On The Anthology of UnAmerican Folk Music, Marisa Anderson reinterprets music from beyond America's borders — an open-armed gesture of connecting that could hardly be better timed. klofmag.com/2026/05/mari...

Inspired by a nuclear-contaminated stretch of the Savannah River, North Carolina’s Magic Tuber Stringband’s “Heavy Water” binds Appalachian folk to intellectual rigour and ecological grief. klofmag.com/2026/05/magi...

Tara Clerkin Trio have shared “Lazy Daisy”, the latest track from their forthcoming album “Somewhere Good”, out 5th June via World of Echo. klofmag.com/2026/05/tara...

Lady Maisery and Jimmy Aldridge & Sid Goldsmith return with “Wakefire: A Summer Album”, a full-scale double album that trumps its predecessor in both ambition and reward. klofmag.com/2026/05/lady...

BCMC — Bill MacKay and Cooper Crain — return with “Tête-à-Tête”, the second single from their forthcoming Drag City Records album “Stash”, out June 26th. Where lead single “Kaleidosmoke” unfurled in patient, accumulative psychedelia, this one rotates skyward. klofmag.com/2026/05/bcmc...

On their self-titled debut, The MerKaBa Brotherhood treat rhythm as a vessel for hidden knowledge, shaping sound the way mystics shape symbols...parachuting us into the place where all the in-between notes live. klofmag.com/2026/05/the-...

Kevin Morby's “Little Wide Open” is a road record: tangled highways, small towns, roadside crosses... From the engine-rumble of opener ‘Badlands’ to the open-armed homecoming of closer ‘Field Guide For The Butterflies,’ Morby writes with weary-eyed honesty klofmag.com/2026/05/kevi...

An intricate fusion of Americana and electronic soundscapes — 'Counting Sunsets' is SUSS's finest, most fully realised expression of 'ambient country' yet. klofmag.com/2026/05/suss...

For all its preoccupation with what slips away...“Who’s Keeping Time?” is markedly less solitary than anything Alela Diane has made since “To Be Still”. Shaped by Michael Hurley’s death, the album doesn’t argue against loss; it gathers people around it. klofmag.com/2026/05/alel...

The Bevis Frond unveil the music video for “Romany Blue”, taken from their recent 27th album “Horrorful Heights” on Fire Records. Directed by Italian filmmaker and long-time fan Roberto Beani in Bologna using a vintage Academy 1.37 aspect ratio and handheld camera. klofmag.com/2026/05/the-...

Biita Houdei — the new moniker of singer-songwriter Lisa Houdei (formerly LéPonds) — shares debut single “Life Inside The Hourglass”. Shaped in the shadows and sounds of Topanga Canyon, it was produced by Haley Heynderickx in her first lead production role. klofmag.com/2026/05/topa...

Pharis & Jason Romero return on June 12th with “These Are The Days That Turn In To Years”, their seventh studio album for Free Dirt Records...“a songwriter’s deep exhale, replete with stories, love, and nostalgia.” Title track “These Are The Days” is out now. klofmag.com/2026/05/phar...

Mallory Hawk’s self-released debut album, Chinook, arrives July 31st, 2026. Lead single and accompanying video “Revolver” is a jangly yet lush, yearning love song about being a hopeless sucker for someone, caught in the endless cycles of faulty loyalty. klofmag.com/2026/05/mall...

Laura Veirs returns on 14th August with her fourteenth solo album, “Temple Songs”, released via her own Raven Marching Band Records. Her lead single, “Flying Into Darkness”, arrives with a video that Veirs filmed herself during a recent French tour. klofmag.com/2026/05/laur...

On their self-titled debut “Amarante-Cerisier”, Marine Debilly Cerisier and Mauricio Amarante deliver a fitting addition to the canon of Francophone double-acts. Their free-form folk thrives on paradox and fruitful mystery...a refractive collection of sweet, sharp songs. klofmag.com/2026/05/amar...

A final album from Ed Askew is on the way. “The Final Painting,” a posthumous album, arrives July 31st (Drag City)— assembled in his last years with producer Jerry David DeCicca. Lead single “Gray Air-o-Plane,” featuring Sharon Van Etten, is out today. klofmag.com/2026/05/ed-a...

Irish alternative trad/folk group Rattling Ark share “Coleraine Jig,” from their forthcoming debut album “Top of a Mountain”...this haunting instrumental piece fuses cello with cascading zithers and percussion — the melody framed before resolving into a trancelike groove. klofmag.com/2026/05/ratt...

The pastoral vibes of this week’s Monday Morning Brew arrive courtesy of Mark Fry, Cinder Well, Vic Chesnutt, Jessica Pratt, Smog, Roy Harper, The Innocence Mission, John Fahey, Bert Jansch & Hope Sandoval, Michael Chapman, Marina Allen and more. klofmag.com/2026/05/the-...

New Mixtape ft. Kevin Morby, Creekbed Carter Hogan, Mary Hampton, Cinder Well, Yo La Tengo, Daughter of Swords, No-No Boy, Damian Dalla Torre and Ts Bayandalai — plus a reading from Beat Poet Gregory Corso, and Jeff Parker's “Like Swimwear”. klofmag.com/2026/05/klof...

BBC Folk Award winner Sam Carter has shared a new video for “Canadee-i-o” to herald his live album “Sam Carter Sings Nic Jones: Live At Celtic Connections,” recorded with the Jones family’s blessing; due 26th June via Captain Records + UK Tour Dates klofmag.com/2026/05/a-fa...

Adam Ross's “Bring On the Apathy” is his third album under his own name and is his most mature and rewarding yet. Out today on Fika Recordings. Read the full review here: klofmag.com/2026/05/adam...

Abigail Lapell, whose new album “Shadow Child” is out now, selects ten meaningful objects from her home for KLOF’s Off the Shelf series. Her picks span a wooden dala horse picked up in Stockholm while touring with baby Charlie, to the hood ornament of a beloved camper van klofmag.com/2026/05/off-...

@henryparkerbfd.bsky.social’s “The Dark Peak” delivers pristine, impeccably fingerpicked acoustic music recorded on the moors of the Peak District. With tight melodies and wonderfully evocative natural sounds permeating the songs, this is a gem. klofmag.com/2026/05/henr...

Daisy Rickman and Magpahi take a side each on “Ceremonial County Series Vol. XXIII” from Folkore Tapes. Rickman’s piece ties East Sussex bonfire myths to pagan ritual, and Magpahi summons a malevolent Lancashire water spirit. klofmag.com/2026/05/dais...

Trans folksinger Creekbed Carter Hogan announces “Peasants Revolt”, out 24th July via Gar Hole Records. The lead single “Cutbank of Cleves” — paired with a video directed and edited by Lexi Kiecker — finds Hogan playing court jester in the halls of a dying empire. klofmag.com/2026/05/cree...

Setting’s second studio album sees the North Carolina-based experimental trio distilling their blend of acoustic instrumentation, cassette loops and electronics to thrilling effect. Their clearest expression yet — without a doubt, the perfect title. klofmag.com/2026/05/sett...

Teddy Thompson’s "Never Be The Same" digs back into rockier seams...exploring love, change and the passage of time. The album title may speak of flux, but Thompson’s brilliance remains predictably constant throughout. klofmag.com/2026/05/tedd...

Peals — the Baltimore duo of William Cashion (Future Islands) and Bruce Willen (Double Dagger) — return on 31st July via Thrill Jockey with twin live albums: “The Compound 76” on limited LP and “Le Pantoum 46” digitally. Listen to the lead single “Essential Attitudes”. klofmag.com/2026/05/peal...

Sir Richard Bishop returns to Drag City on July 31st with “Hillbilly Erotica”, a sequel of sorts to 2025’s “Hillbilly Ragas”. Watch his video for the lead single “Finger, Tennessee”. klofmag.com/2026/05/sir-...

Following his place on KLOF Mag’s Albums of the Year 2025 with “Fiery Gizzard” and ahead of his UK Tour this month with Joe Danks, Joseph Decosimo returns with a solo guitar take on “Cumberland Gap,” filmed in his Durham backyard amid white-throated sparrows. klofmag.com/2026/05/watc...

Shearwater announce their new album “The New World,” due July 31st and share singles “More and More” and “Daydream Unbeliever,” with the latter, accompanied by a cinematic video that Meiburg filmed and edited during research in Antarctica. klofmag.com/2026/05/shea...

Shaped by acute personal grief and the aftermath of Hurricane Helene in Asheville, Tried To Do’s, Jay Hammond’s second album as Trippers & Askers, turns inward without losing generosity. It’s a slow-burning, finespun record of bold sincerity and steady groundedness. klofmag.com/2026/05/trip...

Jonathan Day returns as Jonathan Hijr Day Quartet with his new single, Cafe in the Valley of the Fire Church, born from his travels among the Amazigh and recorded at Gavin Monaghan’s Magic Garden Studios. klofmag.com/2026/05/jona...

A decade on from Junun, Shye Ben Tzur, Jonny Greenwood and The Rajasthan Express return with Ranjha - twenty-one musicians at full creative tilt, this long-awaited follow-up is a big, rich, funk-leaning record built on ensemble craft and devoted love. klofmag.com/2026/05/shye...

Lemoncello return with their second album, Perfect Place, via Claddagh Records, still carrying the quiet confidence of a duo who have already carved out a distinctive place in contemporary Irish folk; this is their strongest statement yet. klofmag.com/2026/05/lemo...

Sara Parkman’s "Aster, atlas" tackles the biggest themes: life, death, faith, grief, and the passage of time...Parkman has given us something precious and gutsy, an album that, like the gardens that inspired it, has its own inscrutable rhythms of growth and decay. klofmag.com/2026/05/sara...

Bedouine shares the video for “On My Own,” the third single from her forthcoming album Neon Summer Skin, out June 5th via Thirty Tigers. The contemplative piano ballad opens an album shaped by home, displacement and inherited identity. klofmag.com/2026/05/bedo...

Long Wave Home masterfully pairs the voice of Jesca Hoop, sounding like the calmest of seas, with a diverse, textural approach to her arrangements that sparkle like a coral reef, hiding multitudes below the surface. klofmag.com/2026/05/jesc...

Lambchop announce new album Punching The Clown, due 21st August via City Slang — their first in nearly four years. Inspired by lined out singing, an obscure gospel form rooted in late-1800s Scotland and Appalachia - Lead single Weakened is out now. klofmag.com/2026/05/lamb...

Jeffrey Alexander + The Heavy Lidders share video for ‘Critical Masses,’ a new track from their forthcoming album ‘Liquid Donnon,’ out 12th June via Riot Season Records (UK) and Feeding Tube Records (US). klofmag.com/2026/05/jeff...

Following years of IVF and an on-stage miscarriage, Abigail Lapell was pregnant with her first child when she made Shadow Child. Nine of the songs represent a month of gestation - Sweet and tender, the album is tinged with sadness but comes to full term with hope and joy. klofmag.com/2026/05/abig...

Amsterdam collective Personal Trainer have announced their third album “Human Assholes,” due 4th September via Bella Union. The first single ‘Punch Drunk Love’ — borrowing its title from the Paul Thomas Anderson film — arrives with a typically charming new video. klofmag.com/2026/05/pers...

The cover of next month's "Beatdom #26: The Allen Ginsberg Special". It will be released on June 3, the 100th anniversary of the birth of the Beat poet. The cover was made by Waylon Bacon:

Croz Boyce — Animal Collective’s Dave Portner and Brian Weitz — share the Joseph Ricketts-directed video for “Steven’s Sunshine Rejected,” the second single from their self-titled debut album, out this Friday May 8th on Domino. klofmag.com/2026/05/croz...

Zoh Amba has shared the title track and video for "Eyes Full," their Matador Records debut, out June 5th, and announced EU/UK Tour Dates. Watch the video, directed by Grace Bader Conrad. klofmag.com/2026/05/zoh-...

Originally released in 2008 and now reissued with two bonus covers, Hayman, Watkins, Trout and Lee — the quartet of Darren Hayman, David Watkins, Dan Mayfield and David Tattersall — is an absolute joy to rediscover. klofmag.com/2026/05/haym...

My very talented husband's new album is out today. Obviously I've heard it a lot but it's bloody great and I highly recommend.

New Mixtape: May Day wears two faces — we celebrate both in this extra-long Mixtape covering folk, dub, jazz, experimental vibes, and so much more. From Gil Scott-Heron to a Wampís-Aboutface collaboration drawn from the Peruvian Amazon. Zoom out: klofmag.com/2026/05/klof...

To celebrate the release of Gallants, Jim Moray is sharing a live performance of “The Nightingale,” recorded at The Arch — a 140-year-old former church in Southport — with his full live band. klofmag.com/2026/05/watc...

Maisy Owen’s debut Dark On A Sunny Day is a singer-songwriter album that, for a first attempt, shows remarkable maturity and a kind of timelessness in her style. Even when stripped down to the bare bones of voice and guitar, it still has enough detail to hold its spell. klofmag.com/2026/05/mais...