Hear the Best New Folk Music with Fresh Cuts Friday
Discover the Best New Music of the Week!
We’ve pulled together some of the best new music we’ve heard lately — including the latest from Dervish with Sarah Jarosz, Sean Cooney, Willie Nelson, Mary Chapin Carpenter & the Mountain Goats, and more. You can hear it all on Fresh Cuts, my weekly radio hour. Tune in every Friday at 2pm ET / 11am PT on Folk Alley’s 24/7 stream — available on our website, mobile app, or your smart speaker too.
Prefer to listen on your own time? Just click on the Fresh Cuts stream whenever it works for you.
In the meantime, here’s a sneak peek at some exciting new music that’s caught our ears this week!
Dervish, “Blue is the Eye” (feat. Sarah Jarosz)
Dervish is set to release The Great Irish Song Book Vol.2 (out 5/29) featuring Ye Vagabonds “Blue is the Eye” with special guest Sarah Jarosz on lead vocal. This haunting lament first appeared on Ye Vagabonds’ celebrated album Nine Waves, and now “Blue Is the Eye” finds new life with Irish folk masters Dervish. The Glynn brothers’ beautiful composition uses the vast, blue eye of the ocean as a metaphor for longing and separation; a timeless ode to those kept apart by distance and longing.
Sean Cooney, “The Road to Peter’s Field”
Sean Cooney’s new album Peter’s Field, joined on by Eliza Carthy, Sam Carter and Jennifer Reid, commemorates one of the most defining moments in British working class history, the Peterloo Massacre. On August 16, 1819, around 60,000 unarmed people gathered peacefully in Manchester’s St Peter’s Field to demand parliamentary reform and hear Henry ‘Orator’ Hunt speak. Local magistrates ordered cavalry to disperse the crowd, resulting in the “Peterloo Massacre,” where eighteen people died and up to 700 were injured.
Willie Nelson, “Dream Chaser”
Willie Nelson’s “Dream Chaser” (title track from his his 79th solo studio album, out on 5/29) is a reflective, acoustic country ballad about aging, looking back on a life spent pursuing music, and the sacrifices made to chase a “crazy dream”. It highlights the astonishment of passing time, the struggle of self-recognition in old age, and the enduring passion for songwriting.
Mary Chapin Carpenter & The Mountain Goats, “Put the Message in the Box”
Mary Chapin Carpenter’s two-song collaboration with John Darnielle’s indie folk band The Mountain Goats features a cover of World Party “Put the Message in the Box.” Carpenter shares “To have collaborated on these two favorite songs with John and the Mountain Goats has been a joy and a gift—joining our voices, singing these words from other favorite artists, and feeling the music deeply.”
More this week on Fresh Cuts!
Cat Clyde – “My Love”
Charley Crockett – “Kentucky Too Long”
Eliza Edens – “Leash”
Fruit Bats – “The Landfill”
Jim Lauderdale – “We Look At Things In Different Ways”
Joe Troop & the Truth Machine – “Billionaires”
Kronos Quartet – “God Shall Wipe Our Tears Away”
The Milk Carton Kids – “I’ll Go Home From Here”
The Montvales – “Hellbent on Colorado”
