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Best Folk Music Blog & Promotion

Afton Wolfe – So Purple (feat. Brian Brown, Jack Vinoy Remix): A Blues-Rinsed Trip Through Psychedelic Hip-Hop Alchemy

Afton Wolfe’s latest single, So Purple, was never made for the skimmers, the distracted, or the easily satisfied. It’s a track built to grip your brainstem and hold it under a hazy, hallucinogenic spell. In the Jack Vinoy remix, Wolfe, alongside Brian Brown, brings a soul-soaked, genre-scrambling opiate for the audiophiles who don’t want their boundaries respected.

Wolfe’s vocal delivery alone is enough to trigger an inner chemical reaction. Gruff and thick with Southern blues nuance, his timbre never fights for dominance. It lounges. It drips. It carves through the synth-drenched backdrop like molasses sliding off a neon-lit glass. The production doesn’t bow to any one style—hip-hop is the main artery, but the heartbeat throbs with experimental jazz-blues fusion, swirls of soul, and psychotropic layers that wouldn’t feel out of place in a track built for a Lynchian lounge.

When Brian Brown’s rap bars slide in, they don’t disrupt the equilibrium—they challenge it. The cadence is sharp, the diction is clean, but it’s never ornamental. Brown brings the punch while Wolfe bathes you in smoke.

Vinoy doesn’t phone in his role either. His touch is the hallucinogen. Every snare, warped synth swell, and backmasked flourish is precision-placed to hypnotise. This isn’t your standard producer flex—this is a psych-laced sermon served on a vinyl platter made for the hedonistic and the heartbroken alike.

So Purple is a lucid dream on loop. It welcomes you, intoxicates you, then leaves you wondering if the high came from the sound or the space it created inside you. Wolfe is pushing past what’s comfortable, and it’s about time the rest of us caught up.

The remix is now available to stream on all major platforms, including SoundCloud. 

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Sebastian Graysen’s ‘Heartless Man’: A Raw Folk Confession in the Eye of the Existential Storm

The debut release from folk-adjacent singer-songwriter Sebastian Graysen taps into emotional pulses with neo-classic minor piano keys before vocals enter, caught compellingly between folk troubadourism and Broadway-style breathtaking visceralism.

The contrast between instrumental restraint and the raw outpouring of pain within the vocals intensifies the affecting propensities of this timelessly classic session of existential questioning. For anyone who knows how it feels to hold far more questions than answers or struggles to find affirmations beneath dark clouds, ‘Heartless Man’ stands as the ultimate reflection of psychological entropy.

Graysen’s songwriting is the unfiltered confessional of an artist who openly admits, “I write, I scream, I feel,” channelling personal hardship and emotional turbulence into music. Based in Limerick, Ireland, Graysen draws from a potent mix of folk honesty, classical refinement, and rock’s raw immediacy, orchestrating to make sense of life but also to heal through shared resonance.

‘Heartless Man’ serves as proof that music born from personal anguish can find universal connection. With its poignant minimalism and powerful vocals, Graysen offers a track which embraces vulnerability without apology. It reaches beyond mere introspection, delivering an anthem for anyone living under existential shadows, uncertain yet yearning for release.

‘Heartless Man’ is now available to stream on all major platforms, including Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Jack Kendrick and The Broken Wonders Cut to the Core with the Folk-Punk Candour in ‘Spoke to My Doctor’

Jack Kendrick and The Broken Wonders

With an evocative sting sharp enough to cut through the coldest souls, Spoke to My Doctor pulls all the right emotively bruising punches. Jack Kendrick and The Broken Wonders are void of pretence as they put melodies to the maladies of the modern age, distilling the agony of a system designed to manage, not mend. The alt-90s aura bleeds through every chord, carrying the weight of raw emotion as the instrumentals fuel the energy and the lyrics lay bare the disillusionment.

Emotionally, the track pivots on a knife-edge, striking with unfiltered honesty. If you’ve ever stared down the tunnel, squinting for a light that refuses to show, or placed your faith in a medical system too ill-equipped to salve the wounds it barely acknowledges, Spoke to My Doctor will hit like a gut punch. The emotion isn’t just in the words—it’s in the way every note aches, in the expressive vocals that never veer into performance for performance’s sake.

After years of relentless gigging, sharing stages with folk-punk legends like Gaz Brookfield and Ferocious Dog, Jack Kendrick has built a reputation for no-frills, high-impact storytelling. This single only cements that further, proving their ability to turn personal turmoil into a cathartic anthem.

For anyone who’s ever felt unheard, Spoke to My Doctor makes sure the message is loud and clear.

Spoke to My Doctor is now available on all major streaming platforms.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Ananda Murari – Desert in the Middle: A Mirage You’ll Want to Chase

There’s plenty of sanctuary to be found in the fluidity and flora of Ananda Murari’s spiritually expressive exploration of texture and tonality in ‘Desert in the Middle’; the instrumentals alone are enough to subdue you into its sublimity. When the call of Ananda Murari’s magnetically honed vocals enters and reverberates soul throughout the release as they melancholically spill poetica epiphanies, there comes an affirmation that natural-born singer-songwriters exist—exist in the form of Murari, who carries all of the grace(land) of Paul Simon.

As the single progresses, it transitions into a divine sonic expanse where catharsis is free to savour, to cling to as you envelop yourself in Murari’s ability to paint seraphic worlds through sonorous motifs that leave gilded imprints in the soul. 

Rooted in eclectic indie folk, Murari’s work weaves ancient storytelling, raw emotional introspection, and spiritual depth shaped by his years spent living as a monk. Through his time in devotional silence, he discovered the tonal nuance and lyrical sensitivity now central to his music. The result is a rare kind of songwriting that doesn’t chase impact—it emanates it.

Drawn from his No Coins Needed project, which folds fatherhood and spiritual reintegration into every measure, Desert in the Middle reflects a new era of introspection. It is a sojourn worth taking time and time again. Whether performing solo or with his full-band collaborators, Murari makes music that doesn’t ask for your attention—it earns your surrender.

Desert in the Middle is available to stream on all major platforms via this link.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

IAMCORNELIUS – Life: A Sonic Altitude Check at 35,000 Feet

IAMCORNELIUS

Life by IAMCORNELIUS escapes easy articulation and categorisation. Even if you think along the lines of electro-infused soft melodic rock-tinged folk pop with Avant Garde motifs of soul, you’ll still struggle to run in parallel with the single, which is driven by emotion instead of restrictive genre parameters.

IAMCORNELIUS doesn’t need to make a statement with his moniker when he does it so viscerally through his sound. With his consolingly gruff timbre lifting in the light of the chorus, his intricate acoustic guitar notes bleeding intimacy into the single, and the artful electronic sequences shaping its filmic soul, Life nestles you in its expansive interstellar embrace. If you’re ever caught up wondering about the meaning of life, this track doesn’t offer answers—it reflects the weight of the question in exquisite, untethered form.

Originally from Kenya and now based in Cincinnati, IAMCORNELIUS has spent a life between continents, filtering experience through a diverse musical history. He’s not confined by genre or form—his work is rooted in honesty, written for those tired of looking in the mirror and ready to search their soul.

There are no clean comparisons here. The only adequate metaphor is watching the clouds disappear from the window of a plane as you realise, with both clarity and quiet panic, just how infinite it all really is.

Life by IAMCORNELIUS is available to stream on all major platforms.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Alpine Jubilee Inch Closer to the Indie Folk Pop Throne with ‘Fiver on the Favourite’

Alpine Jubilee won us over with their debut, but with Fiver on the Favourite, they well and truly conquered. Folk-tinged indie pop has rarely sounded this expansive, with flourishes tinged with psychedelia and melodies that seem to ascend endlessly. The single instrumentally invites you to a state of transcendence, while the abstract lyricism filters in, almost serving as another instrument, adding texture to the euphonic tonal masterpiece that progressively enthrals with each new nuanced transition.

Born from the creative partnership of brothers Trevor O’Neil and Glenn O’Neil, Alpine Jubilee stretches across continents, with Trevor based in Toowoomba, Queensland, and Glenn in Geneva, Switzerland. Their sound pulls together an eclectic mix of instrumentation, featuring acoustic guitar, violin, trumpet, harmonies, ukulele, mandolin, mando-cello, tin whistle, harmonica, bass, percussion, synthesisers, and even a zither. Their influences range from 80s new wave and darkwave to twee-jangle pop, contemporary nu-folk, and alt-country, and it shows in the depth of their arrangements. Joining them on the track are Flavia O’Neil on trumpet and backing vocals, Nelson O’Neil on drum programming, and Oliver Liang on violin.

If you’re sick of folk artists who bring the same old pale imitations to the table, Fiver on the Favourite is a surefire antidote to monotony.

Fiver on the Favourite is available to stream on all major platforms, including Spotify. For the full experience, watch the official video on YouTube. 

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Just Xris Painted a Sun-Soaked Memory With His Acoustic Folk Pop Debut, ‘Mother Leah’

With his debut single, Mother Leah, the up-and-coming singer-songwriter Just Xris turns nostalgia into melody, offering a vignette steeped in warmth and reverence. His folksy acoustic pop signature runs parallel to the introspective musings of Cat Stevens and Paul Simon, but the heart of his sound beats entirely in its own time. Every note lands softly, yet speaks volumes, unburdened by excessive amplification.

Rooted in childhood weekends spent on a farm called Leah near Ellisras (now Lephalale), Mother Leah is a sonic love letter to the people and places that shaped him. Those early days of exploring nature, working hard, and sharing unforgettable moments with family and friends fuel the song’s reverie-rich melodies. There’s nothing but love and adoration reverberating through the single, which allows you to imagine what Elliott Smith’s discography might sound like if it were soaked in serotonin, yet not drowning out the affecting quiescent vocal inflections.

Music has been a lifelong passion for Just Xris, first sparked at age 13 when his mother gifted him her old nylon-string guitar. After spending his teenage years playing in a band, he finally took the leap into music production, leading to the release of Mother Leah on January 21, 2025. Blending folk, country, and indie influences, his succinctly sweet melodies speak volumes without excessive embellishment. Whatever he delivers next, we will want to devour it.

Mother Leah is available to stream on all major platforms, including Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Cupid and the Cowboy’s ‘Beer on My Tramp Stamp’ Is a Shot of Whiskey Spiked with Sarcasm

Evading the clichés of every scene and leaving no room for pretence or posturing, Cupid and the Cowboy delivered a satirically subversive and seductively salacious tour de force of literally and figuratively down-and-dirty Americana with Beer on My Tramp Stamp. With folk and alt-country drippings in the soulfully delivered, foot-stomping hit, they find rugged intersections of euphony while the lyrics prove that they’re so beyond pastiche they’ve reserved a spot for other pioneers in the alt-country pantheon. There’s something delicious in the way they go down old country roads, finding new thematic intersections to explore while taking playful shots at the culture they’re dissecting through sound.

This misfit NYC duo thrive on contradiction. Bronx-born Cupid, a sultry wallflower with songs of unrequited love, collides with Maynard, a Reno Casino Cowboy who delivers his raw energy like an open bar tab on the line. Together, they trade vocals and have a proclivity for pulling in everything from country, Americana, dance-pop, R&B, alt-rock, and folk-punk to craft a sound as unfiltered as their songwriting.

With their first full-length album, Misfit Sessions, set to drop in 2025, they’re proving that country can be taken apart and put back together in a way that pays ode without feeling old.

Beer on My Tramp Stamp is available to stream on all major platforms, including Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Suite for Claddagh by Conor Churchill featuring Philip Bowen – A Love Letter Cast in Folk Gold

Conor Churchill doesn’t chase reinvention; he understands the weight of tradition and wields it with quiet confidence. Suite for Claddagh is unapologetically Americana to its roots-reverent core, with folk motifs threading an even more timeless touch through its sweeping production. There’s no pretence, no self-indulgence—just razor-sharp songwriting and grandeur born from restraint, allowing every note to breathe.

Philip Bowen’s violin work carves through the track like an autumn wind stirring old memories, lifting Churchill’s introspective storytelling into something cinematic. The rich imagery in the lyrics drives the song forward with the same contemplative solace found in watching water ripple—offering fleeting glimpses into something deeper beneath the surface. It’s a love story, but more than that, it’s an ode to finding meaning in the quiet spaces, the spaces that change and shape us even when we’re not looking.

As a glimpse into his debut album, Brand New Branches, Suite for Claddagh cements Churchill as a songwriter primed for a long-lasting legacy. With a sound that pays homage to the legacies of John Prine and Jason Isbell while staying firmly his own, Churchill captures the melancholy of change and the beauty in embracing it. His debut may be long-awaited, but with songwriting this refined, it’s clear he’s been growing into it all along.

Suite for Claddagh is available now on all major streaming platforms, including YouTube.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Secondhand Smoke – Sinking Ships’ Twang-Soaked Hymn for the Wandering Soul

Sinking Ships by Sinking Ships

Sinking Ships doesn’t play Americana by the book—he stains it with Detroit’s garage rock grit and lets it linger in the air like Secondhand Smoke, which also happens to be the title of his latest single. With twangy, roots-reverent guitars cradling the intro, the track gently pulls you in before his gravelly, whiskey-soaked vocals take centre stage. Echoing the swagger of Dogs D’Amour and The Stones, his delivery balances rugged sincerity with a devil-may-care coolness.

The sepia-toned lull doesn’t last long. As the crescendo kicks in, the single shifts from dusky introspection to full-blown rock ‘n’ roll earworm. Winding guitar strings, steel guitar timbres, and brashy chords ensure the alt-country undercurrent never fades completely—it stays locked in, an uplifting presence coursing through the track’s folk storytelling heartbeat.

True to tradition, Secondhand Smoke paints a panorama of a portrait, tracing a beatnik attempt at self-discovery, where hope clings to the horizon like the last glow of a setting sun. Whether meaning is found or not seems almost secondary—the real story is in the search itself.

With this release, Sinking Ships proves he’s found his footing in the crossfire of alt-country, indie, and garage rock. His sound isn’t polished, it isn’t predictable, but it lands exactly where it needs to—right in the marrow of modern Americana’s restless spirit.

Stream Secondhand Smoke on all major platforms, including Bandcamp.

Review by Amelia Vandergast