulthood," a period of change, growth, and self-annihilation. He self-produced and recorded the 10-track set primarily in his home studio, with strings and horns overdubbed by instrumentalist friends throughout the greater Nashville area.
 
Lindsey previously teased the upcoming album with singles "Metal Through Her Lips" and "Flip A Coin," and he returns today with "Painting The Walls." Of the new song, he offers, "I was attempting to see how honestly I could explain the mental anguish I was in. It was written in a particularly bad downward spiral of anxiety paired with OCD that makes me do a lot of self-soothing behavior. 

I knock things, I count things, everything has to be a certain way. I have to complete little tasks or I feel like something terrible will happen to me. The verses question why my brain is sabotaging itself. The chorus of the song expresses how these little tasks and rituals add up, and I can’t leave the house without doing them. All of this feels like a unique experience, but I have hopes that it will reach more people who can relate to it, and try to find some peace listening to it the same way I did by writing it."
 
Lead single "Metal Through Her Lips" has received an enthusiastic welcome from the internet's Alex G-loving lo-fi folk circles since its release in June, with Ones to Watch calling it a "complex and entirely captivating work of art." Written during Nashville's catastrophic ice storm this past winter, while in the midst of a long-term breakup, the song's opening line — "She puts metal through her lips like a fish that got caught by a fisherman" — showcases Lindsey's ability to set a scene in a way that immediately pulls the listener into his singular POV.

Oscar Lindsey · Painting The Walls

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Amélie Giardini - Beast.

Have you ever kept going back - again and again - even when you knew a relationship was bad for you? Beast lives in that uncomfortable space between knowing and leaving. It explores the guilt we have for returning, for wanting, for still hoping — even when the greater guilt belongs elsewhere. At its heart is a deliberately twisted image: a fragile mind “leeching on a beast.” The narrator sees herself as the parasite, clinging to something she knows will hurt her, while slowly confronting the possibility that she may have been blaming the wrong creature all along.

Amélie is a Franco-Australian, London-based singer-songwriter whose work turns an observant eye towards the contradictions of human behaviour. Her writing explores the nuances of power - between individuals, within systems, and within ourselves - moving between vulnerability and control, complicity and resistance. Drawn to ambiguity rather than easy conclusions, her songs are often laced with dark humour and a wry self-awareness.

Raised on a small tropical island, Amélie developed an early sensitivity to the textures, colours and rhythms of nature - a sensibility that continues to shape both her music and its visual world. Alongside her music, she works across international environmental and human rights policy, a parallel life that exposes her to complex and often uncomfortable realities and sharpens her attention to human instincts and contradictions. Music offers another space in which to process and reframe what she sees.

Following her debut Sombre Maze and second single Red Pill, Beast marks the next chapter of the Colour Bound project - a body of work that will continue unfolding throughout the year.

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Eliza Eden - Livvy Landin - Red Spot Rhythm Section - Josienne Clarke - Israel Nash - GracieHorse

Photo -  Emilio Herce

Eliza Eden - Death Drive.

Eliza Eden has announced a new album ‘Death Drive’ will be released October 30 on First City Artists (Coco, Alexa Rose) and this week shares the title track, along with a brand new video. Eliza Eden tells us about the new video: This video was inspired by the location. I spotted this antique car place off the side of the road in Stephentown, New York, not far from where I grew up in the Berkshires. 

I had been passing it my whole life—hundreds of charmingly dilapidated vintage automobiles in a giant field. It felt more like a museum than a junkyard, with all of the vehicles arranged by make and model. I drove past it again last fall after a visit to my dad and it hit me as the perfect location to shoot a music video—especially for a song named “Death Drive.” I sent a cold email to the owner, Bob, and he kindly let us shoot there. Then I wrote and self-directed for the first time.

Edens has written about the experience of losing their mother before, on the lush acoustic-fingerpicked ‘We’ll Become The Flowers’ (2022) and the quiet collection of lo-fi voice memos released on Bandcamp in 2025, ‘it’s your birthday & you’re gorgeous.’ But if there are seven stages to grief, Death Drive feels like the transcendent eighth stage–the moment when you rediscover playfulness and humor and start reaching outward again. “I was sick of writing sad songs,” Edens admits. Instead, in this collection, sentiments of loss feel buoyant and neon-tinged, discussed with a laugh late at night over beers with friends.

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Livvy Landin - Feel Too Little.

There are a few very easy ways to write about Livvy Landin. She’s 18. She acts. She models. She grew up between Georgia and Michigan after being born in Colorado. However the more interesting story is that an 18-year-old woman sat down to write her debut single and somehow landed on the emotional economics of loving somebody who keeps convincing you that your heart is taking up too much room. That’s “Feel Too Little.”

There is some surprisingly deep thinking happening inside a very accessible up-tempo pop song. The premise is simple enough. You love someone openly and enthusiastically. Then, little by little, they make you wonder whether you’re a problem. Maybe you care too much. Maybe you feel too much. So you start editing yourself. You become easier. Quieter. Less demanding. Less emotional. Eventually, you’ve made yourself perfectly acceptable to someone else and almost unrecognizable to yourself. Cheery little subject for a debut single, right?

What makes Livvy interesting is that she doesn’t stop at heartbreak. She follows the thought all the way through. What if “too much” is relative? What if one person’s overwhelming amount of love is another person’s bare minimum? What if shrinking yourself isn’t maturity or compromise at all? What if you have simply handed your whole heart to somebody who arrived carrying half of theirs?

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Red Spot Rhythm Section - Back of the Bar Room (Twilight Acoustic Sessions).

We were impressed the first time we featured Red Spot Rhythm Section and are really impressed with their latest EP that add another dimension to this often changing collection of musicians. Red Spot Rhythm Section releases have all featured guest vocalists as band leader Joshua Siegal is the first to admit that singing isn't his strong suit, that said these songs have plenty to say he's better than he thinks, guests are great but Joshua does a fine job, notably on "Fresh Air" and "Win For Losing,"

In 2025, Red Spot Rhythm Section songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Joshua Siegal put together multi-track acoustic sessions in preparation for an NPR folk radio show appearance. Featuring original music from the group’s recent 'Twilight' album. The sessions were recorded on a portable 8-track recorder and limited to acoustic instruments: piano, guitar, percussion, and melodica. 

The EP, 'Back of the Bar Room (Twilight Acoustic Sessions)', is a selection of favorites from those sessions, showcasing the songwriter in his natural element: at the piano, a guitar in his lap, and a recorder rolling somewhere nearby. The EP was released a week or so ago.

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Photo - Alec Bowman-Clarke

Josienne Clarke - Green Grow the Laurels.

Today Josienne Clarke announces new album of traditional folk songs and shares 'Green Grow The Laurels' The album Regenerene MMXXVI is set for release on November 20th via Corduroy Punk. Nothing in traditional folk music exists in isolation. Songs traverse voices and generations, accumulating new meanings; things discarded are rediscovered and remade. So it feels fitting that acclaimed singer and songwriter Josienne Clarke’s recent singles, ‘Katie Cruel’ and ‘Banks of the Sweet Primroses’, initially released as standalone works, can now be revealed as part of something larger: Regenerene MMXXVI (pronounced ree-jen-er-reen  twenty-twenty-six), a 12-track album that returns to the traditional music that helped shape her career.

The announcement is accompanied by a new video for ‘Green Grow the Laurels’ by Alec Bowman_Clarke. Clarke’s arrangement takes a characteristically distilled approach to a song of romantic abandonment, her keening vocals and electric guitar finding fresh life on one of the traditional pieces that first helped establish her voice.

The record’s title is Clarke’s own invention, derived from the Middle English regeneren and Latin regenerare. It means to regenerate or, more literally, “to make new flesh”. Her Regenerene is a mythical female archetype existing in an infinite cycle of renewal, while the Roman numerals ground it in the present. “The folk tradition is, or at least should be, a living organism,” Clarke says. “Expanding, contracting, evolving and adapting to an ever-changing landscape, but remaining constant in its ability to process change.”

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Photo - Jaycee Grover

Israel Nash - Pretty Boy Floyd.

Today, Israel Nash shares a cosmic country take on "Pretty Boy Floyd," the latest single from his adaptation of The Byrds' iconic 1968 album Sweetheart of the Rodeo, which releases September 25 on his own label Desert Folklore Music. The album opener unfolds like a synth-dance track for the great outdoors, dressing up the Woody Guthrie-penned, banjo-fueled original with canyon-like reverb and big-sky soundscapes.  

Israel Nash on the new single: “I changed the chords, melody, tempo, instrumentation – really everything but Woody’s lyrics – because this wild story still burns on today. It’s the individual against authority. An endless battle for liberty. That nearly forgotten pillar of folk and rock ’n’ roll itself. Does anyone even remember!? I do.”

Reinterpreting this landmark record through a modern lens, Israel Nash transforms a country-rock classic into a genre-bending take on contemporary American roots music. He approached Sweetheart of the Rodeo not as a museum piece that can't be touched, but as a reminder that if Americana has never stood still, why should he? "Pretty Boy Floyd" follows last month's single, a psychedelic take on the Bob Dyland-penned "You Ain't Going Nowhere." 

Having reclaimed ownership of his back catalog and finished building his dream studio in the Texas Hill Country, Nash found himself free from the relentless schedule of album cycles and finally able to call his own shots. Sweetheart of the Rodeo developed during this prolific era that found him releasing a deluxe version of Rain Plans, creating the instrumental Moods album, and continuing to write original songs. Exploration runs throughout the project – classic melodies shift in new directions, familiar rhythms are rebuilt, tempos move differently. Even the track list is different. 

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GracieHorse - 5 Card Stud.

GracieHorse’s sophomore album, the Chris Cohen-produced Breaking and Entering, will be out on January 29th. On her follow-up to 2023’s L.A. Sh*t, the Los Angeles transplant ups the ante with 9 new songs that seamlessly blend country, soul, Americana, and indie rock. 

Today you can listen to “5 Card Stud,” where she takes us along to a high-stakes poker game, singing “take a seat, settle in, keep your sleeves up, keep smiling.” GracieHorse says about the track: “5 Card Stud” is inspired by my friends who play poker. I think their lingo has a good lyrical quality that makes a good song. It’s basically about good luck and what people attribute their luck to. My friend got me a lucky hand root from a botanica for my birthday, and I kept it in my studio. I feel like it had a “hand” in helping me make some cool songs for this record.

Even as the cascading verses and breathless chorus pick up steam, we only feel the thrill of the moment as the player harnesses their luck and goes for the big win. Lines like “It isn’t college, and it ain't my dad” are the kind of sharp details that GracieHorse commands on Breaking and Entering. The track features the rhythm section of Emily Elhaj (Angel Olsen, Gina Birch, Sofia Bolt, Marina Allen) on bass and Dylan Hadley (Cate Le Bon, White Fence) on drums. Cohen plays acoustic guitar on the track, and Tim Ramsey (Martin Courtney, Kasey Johansing, Marina Allen) is on pedal steel.

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Rusty Shackle - Sara Milonovich & Daisycutter - Swansea Sound

Rusty Shackle - Mayfield (Album).

Folk-rock band 'Rusty Shackle' have released their highly anticipated new album, 'Mayfield', Out Now via Get Folked Records. Produced by Todd Campbell (Son of Motorhead guitar-man Phil), the album marks the band’s most ambitious release to date. 'Mayfield' sees 'Rusty Shackle' embrace a more stripped-back and reflective sound, exploring themes of friendship, perseverance and rebuilding confidence through difficult moments.

Acoustic textures and uncluttered arrangements place storytelling firmly at the heart of the record, while warm indie-rock dynamics bring depth, colour and momentum. The result is an album that balances the intimacy and honesty of folk songwriting with 'Rusty Shackle’s distinctive rock sensibilities. At its core, 'Mayfield' is a record about resilience — finding strength in the people around us, navigating uncertainty and slowly rebuilding when life doesn’t go to plan. There is an understated honesty throughout the album, allowing its themes to resonate without ever feeling overstated.

Produced by Todd Campbell, 'Mayfield' captures 'Rusty Shackle' at their most considered and focused, combining organic instrumentation and heartfelt storytelling with the warmth and energy that have become central to the band’s sound. With its blend of folk storytelling, acoustic textures and understated rock energy, Mayfield represents a new chapter for Rusty Shackle and their most ambitious album yet.

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Sara Milonovich & Daisycutter - Planting and Harvest.

Sara Milonovich & Daisycutter have released “Planting and Harvest” on Get It Played. This song is meant as a tribute to long enduring relationships, to love and partnerships that last through thick and thin. “I vow to love you even through planting and harvest” is a saying on a little hand painted sign that hangs in the kitchen of my family’s farmhouse. I first spotted the sign at a western goods store in Missouri several years ago while driving back to New York from Moab, Utah, and bought it for my parents’ anniversary that year. I stared at that sign every time I came home to visit, and knew there was a song in there somewhere.

Growing up on a farm, planting and harvest are the two most stressful seasons of the year, with the longest hours (even by farming standards!) and the most intense time, weather, and financial pressures all converging at once. The window to get crops in the ground and the window to get them harvested are pretty much make-or-break, and the results can determine the success or failure of an entire year’s hopes and efforts. Needless to say, this puts a great deal of strain on any relationship during those times (I’m sure other industries have equivalent situations – I know the music business does)!

The song is from the point of view of a couple looking back on all they’ve weathered together, reminiscing about the past and wondering about what the future holds: “…guess we’ll keep on working ’til there’s nothing left to look after, though the winter’s getting warmer and the summer’s never been more strange. But the swallows are still shoving mud up into the rafters, and we’ve been weathering storms since back before they all had names…”

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Swansea Sound - Mean To Be Mean.

Today Swansea Sound released a superb new single and a beautiful tease for their forthcoming album 'Pre-post-truth’ due for release on the 13th November via Skep Wax Records, a label that has provided Beehive Candy some superb new music over the past few years! 

Sometimes described as an indie supergroup, Swansea Sound are Hue Williams (ex-The Pooh Sticks), Amelia Fletcher and Rob Pursey (Heavenly), Bob Collins (The Dentists) and Ian Button (Death In Vegas, Railcard).  ‘Pre-post-truth’ is their third album.  They have recorded sessions for 6Music, Radio X and WFMU (New York) and have just completed a tour of the US.

The highly anticipated album ‘Pre-post-truth’ sees Swansea Sound expand their musical ambition and broaden their lyrical targets. It used to be YouTube and Spotify that the band railed against, but now everyone’s getting their heads round those issues, so why not attack the whole edifice of tech-bro hegemony? 

This album is loud and it’s outspoken, but it’s also energetic and very witty.  There’s an awareness of impotence too: the songs are often self-mocking, asking if it’s even possible to make subversive statements in a world where the communication channels are all owned by the tech-bros themselves.

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