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 2pm ET/11am PT via Folk Alley’s 24/7 stream on our website, mobile 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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Willi Carlisle, “Work is Work”
Winged Victory (out 6/27), Carlisle’s first self-produced album, features the new song “Work is Work.” He shares, “With ‘Work is Work,’ I wanted to write a bluegrass tune, and I wanted to try to make a direct address of my own [à la the album’s opening cover of ‘We Have Fed You All For 1000 Years’ written by an anonymous Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) worker]. I believe that after a certain point of creature comfort and stability, money doesn’t make you happier. So what are we doing with our precious time? I wrote it in a motel room along the Mississippi River. The room was full of bedbugs, and I’d just left New Orleans, a city that seems to be thriving even as it falls into the ocean. I finished the song in about an hour. I want people to know that they aren’t free from the terrible things that work does to people, from the awful transmutation of labor into money, but that the sacrifice isn’t meaningless.”
The latest from Esther Rose’s upcoming album Want (out 5/02) is “Had To.” She says, “In ‘Had To,’ I examine my relationship with alcohol, and also my relationship with touring. A long time ago, I heard New Orleans legend Washboard Chaz say this: ‘People are always offering musicians exposure. But you can die from too much exposure!’ Since writing this song, I have stopped drinking, but I have not stopped touring.”
“Outrun” is the title track from The SteelDrivers upcoming release (out 5/23). The SteelDrivers began as a group of veteran Nashville session players looking to form a group of their own. Outrun marks their 20th anniversary as a band.
Alex Cuba, “Tiempo para Vivir”
Born in Cuba, the Canadian based musician Alex Cuba’s latest song is “Tiempo para Vivir.” With a new record this fall, the track emphasizes the great importance, today more than ever, to prioritize self-love and practice it in our daily lives.
More new songs featured this week on Fresh Cuts:
Balsam Range – “When It Comes To Lovin’ You”
Bon Iver – “SPEYSIDE”
David Lowery – “Frozen Sea”
Guy Clark – “Once More With Caution”
Jim Kweskin & the Berlin Hall Saturday Night Revue – “Four or Five Times”
Kieran Kane & Rayna Gellert – “Short Con”
Lord Huron – “Nothin I Need”
The Bones of JR Jones – “Savages”
Valerie June – “Changed” (feat. Blind Boys of Alabama)
