Bruce Springsteen is one of those rare artists where his whole body of work maintains such a creative arc that there are many albums within it which could be seen as essential. With five years having passed since his last official release, 1987’s unusually subdued and melancholic "Tunnel of Love", Springsteen made the decision to release two albums on the same day.

A rock icon’s pilgrimage to the heart of roots music. Robert Plant is a name set in the history of popular culture. Best known for his role as singer of Led Zeppelin, Plant helped define the rock imagery of the 70s, alongside other frontmen like Jim Morrison or Mick Jagger, lithe, magnetic, and full of energetic abandon. Of course, since the end of the legendary band in 1980 much has changed.

Over the years, Rod Picott has built up a dedicated following through regular album releases and frequent touring. The singer/songwriter from Maine is definitely a friend of the AUK show. So, his announcement earlier this year that his forthcoming European tour will be his last will have come as a surprise and a sadness to many readers. Singer-songwriter does Picott insufficient justice as he writes poetry and fiction, too.

A record that revolves around change and the arduous process of accepting. Jared Dustin Griffin’s sophomore album – “The Perseverance of Sisyphus” – could be seen as dreary yet formidable. It is a brooding rumination on what happened in the past tense and what awaits ahead in the dark and cold days to come. On ‘Shovel,’ Griffin intones in a gravelly baritone: …

A first visit to EartH, the Hackney multi-venue performance space - and specifically a gig in the EartH Theatre venue, which is a converted and restored Art Deco cinema space. This celebration of the life and music of Martin Carthy promised to be an eclectic mix with, alongside the man himself, such names as Billy Bragg, John Kirkpatrick, Angeline Morrison, and Maddy Prior mentioned in the gig adverts. 

Half Moon Putney also hosts Hans Chew, Gasoline Gypsies, Dylan Earl & Jack Browning on the same weekend Chuck Prophet and his Cumbia Shoes were the Sunday headliners for the now-cancelled "Black Deer In The City" festival (see last week's story here), but never a man to let adversity get in his way, he has pivoted quickly and with the help of some canny promoters arranged a gig at The Oslo in Hackney for the same date, 26th October.

Here's a thought we've floated a few times before - the best Southern Rock comes from Canada, and amongst Canadian protagonists, there's no one who really touches The Sheepdogs. Why should this be? Well, through all their line-ups, and the current one is Shamus Currie, Ricky Paquette, Ryan Gullen, Ewan Currie, they've just rocked that little harder, had a lighter touch to their music and just exuded an embracing of having a good time.

Alongside the news of her biggest London headline show yet, at the Royal Albert Hall on 24th October, Teeside songwriter Amelia Coburn has released a dramatic new single. Inspired by feminist writers like Angela Carter and Clarissa Pinkola Estés, 'Something Wild' is a folk anthem for anyone who feels shackled or limited by society's expectations. 'Something Wild' drives forward on an urgent rhythm and an insistent guitar riff.

As some festivals stumble in the current economic climate, others grit their teeth and march forward despite the headwinds, and the "Gate To Southwell Festival" organisers are doing just that with the news that, true to his word, Richard Thompson OBE, has confirmed he will perform. Thompson was booked to play last July but, following a fall in the USA, had to withdraw at the last minute.

This collaboration between Laura Veirs and a French school choir offers a different perspective on songs from Veirs' back catalogue. Don't you just love an album with a fascinating back story? Well, this album has one and is quite different to the norm because of it. Laura Veirs will be no stranger to many of AUK's readers - she's a singer-songwriter, based in Portland, Oregon, but that's by no means the full story.

Greta Gaines has never been one to stay in a single lane. From her early days as a world champion snowboarder to her self-taught journey into songwriting, she has always followed her instincts—sometimes against the grain, always with conviction. With the release of her new record, "Bird Before Light," Gaines steps into what she calls a reclamation of self: a chance to return to music with fresh clarity, raw honesty, and the urgency of someone who knows there’s still more to say.

The second entrant in Twang Factor 4 is Aisha Khan, who is part of a group called Grace under Fire, a rootin’ tootin’ cowpunk trio from London. Aisha Khan, Matt Radford, and Mal Barclay, veterans of the London blues and roots scene, are discovering a mutual love of classic country, everything from the pop melodies of Hank Williams, Wanda Jackson, and Buddy Holly to the darker musings of Johnny Cash and Eddie Noack.

Leah Blevins is an act that crossed this writer’s path as a support act. And as happens from time to time, the response is a big “wow”. Her output may be relatively thin to date: one album, a few EPs, and some songs, but quantity isn’t the determinant of quality, and quality is something Blevins has in abundance.

Hanging around in bars pays off for Seattle-based wordsmith. Without wishing to venture into the dodgy world of American stereotyping, particularly at this moment in its history, it may be fair to say that hanging around in bars is a popular pastime for many. Seattle-based Will Rainier happily adds himself to that number, but for him, a long-established singer-songwriter well known in his locale, this labour of love is also homework —a source of inspiration for his music.

You'll recall that there's a new album on its way from the incomparable Mavis Staples, and its title track, 'Sad And Beautiful', is also the latest single to be released from it. It's a meditative and sombre song with Staples looking out at the prospects around us and finding that the world can be a beautiful thing - but that's tempered with sadness as well, and we're not really talking about the presented sites and views of nature, rather the fact that we could all be having a fine time on this one planet we have if there weren't so many people who just seem determined to mess things up for other people.

Here's the tuneful new single from North Carolina singer-songwriter and producer Chris Stamey. 'Anything Is Possible' chugs along on a pulsing beat, underpinned by Mitch Easter's powerful drums. Stamey delivers a clear, pure vocal performance, enhanced by harmonies from The Lemon Twigs, Pat Sansone and Wes Lachot. His voice follows a catchy, memorable melody at the heart of the song's dreamy feel.

Featuring new tracks, news stories, and interviews - this week, Josh Rouse! If you've been a long-time reader of the website you'll know about our aversion to anything more complex than a valve radio (we have no idea how those moving image reels appear on the site each day, witchcraft we can only presume). So when we do try to do something new and zeitgeisty like, I don't know, start a new podcast, you have to give us one free pass to at least royally fuck it up on a first attempt.

After an eight year absence Neko Case returns with a richly textured album. In the wake of her harrowing and well reviewed book "The Harder I Fight, The More I Love You: A Memoir" Neko Case delivers her first album since 2018’s "Hell-On". In the interim Case has weathered a lot of storms. As she was recording that last album her farmhouse burned down and then, just as she was rebuilding, Covid hit.

Half a century on, Bruce Springsteen's third studio album remains one of the core texts of rock music. Released in August 1975, "Born to Run" helped Springsteen go from a promising, if poorly selling, New Jersey songwriter into "The Boss," a voice for blue-collar America. A box set was released for the 30th anniversary, featuring two DVDs that included a concert at the Hammersmith Odeon, as well as a documentary titled ‘Wings For Wheels: The Making Of Born To Run,’ and a remastered CD.

Carolyn Wonderland is much more than your average blues guitarist. For one, she’s a woman in a male-dominated genre. Secondly, her choice of material is seriously strong musically and lyrically solid. Third, she keeps that telecaster humming like an epileptic bumblebee. As with most guitarists, she has an array of axes and other instruments at her disposal, which she listed, smiling like a cat that had just swallowed an entire cage of parakeets.

Alberta singer-songwriter starts out becalmed but eventually lifts herself out of "The Doldrums". “The Doldrums” is the debut solo release from Canadian singer-songwriter Ellen Braun. She is based in Canmore, Alberta and is also a member of indie folk duo Trundled with Joe Shea. Braun recorded the 10-song collection mostly live at Montreal’s Hotel2Tango with producer Howard Bilerman. The album features a full-band performance with Stef Schneider (percussion), Sage Reynolds (upright bass), Mike O’Brien (guitars), and Sarah Hiltz (vocals and keys) and the "Nashville" choir, comprising Hiltz, Stephanie Gagnon, Laura Newman, Babette Hayward, William Kuklis, and Joseph Shea.

The Jayhawks never quite garnered the americana genre attention that bands like Wilco and Son Volt did, probably because they never quite dug really deep into their soul and produced truly introspective albums as their contemporaries did. But I liked them (a lot) and I always thought that Gary Louris had a really sweet voice that connected with people in a way the best songwriters do.

So this article usually appears on a Friday about lunchtime. As my hairdresser used to say, "Something for the weekend, sir?" although the raised eyebrow always scared me off, so I never took him up on whatever it was. But this week, not so, as I missed my deadline, and I suspect your weekend was all the poorer for my poor timekeeping.

You may have heard that Taylor Swift has a new album out called 'The Life of a Showgirl' and this is the first single from it.  Now, we do not claim to be the experts par excellence about Ms Swift, but we do know about Ophelia - whose fate Taylor wants to avoid.  Ophelia, you'll recall, was Laertes' sister and a possible wife for Hamlet. 

From the simple, direct opening line: "Found a photo of us from back in the day," 'Youth Not Wasted' by Great Lake Swimmers is immediately nostalgic; it is reminiscence and memory in musical form. The combination of wistful melody, dreamy harmonies, and a found-footage style video reinforces the song's smart, narrative observations: "So many books on the shelf left unread."