East Side Confessions is KB Bayley’s third album, and it has a delightful melancholy feel to it. It feels sparse yet layered, mostly thanks to his excellent lap steel guitar playing, which is quite stunning and is accompanied delightfully by several guests who lift his playing even further. It mixes six original songs with four interpretations, the most unusual one of which is his version of the Korgis hit ‘Everybody’s Got to Learn Sometime’. He has completely changed the feeling of what was a pretty ordinary ’70s song into something quite enigmatic and far more appealing.
‘Don’t Let the Rain Fall on My Face’ has an intense Southern swamp feel to it. It relates to the last words and reflections of a dying man, someone being hanged, “They are putting up…
Category: folk
Described as the “original unedited version” of The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, this RSD exclusive release contains 13 tracks, including four that were removed prior to its original release: “Rocks and Gravel,” “Let Me Die in My Footsteps,” “Rambling, Gambling Willie” and “Talkin’ John Birch Paranoid Blues.” Yes, those four tracks eventually found their way out to the public, but it’s still fun to hold a somewhat different version of one of his signature albums that almost snuck out into the multiverse. A few copies of this particular “canceled” edition from the early ’60s have been among the most valuable Dylan collectibles there are.
The release this is most comparable to is an RSD version of “Blood on the Tracks (Test Pressing)” that came out in 2019…
Some Other Stories is the second album from South London duo Melanie Crew and Ross Palmer, who are life partners as well as musical ones, and they each supply songs written individually to this 12-song project.
Six songs are credited to Palmer and five to Crew. Palmer’s composition ‘Winning Ticket’ opens the album, setting the mood of quiescence and calm, with lyrics full of resignation: “those who are desperate to win are destined to lose”. He also penned ‘Close the Book’ (“a guilty man who takes the stand to make his last request”), which benefits from contributions on cello by Ben Handysides, and the philosophical ‘Blindly Through the World’. On that song, which is set in a minor key, Palmer ponders “bitter harvests and…
While Jackson Scribner’s sophomore release likely won’t elicit cries of “Judas” directed at him, his move to a fuller, more electric sound warrants attention, just not the kind that involves booing.
Arriving four years after his eponymous debut, Depression Kids, expands the mostly acoustic sound of that album without detracting from his earnest vocals and insightful lyrics. While his songwriting remains honest and authentic, the added instrumentation and arrangements succeed in fleshing out the songs and adding interesting textures to the overall sound. The result is a warm-sounding album featuring an accomplished core of musicians whose symbiotic playing throughout helps fill in the spaces between Scribner’s words and makes for some perfect…
It’s fair to say the past decade has brought some challenges for Swedish singer-songwriter Marlene Oak. Ten years ago, she got the difficult diagnosis of Bipolar Disorder Type 2, then just a few years ago she experienced an episode of severe psychosis, something she described as “terrifying”, leading her to question her own reality and even fearing there was a demon inside her.
Understandably, it took her some time to recover, but even whilst still feeling fragile, she felt compelled to turn her trauma into art, and with Peter Morén, she co-wrote and produced what would be Welcome to Oak Land.
“I thought I always knew / What I wanted to do / Now I’m split up in two,” Oak sings on the album opener ‘Threading a Fine Line’, no doubt…
Recorded live in Spain during Loreena McKennitt’s summer 2024 tour of Europe, Live in Madrid is an audio vérité soundboard recording of a complete 20-song show from that tour, captured in stereo directly from the mixing desk located in the venue front-of-house. Other than the mastering and editing work needed in order for us to offer the listeners an optimum listening experience, this album comes as close as you can get to the live performance as it sounded at the “Noches del Botánico” festival on that balmy Mediterranean night.
Live In Madrid contains the entirety of 1994’s The Mask and Mirror performed in sequence, plus over an hour of fan favourites drawn from across the range of Loreena’s catalogue of studio recordings.
The new Jason Isbell album, Foxes in the Snow, offers an opportunity to appreciate his considerable gifts as a singer, songwriter, and guitarist in a fresh way. It’s his first solo acoustic album and his first that he recorded in New York — in just five days no less at Electric Lady Studios in the West Village.
In February, Isbell played two sold-out shows at the Beacon Theatre, blending the new material with fan favorites from his years with The 400 Unit and the Drive-By Truckers. Each night ended with a carefully chosen cover: a haunting rendition of Bon Iver’s “Best/Rest” on Friday and a tender take on John Prine’s “Storm Windows” on Saturday.
A few days later, during a conversation with WFUV radio, Isbell opened up about the making of the album and the beautiful old guitar that…
…includes two new, never released songs.
Okkervil River write dreamy songs with slumber-blurred stories and play them with a drifting, somnambulant gait. The band — named for a river outside St. Petersburg, Russia — filled last year’s eye-opening Down the River of Golden Dreams with gentle ballads about beds and war criminals and forgiveness, but the songs on their follow-up EP, Sleep and Wake Up Songs, are more brittle and fragile, like a light sleeper’s snooze. The EP condenses the album’s best qualities and discards most of its weaknesses, and its brevity makes it all the more emotionally forceful.
“Rapt, in Star Wars sheets/ With my hand across your belly/ We waded through the watercolor,” Will Sheff sings on opener “A Favor”. The song…
This Christmas, the First Lady of Folk Kate Rusby gifts her fans something truly special – an exclusive and limited run Double-CD titled 20 Christmas Is Merry, a celebration of two decades of magical festive music.
20 Christmas Is Merry features 17 stunning live tracks recorded at several venues over the last five years. The live recordings range from the anthemic soundscape of ‘Glorious’ to the gentle, exquisite beauty of ‘The Frost Is All Over.’ Every performance glows with the spirit of a Kate Rusby Christmas. The recordings capture that unique magic – the feeling of being at home with friends around the fire, a glass of mulled wine in hand, basking in the glow of music that feels both comforting and transcendent.
Alongside the live tracks, there are five…
From the Bottom of an Old Grandfather Clock is a collection of demos and outtakes that Bill made while beginning to navigate the music business, writing and demoing endlessly to find what worked for him, and for Decca (where he’d signed to their Deram imprint), ahead of the release of his self-titled debut LP at the beginning of 1970.
Songs such as ‘Maudy La Lune’ were never released in any official capacity – Bill was confusingly embarrassed by the lyrics, they weren’t “meaningful” enough – yet it’s exactly the kind of song that stops anyone in their tracks, sounding as though it might be a long lost McCartney number. Across the 25 tracks is a snapshot of Bill as the promising songwriter, raw and explorative, bursting with the promise of something special.
British singer-songwriter Lucy Kitt unveils her highly anticipated second album, Telling Me, a deeply personal collection that shifts focus from introspection to storytelling, capturing the lives and struggles of those closest to her.
…She mixes Laurel Canyon with ’90s acoustic indie, a voice not a million miles away from The Sundays’ Harriet Wheeler, and chiming guitars borrowed from Robin Guthrie, she builds as personal as her often introspective lyrics. Opening song ‘Blink’ veers towards the indie, while the more strident ‘Waiting Game’ adds a country tinge to a song Stevie Nicks would have been more than happy with. That song also points the way to the direction her lyrics have taken, being penned during lockdown for friends struggling…
Fans and critics have compared singer-songwriter Amy Speace to folk legend Judy Collins for good reason. Collins discovered the Nashville-based via-Baltimore musician early in Speace‘s career and became one of her biggest champions. Collins has brought Speace on tour and recorded her songs. Beyond their personal connections, Speace’s smooth, aching vocals recall Collins’ mid-career tone, and both artists share a rare quality: an earnest, poetic approach to music that comes straight from the heart.
While Collins is best known for interpreting other writers’ material, her own catalog, songs like “Since You’ve Asked” and “My Father” have been covered by everyone from Speace to Dolly Parton and Leonard Cohen. The writers…
After two decades fronting Editors and releasing two albums with Smith & Burrows, Tom Smith is finally stepping into solo territory with There Is Nothing In The Dark That Isn’t There In The Light. Motivated by a desire to reconnect with the raw, acoustic beginnings of his songwriting, Smith set out to create something more intimate and personal, away from the collaborative nature of his band projects.
Enlisting producer Iain Archer, together, they crafted a record built around emotional honesty, acoustic textures, and themes of connection, memory, and resilience. The opening track, ‘Deep Dive’, became the album’s emotional anchor, setting a tone of gentle hope in the face of loneliness.
It’s likely that Elliot Cox didn’t consciously write these songs as celebrations. They aren’t anthems that would fill a stadium with people singing along. Instead, they are heartfelt celebrations of innocence, the exhilaration of change, the courage of youth and the optimism of love, as well as the changing seasons of both nature and the heart.
Cox was born in Gloucestershire, England, raised in Brisbane, Australia, and now splits his time between the latter and London. After receiving his degree in Music Technology, he took his songs on the road, or more accurately, to the streets as he busked across the UK and Europe. The intimacy of singing to small groups of strangers may explain why Cox’s songs are so personal. They seem to come directly from his experiences as he…
Londoner Dave Burn is best known as co-founder of americana “supergroup” Orphan Colours and Ahab, but when solo, his creativity really shines. As the title of his second solo album indicates, he is not completely alone; he has brought a few musician friends along. The rest of the title contains not just his nickname but an altogether more serious notion. Some time ago, Burn found himself working with two other Daves, one bigger and one smaller, but the sense of being in the middle occurred to him in another context. Seeing how just about anything these days is so polarised at two extremes, Burn thought, what about just being somewhere in the middle ground? He posits that wisdom gained with age often takes the edge off previously held views that…
1. Big Thief – No Fear
2. Patterson Hood – The Van Pelt Parties
3. Edwyn Collins – Knowledge
4. Pulp – Farmers Market
5. Robert Plant – As I Roved Out (feat. Suzi Dian)
6. Stereolab – Melodie Is a Wound
7. Baxter Dury – Allbarone
8. Suede – June Rain
9. Horsegirl – Rock City
10. Annie & The Caldwells – Wrong
11. Jeff Tweedy – Out in the Dark
12. Perfume Genius – It’s a Mirror
13. Bon Iver – Day One
14. William Tyler – Concern
15. Margo Price – Love Me Like You Used to Do (feat. Tyler Childers)
The Gold Rush: The Songs of Neil Young features 15 of Young‘s classics and deep cuts reinterpreted exclusively for Uncut in tribute to Shakey’s 80th birthday.
There’s some ragged, glorious rock from Kurt Vile & The Sadies, J Mascis, Alan Sparhawk‘s Tired Eyes and MJ Lenderman & The Wind; there are tender ballads from Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, Joan Shelley & Nathan Salzburg, Drive By Truckers‘ Mike Cooley, and Sharon Van Otten & The Attachment Theory; and there are wilder, more experimental versions from Orcutt Shelley Miller and Spencer Cullum’s Coin Collection.
Plus it all kicks off with a stunning 8-and-a-half-minute “Ambulance Blues” from Phosphorescent.
Thalas is the new band formed by Guus Herremans and Ward Dhoore, two longtime friends whose musical paths have intertwined for over a decade in Belgiums vibrant folk music scene. You may know them from projects such as Aelia, Airboxes, Entre Deux, Estbel, Les Bottines Artistiques, Nufolk Global Connections, Phlox, Siger, Snaarmaarwaar, Spilar, and Trio Dhoore. With As It Comes, they celebrate the power of patience and the beauty of the process. Almost all of the album was composed and arranged together in one room, a reflection of their intuitive dialogue and shared vision. Guus, known for his expressive diatonic accordion playing, brings a melodic warmth shaped by years of composing across diverse projects, while Ward takes on the role of producer.