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Introducing a Transatlantic Folk couple with a warm, welcoming collection of songs out of Travelers Rest, SC. Mandolinist David Benedict is from there, but his wife Tabitha Agnew Benedict is a banjo player from Northern Ireland. Their new collaboration has already attracted fans like John Doyle, Brittany Haas, and Sierra Hull. Doyle and Haas perform on this album, and while Hull doesn’t show up in the credits, you can hear why their sound “landed a huge smile on (her) face and for a moment allowed escape from all the negative noise in the world.”

If you’re a fan of Southern gothic writers like William Faulkner or Eudora Welty, the lyrics of Alabama native James Mullis, a.k.a. Early James, might resonate with you. He incorporates these influences into his original forsaken blues and contemplative folk songs, brooding murder ballads and lovestruck piano tunes. Dan Auerbach of Easy Eye Sound was recruited a 2nd time for this new one. He’s got Sierra Ferrell joining him on one of these songs.

Neil’s back! This 11-song collection is a cautiously optimistic meditation on the past, present, and future of our shared planet and what it means to live on it. With songs like “Love Earth”, “This Old Planet”, and “The World”, you get the theme here. It was produced by Young and Rick Rubin, and as you might expect, it was meticulously recorded – live -- and mixed to analog tape.

The 86-year-old living legend of Chicago blues sounds just as strong as ever in these powerful performances.

If you’re looking for Americana singer/songwriters who capture the mountains, rivers, history and culture of Appalachia particularly well, make sure you know Pony Bradshaw. Released on January 27th, this is his follow-up to 2021’s “Calico Jim” which we also loved. Asked to describe what went into this one, Pony says “Sweat and work and joy and pain and anger and patience and restraint.” He plays The Radio Room in Greenville on Sunday the 29th, The Evening Muse in Charlotte on Wednesday the 1st, and The Grey Eagle in Asheville on Thursday the 2nd!

Twin brothers Andrew and David Williams hail from Henderson, NV, and are the nephews of singer Andy Williams. After a stretch of time recording for Warner Records back in 1988-1994, they are back with more of a retro-reflective focus, evoking the sublime blood harmony sounds of the Everly Brothers. Producer and bassist Marvin Etzioni wrote a number of these songs, but also notable (besides their harmonies) are the brothers’ choice of artists to cover: Robbie Fulks, Dave Davies of The Kinks, Iris DeMent, and Buffy Sainte-Marie.

We’re always especially excited to get new releases from musicians from our region, like Polk County, NC native H.C. McEntire. She’s been growing a nationwide fanbase with her indie/folk/rock soundscapes over the past decade or so, and has a new collection called Every Acre. The physical landscape, our internal emotional landscape… McEntire grapples with those themes—themes that encompass grief, loss, and links to land and loved ones. And naming—claiming land, claiming self, being claimed by ancestry and heritage—permeates the hauntingly beautiful landscape that is this poignant collection of songs.

It’s a straightforward, down-to-earth, no-frills Americana album from this Arkansas singer/songwriter, that may well end up being one of the genre’s best artist debuts of the year. The Band, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and Creedence Clearwater Revival are some of Clayton’s primary influences. Get to know some of his great new songs with his six-piece band with Spencer on Monday afternoon, and in the weeks to come, here at WNCW.

He’s achieved an incredible surge of popularity and success in the bluegrass, jamband, and live music world these past few years, and he’d probably be the first to tell you he owes a lot of it to his childhood exposure to pickin’, courtesy of his dad Terry Barber. So he decided to record a duet album with him! Also present is an all-star band including bassist Mike Bub, mandolinist Ron McCoury, banjo player Rob McCoury and fiddler Michael Cleveland as well as special guest appearances by Jerry Douglas, Jason Carter and Strings’ mother, Debra Barber.

Check out these hints of what’s to come this winter and spring with these brand-new singles we’ve recently received. Darren Nicholson, former mandolinist with Balsam Range, has a new song he co-wrote with Charles Humphrey II, out this week courtesy of Crossroads/Mountain Home Music Company in Arden. Nickel Creek has unveiled “Strangers”, from a March 24th album called Celebrants, their first in 9 years! And the one and only Van Morrison has a new album coming out March 10th called Moving On Skiffle, a nod to the blend of blues, ragtime, and folk that was wildly popular in the UK in the ‘50s with young fans including Van and the Liverpool lads that later became The Beatles.