Well that’s it from us for another week dear reader. If you’re an AUK supporter, your monthly newsletter will be with you at 5pm with our exclusive end of year best of 2025 playlist which we collectively pulled together without resorting to violence. Once again, if you haven’t perused our new community forums yet then please do drop in and say hello, and remember to check out our weekly…

And now the sweating starts, the raised heartbeat rate, the stark all all-encompassing, totally overwhelming fear...yes, there are less than three weeks to go to the Big Day.  How does this happen every single year?  Or, maybe, it's all going fine - the presents are purchased, the meal has been planned and budgeted for, all that remains is to get out and about and enjoy one, or two, or three or...however many...of the Yule themed gigs and tours that more and more spring up  in this season. 

An excellent reclamation of far-scattered folk songs. On his second album, Edinburgh's Sam Shackleton continues to display his love of and mastery of American folk music while infusing it with an unmistakable Scottish presence. His debut album "Causeway Recordings" found inspiration in the likes of Woody Guthrie and Scottish musicians such as Alex Campbell and Shackleton maintains this fusion on "

Earlier this year, the late-great LA singer-songwriter Warren Zevon was finally inducted into the 'Rock and Roll Hall of Fame'. With a recording career that spanned twenty-three years, culminating in thirteen studio albums and a string of songs that became cemented in the very DNA of the singer-songwriter scene of West Coast America during the 1970s, Zevon delivered a unique style of writing.

With a storm behind us and the promise of snow in the near future, it was clear that we're heading towards the Winter, a time of chill that drives a need for the embracing of the "cosy", a time when the chill can provide crystalline clarity but also can mistily obscure. What better time, then, for the delicate, intricate folksong of Natalie Wildgoose?

The next entrant in Twang Factor 4 is Jon Harmon, who is a singer-songwriter based in Velletri, Italy.  Harmon has been performing and writing songs for years, but found his true voice only lately. "I am a child of the greats of the past and present, with a sound influenced by James Taylor, Johnny Cash, Jason Isbell, John Moreland, Cat Stevens, Paul Simon, Joni Mitchell and too many others to name".

A packed show this week as Keith interviews South Korean band Wednesdayoff, as well as Editor in Chief Mark Whitfield. There are tracks from Luke Tuchscherer, James Hodder, Richard Thompson, David Ford, Michael Weston King, and more, as well as a new album announcement from The Delines and a play of the first track from it. Christmas comes early!

Our new playlist of the best new Americana we’ve heard over the last month is out later today exclusively for AUK supporters which includes new tracks by Mavis Staples, Mariel Buckley, The Dreaming Spires, Aimee Mann and Tyler Ramsey among others – as always we trawl through the best Americana we’ve heard recently so you don’t have to. Plus we're including an exclusive playlist of the best americana we've heard in 2025 as chosen by our writing team collaboratively.

The thing is, you listen to a new song by Midlake, and it sounds great from the start. Naturally, they are a tight band, and they know what they are doing - that blend of one step aside from reality, folk influenced, psychedelically infused that is pure Midlake. And then you listen again. And again. And those hidden depths that somehow you'd skated over the first couple of times start to reveal themselves.

Check out the latest single from West Sussex artist Serious Child, the musical moniker of Alan Young. Co-written with Neil Connor, 'Veneer' is simply gorgeous. The instrumentation is lush and layered, delicate and precise, including sweetly sliding violin from David Grubb. This fine musicianship is a compelling foundation for Young's impressive voice, which winds through unexpected melodic paths, lifted by ethereal backing vocals from My Girl The River.

Under Andy Short’s recent Top 10, there was praise from a reader for his choices that had “objectivity and historical context” as opposed to others, which had been “Some songs I like”. The reader, it has to be said, did enjoy all the lists, though. Unfortunately, this is back to “Some songs I like”. Well, love, really. Objectively, the list should consist of songs that are very popular and that have, perhaps, had a great influence.

The word ‘legend’ is overused in the world of music writing; too often applied as a lazy label to someone who is merely well-known or a favourite of a particular scribe. In the case of Alice Gerrard, however, it’s entirely appropriate. Whether as a performer, historian, publisher or just someone who was there at special times. Gerrard’s presence casts a long shadow over the world of old-time music in the American roots world.

Maz O'Connor is returning to her roots with her fifth album, "Love It Is a Killing Thing", to be released on 13th March 2026. "Love It Is A Killing Thing" is O'Connor's first album in four years: she took time out from recording and performing to have her first child, and to work on her musical, "The Wife of Michael Cleary"

Yearly offering from Essex-born folk troubadour has something for everyone. If you have never listened to or heard of Beans On Toast before, thinking of it as only an absolutely delicious evening snack, then you are not far off the mark. Beans On Toast is the stage name of Essex-born folk singer Jay McAllister. Since 2009, on the first day of December, an early Christmas present drops on the mat, and this year is no exception.

Sam Moss falls under the definition of troubadour. He has been a professional musician for fifteen years, most of it spent around the New England states. He now lives in Staunton, Virginia, but grew up in Connecticut and spent many years in the Boston, Massachusetts area, among other New England locations, like Brattleboro, Vermont, for one, where he recorded a folk album titled…

Walking through the icy rain in Hackney towards The Round Chapel, one comforting thought was that this was going to be the best of times - Nora Brown and Stephanie Coleman are top-notch Old Time players of banjo and fiddle, and put in not such a poor showing on guitar as well. And the Round Chapel is a beautiful venue with, naturally, great acoustics - even if, as Nora Brown would observe, one could lose oneself in the beauty and just spend the evening staring at the ceiling.

This is a bit of a special Folk Tracks Roundup in that we're not going to struggle to find a theme stitching all the song choices together, because we're putting a bit of a spotlight on a particularly active exponent of folk music - The Broadside Hacks. It is in the nature of Folk music that it goes through periods of lesser and greater popularity, and each such upswing in interest has attracted the label of a "

Lose yourself in the gentle beauty of 'Highlands' Shores' from singer-songwriter Flavie Mialon, who was born in the French Alps and is now based in Berlin. Mialon's quiet, understated vocal performance is like a personal reflection, her delicate vulnerability exposed and intimate. Layers of bass, percussion and guitar build slowly, while Alex Connaughton's pedal steel twists and turns, lilting and bending and elevating like a second singing voice.

The Delines have announced their new album "The Set Up," due out 6th March via Decor Records, available to preorder here. The acclaimed Portland, Oregon band are also pleased to announce March and October UK tour dates, listed below, and will be announcing more live dates soon. Tickets are available from this link. To accompany today's announcement, the band have shared the beautifully soulful and cinematic piano ballad '

Hey, Wednesday afternoon has sure rolled around fast this week, and there's so much to do, isn't there?  Never a moment's peace, never any time to kick-back and take in some songs without words as you contemplate the trees without leaves.   Which means that it is far beyond time for WPMBIMFAUK - yes, the ever popular Wednesday Post Meridiem Bluegrass Instrumental Music From Americana UK. 

A difficult and emotional subject is expressed with the kind of beauty and hopefulness that only someone who has lived it can convey. It’s fair to say the past decade has brought some challenges for Swedish singer-songwriter Marlene Oak. Ten years ago, she got the difficult diagnosis of Bipolar Disorder Type 2, then just a few years ago she experienced an episode of severe psychosis, something she described as “

The next entrant in Twang Factor 4 is Maggie May Treanor, a singer-songwriter with roots in the rolling hills of Yorkshire, Ireland and Spain. This emerging artist brings an authentic approach to UK Americana. Raised on a working horse farm, she offers a truly authentic sound that weaves a line between the classic country traditions of Emmy Lou Harris and the emotive storytelling of Jason Isbell.

The Folk Album of the Year Award has revealed its first-ever shortlist: nine outstanding albums released in Britain and Ireland in 2025. The artists behind each project range in age, geography, background and style — a vital snapshot of folk's eclectic community, where traditional storytelling, contemporary composition and cross-genre experimentation sit side by side. While the Award originally intended to nominate eight albums, the shortlist has been extended to nine in response to the remarkable depth in quality of the submissions.

Amy Speace opened her set at the Green Note in Camden, as she had thirteen months earlier at the Slaughtered Lamb, telling the audience she had just flown in and was a tad frazzled. Not that you could tell when she opened the set with 'There Used To Be Horses', one of her contributions to the Orphan Brigade repertoire. She followed with…

Her last album, 2023's "The Seven Fires Prophecy: A Suite for Humanity", was a favourite, so it's a true pleasure to have new music from Cape Cod, MA-based Indigenous folk singer-songwriter Kim Moberg. On "All That Really Matters", her new album, she goes back to singer-songwriter inspirations, and in particular, on today's song, there's a hat-tip to Carol King. As Moberg explains: "