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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Folk Alley is able to produce and offer this weekly new music hour thanks to support from our members. If you enjoy the Fresh Cuts hour please donate to Folk Alley or consider becoming a sponsor.
Dawn Landes, “Domestic Workers Song” (featuring Amy Helm & Rissi Palmer)
Dawn’s latest is a charity single that benefits the YWCA Asheville, North Carolina chapter. Dawn says: “It’s another one from The Liberated Woman’s Songbook and I’m honored to be joined by Amy Helm and Rissi Palmer for this one!” The song was written in 1939 and was part of a YWCA (The Young Women’s Christian Association) songbook and it was inspired by the song “Casey Jones.”
Jerron Paxton, “What’s Gonna Become of Me”
Things Done Changed (out October 18), Jerron Paxton’s first album of all originals embodies 1930s-era Black music styles while showcasing his modern, sharp-witted storytelling. Born and raised in South Central Los Angeles, Paxton’s music is steeped in the rich cultural heritage of the Great Migration. His family’s journey from Shreveport, Louisiana, to the Athens neighborhood of South LA in the 1950s laid the foundation for his appreciation of Southern Black culture.
Rose Cousins, “I Believe in Love (and it’s very hard)”
Cry-babies get excited! Rose Cousins’ latest, Conditions Of Love – Vol 1, will be out March 14, 2025 and features her new song “I Believe in Love (and it’s very hard).” Rose shares, “Love feels great and makes us ridiculous. It’s tiring and intense, joyful and devastating. Falling in love, being in love and staying in love are all such different things. Being human is emotionally complicated enough without attempting to relate to another who is just as complex, and in the most vulnerable of arenas: romance. Love is wondrous and absurd (and very hard). Humour helps.”
George Jackson & Brad Kolodner, “Bitter Creek”
Fellow Folk Alley host and banjo player Brad Kolodner is teaming up with fiddler George Jackson for their album Shady Lane (out October 25). George Jackson and Brad Kolodner met nearly ten years ago in a late-night jam session at the hallowed Appalachian String Band Music Festival in Clifftop, West Virginia and have since formed a special musical bond that runs deep, across continents and through a number of recorded projects. Flash forward to the spring of 2024 when the two of them were on tour in George’s native New Zealand. They traversed the country playing rec halls, community centers, living rooms and bluegrass clubs. Upon returning to the States, they made the impulsive decision to go immediately into the studio to record a full-length album of banjo and fiddle duets.
