Hear the Best New Folk Music with Fresh Cuts Friday
It’s worth noting that, of the five spotlight tracks below—all new this week—three are from artists based in North Carolina. Long a hub of American folk and roots music recordings, it seems something is in the water right now in lower Appalachia.
Of course, we’ve also got something newly devastating from Mark Erelli (a co-write with Lori McKenna) and brand-new Caleb Caudle.
If you like the new music we’ve listed below, tune into DJ Cindy Howes’s weekly Fresh Cuts Radio Hour, this and every Friday afternoon, at 2 p.m. Eastern/ 11 a.m. Pacific. You can also hear the best new folk music on the Folk Alley app and website, 24/7, via the Fresh Cuts stream.
Caudle holed up in the Cash Cabin studio during pandemic lockdown to record his new album (Forsythia, out today on Soundly Music) with producer John Carter Cash. Jerry Douglas, Sam Bush, Carlene Carter, Elizabeth Cook, and plenty of other notable contributors rounded out the band.
This NC-based duo is comprised of Lizzy Ross, who grew up in NYC and Maryland, and Omar Ruiz-Lopez, who was born in Panama and raised in Puerto Rico. They deftly weave their backgrounds and influences into some beautiful roots music. Their new album, Shapeshifter, is out today.
Barrett Davis – “Quiver” (featuring Woody Platt)
We all gasped when we learned Woody Platt was leaving the Steep Canyon Rangers, but we’re happy to see him back with fellow Western North Carolina musician Barrett Davis, from Davis’s The Ballad of Aesop Fin album, out today.
Zoe & Cloyd – “Rainbow of My Dreams”
Asheville duo Zoe & Cloyd round out our NC folk block with a tune by Tommy Scott. As the story goes, John Cloyd Miller’s grandfather was a fiddler on the original.
Mark Erelli – “You’re Gonna Wanna Remember This”
Mark Erelli and Lori McKenna teamed up to co-write this song about not taking the present moment for granted. It’s the first single from Erelli’s forthcoming album, Lay Your Darkness Down, due February 3, 2023.
