Hear the Best New Folk Music with Fresh Cuts Friday
Ready for some of the best new music we’ve heard this week? It’s a great list as you’ll see below — and as you’ll hear when you join me for my ‘Fresh Cuts’ radio hour! Listen every Friday at 2 p.m. Eastern, 11 a.m. Pacific via the 24/7 stream on our website, app, or your smart speaker.
Or, just click on the Fresh Cuts stream whenever it’s convenient for you.
In the meantime, check out some of the best new music we’ve been listening to this week.
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The Honey Dewdrops, “Silver Lining”
Here in the Mountains is the new record from Baltimore heartthrobs, The Honeydew Drops, made up of Kagey Parrish & Laura Wortman. According to the band: “This was a very unique and special process where we were able to record in our Baltimore home and had the honor of working in collaboration with a friend to help share his origin story. These songs are meant to be interpreted and are not just about the details of one life. This album was written with the hope of expressing gratitude for what we’ve been given, to find the silver linings deep within our personal history of clouds and how it’s possible for us to find our sense of place in the world because of the people in which we surround ourselves.”
Jontavious Willis, “A Lift Is All I Need”
The Georgia acoustic artist’s latest is West Georgia Blues (out today) featuring the delightful “A Lift Is All I Need.” “This is a song based in Jump Blues and early R&B in the key of F, with a full band and myself only on vocals,” explains Jontavious. “The song draws inspiration from Amos Milburn. The tune is meant to motivate you in whatever you are in the mood to be motivated for – whether that’s doing sprints, or sitting on a couch with the munchies watching cartoons.”
Aoife O’Donovan & Hawktail, “America, Come”
Today, Aoife O’Donovan releases an acoustic EP that reimagines six songs from her fourth solo album, All My Friends (released March ’24). “When I decided to take All My Friends on the road,” says O’Donovan, “I knew I needed to have a small ensemble that would be able to get inside the heart and soul of the songs. Hawktail was a natural choice. Reuniting with my Crooked Still bandmate Brittany Haas, along with my comrades Paul Kowert on bass and Jordan Tice on guitar, has been sheer joy. Together, we took these songs apart and put them back together again with new life and different shades of meaning. The arrangements themselves took time to present themselves. We realized early on that it didn’t make sense to try and replicate the grand orchestration or choir parts from the album. As we found our way around the music, new sections and grooves emerged. We also resurrected an old song of mine from 2004, one that I had recorded in the Hudson Valley with my old band Sometymes Why. Brittany wrote a gorgeous fiddle tune to go with it, and it became “Middle/The River that Runs Both Ways”. It’s the perfect addition to the five songs from All My Friends.”
From China to Appalachia is the new project from American Roots artists Cathy Fink & Marcy Marxer. The pair are joined by Chinese classical hammered dulcimer player Chao Tian in a show that combines music from China to Appalachia and beyond. Instrumentation includes yangqin (Chinese hammered dulcimer), gourd banjo, five-string banjo, ukulele, guitars, dumbek, cello-banjo and mandolin. From Wikipedia: “The Three Rules of Discipline and Eight Points for Attention is a military doctrine that was issued in 1928 by Mao Zedong and his associates to the Chinese Red Army during the Chinese Civil War.”
