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.
Alison Brown & Steve Martin, with Vince Gill, “Wall Guitar (Since You Said Goodbye)”
“Wall Guitar (Since You Said Goodbye)” is the new single from best banjo buddies Alison Brown & Steve Martin. This time, they’ve enlisted Vince Gill on lead vocal and guitar, Stuart Duncan on fiddle and Garry West on electric bass.
Playing for Change, “Colors” (featuring Black Pumas, Slash, Tony Kanal)
The new album from Playing For Change is out today! On it is the songs “Colors,” a feel-good song originally on Black Puma’s self-titled debut album. Slash, The Pocket Queen, Tony Kanal (No Doubt) and more than 20 musicians and dancers from 10 countries accompany the Black Pumas in this Song Around The World version, featured at Peace Through Music: A Global Event for the Environment.
Olivia Ellen Lloyd, “Every Good Man”
We’ll see a new full length from Olivia Ellen Lloyd come March 2025, which will feature her new song “Every Good Man.” Of the song, Lloyd explains: “Women are sold a dual truth; that we are complete people worthy of pursuing our own dreams and ambitions and also that we must be the center of the home and the helpmeet for any man in our lives. And as many of us try to have it both ways, we find ourselves in situations where our partners cannot meet us halfway, cannot see us as complete people. When we find ourselves in an unequal relationship (as we so often do), it becomes impossible to be both things at once. This realization can be painful but in the face of that pain, there is also an opportunity to embrace oneself fully and totally, even though it means losing a person you love.”
Silkroad Ensemble with Rhiannon Giddens, “Swannanoa Tunnel/Steel-Driving Man”
Out today is a new collaboration between Silkroad Ensemble and Rhiannon Giddens. It’s a tribute to those who built the transcontinental railroad and connecting railways across North America. The album is the culmination of four years of research, collaboration, and music-making, having brought Silkroad artists all across the United States to uncover and uplift the stories of those who built the transcontinental railroad and connecting railways across North America. “We shed light on those who have been erased or overlooked throughout American history and merge with it Silkroad’s unique ability to amplify voices from a multitude of backgrounds and cultures,” Giddens says. “The result is a tapestry of stories, traditions, and musics that have shaped our multifaceted cultural identity, and that must be heard and recognized. I hope audiences will leave with a clearer sense of where we come from, how we got here, what it cost us—and that we collectively reflect on where we’re headed.”
