Released this weekend, we have a gorgeous Indie folk EP from California songwriter Emory Duncan. Produced by Jamie Mefford (Gregory Alan Isakov, Nathaniel Rateliff), Duncan’s gauzy vocals, swirling and surreal instrumental arrangements, and tender lyricism are a perfect listen on an autumn afternoon.
Originally from Houston, Duncan now lives and writes from a log cabin tucked beneath the Redwoods of the Santa Cruz Mountains, crafting pastoral Americana as dreamy, foggy, and serene as the setting he inhabits.
He released his debut EP 'For Someone I Don’t Know' in 2024 followed by a string of singles. Duncan’s music has independently racked up millions of streams and landed in tastemaker compilations by Alexrainbird, Indie Folk Central and more. Emerging along the edges of nostalgia—like a dream your eyes can’t quite recall into focus—his songs are for outcasts, romantics, and anyone who’s ever felt too much but couldn't find the words.
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Margo Cilker - Little White Cross (Album)
We have already featured a few songs from the brand new album in recent months and it's a real pleasure to be able to share the full album released this weekend. Margo Cilker traveled to Lockhart, TX from her PNW home to record Little White Cross with Bruce Robison (produced Charley Crockett's The Man From Waco).
It's the follow-up to her sophomore album, Valley of Heart's Delight, which was named one of NPR Music's 50 Best Albums of 2023 and included in the year's Best Country Albums from Rolling Stone among others. Little White Cross, is out via Fossil Records, a label she formed with fellow musician ISMAY.
"You could definitely call it a concept record. If that concept is that I got really sad and went to Texas," Cilker says of the upcoming album. "I had some material so dark I didn’t think I’d show it to [Bruce]. Then I remembered this is the man who wrote 'Travelin’ Soldier.'"
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We have a new soulful and bold reimagining of “Feeling Good" from Nashville based singer-songwriter Crys Matthews via Shamus Records. The single is the latest from Holidays & Evergreens from Shamus Records, featuring a fresh collection of new recordings from TRO Essex Music Group’s iconic back catalog. A troubadour of truth, Nashville resident Crys Matthews is among the brightest stars of the new generation of social justice music-makers. An award-winning, prolific lyricist and composer, Matthews blends Country, Americana, Folk, Blues, and Bluegrass into a bold, complex performance steeped in traditional melodies punctuated by honest, original lyrics. She is made for these times.
Quote from Crys on "Feeling Good" I have always felt so drawn to Nina Simone. We are both North Carolinians, we both grew up loving classical music, and we were both raised in the church. This intimate version of her iconic song Feeling Good (featuring Seth Glier on the keys) feels like the embodiment of all of those things.
Written by English composers Anthony Newley and Leslie Bricusse for the 1964 musical The Roar of the Greasepaint – The Smell of the Crowd, the song was first performed by a character simply called “The Negro.” He sings the song after winning a 'ruleless game' against two white characters. The struggles of racial and socioeconomic inequality in 1960s Britain (the premise of the musical) paled in comparison to its American equivalent.
As a fellow Black southerner, I don't have to imagine how deeply that resonated with Nina. That 'game' is being played just as fervently today as it was then. It is still just white supremacy coated in a veneer of capitalism — it was not (and is not) designed for Black or poor people to win. And so, Feeling Good is a freedom song of sorts, much like the songs Nina would've grown up hearing her ancestors sing.
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Finnish electronic duo Sin Cos Tan, formed by producer Jori Hulkkonen and singer-songwriter Juho Paalosmaa, returned with their new album Greed on 9 October 2026. The album examines how the logic of growth, competition and personal gain reaches far beyond economics and into relationships, morality and the way we measure our own lives. Greed is not simply about money or material wealth. Across the album, greed appears as the pursuit of power and control, unchecked ambition, self-preservation and the everyday compromises people make to protect their own position
The record looks at a culture increasingly shaped by the language of business. Value, efficiency, growth, loss and return are no longer concepts confined to markets or corporate life. They have become part of the way people talk about time, relationships, careers and themselves.
What do you gain? What do you lose? Who benefits? What is worth your time? On Greed, these questions move from the boardroom into personal life. The album considers what happens when relationships become transactional, ambition becomes an end in itself and almost anything can be justified as a rational decision.
It also explores the less visible compromises behind those decisions. Moral boundaries rarely move all at once. More often, they shift through ordinary choices, gradual acceptance and the stories people tell themselves to make their actions seem reasonable.
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| Photo - Celeste Burdon |
Hailing from the Comeragh Mountains of County Waterford, The Wran are four brothers: Tommy, Danny, Seán and Stephen Dunford. This weekend, The Wran release their debut album The Stone Man. The band have rapidly built a reputation for their immersive live performances and a sound that feels both rooted and otherworldly, with acclaimed performances at festivals including Glastonbury, Green Man, All Together Now and Electric Picnic.
Starting tonight in Dublin, the band embark on an extensive, largely sold-out headline tour across Ireland this month and the UK in November, before support dates with Madra Salach and The Pogues in December. The Stone Man pulls Irish folk tradition into punk and psychedelia, allowing its songs to grow and transform through atmosphere, rhythm and weight.
Drawing inspiration from Planxty, The Pogues and Lankum, The Wran combine traditional and modern instrumentation with a dedication to keeping Irish songs, language and storytelling alive. Produced and recorded by Ben Wanders at Wanderland Recording Studios in Limerick, The Stone Man’s songs explore departure, family and home, drawing on local folklore to give Waterford’s lesser-heard stories a wider audience.
“This album is built from the songs we grew up with and found over time. It’s deeply rooted in where we’re from, and it tells stories about people leaving home, the families they left behind, and the longing to return.”
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