Browsing Tag

Americana Folk

Ennis Hawkins – The Art of Being Alone: A Bruising Barfly Confessional Relayed Through the Canderous Twang of Indie Americana Folk 

Posted on 23 February 2026

The first impression when you hear Ennis Hawkins’ debut single, The Art of Being Alone, is WHERE HAS HE BEEN HIDING THAT VOICE?! After a strum of unassuming chords and the steady tick of metronomic percussion, the evocateur shows how he’s yet to find any form of sanctuary in isolation, but he has mastered the art of using vibrato to tear your heartstrings into splinters.

Once that rush of pensively powerful candour sets in, the soaring electric-guitar notes take their bluesy mark, adding a mournfully lush texture to a single that refuses to reduce anything to be comfortably palatable. When he confesses, “at the end of the day I go to the bar and destroy my liver and lungs just for fun”, Hawkins turns what so many glamourise into an existential cry hurled straight into the void of isolation. Through The Art of Being Alone, he may pull pain from lived experience, but he also exposes the wider malaise so many of us feel if we have even a shred of self-awareness.

If this is the first taste, my god, I’m ravenous for what comes next from the DMV region-based singer-songwriter who has spent decades developing his talent and dexterity that now shape his songwriting. After balancing elite-level athletics with a developing creative identity,  he’s found his definitive home with his debut.

The Art of Being Alone is now available on all major streaming platforms, including Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Michael Louis Austin – Hearts on Sleeves: Indie Americana Folk to Ache and Ascend With

Posted on 25 December 2025
Michael Louis Austin

Michael Louis Austin lets his sonic signature resound as an artful indie spin on Americana folk in Hearts on Sleeves, an LP that proves how cerebral immersivity can meet absolute accessibility without losing emotional weight. Across these tracks, he becomes one of the most magnetic troubadours of our times. The way he lights the fuse of his melancholic vignettes with arrangements that spark with joviality turns the record into a quiet triumph of resistance. He harnesses the pain of the protagonists in his panoramas, caressing them with empathy, and lets anyone listening find comfort and inspiration in the way he searches for the lightest lens to view the world through.

The emotional palette never settles. One moment the album drifts through art indie art folk, the next it grows into rugged country rock crescendos before sinking into Elliott Smith-esque introspection or sticky-sweet odes to Southern country. Hearts on Sleeves carries it all with fluidity, finding ways to make your heart ache before offering a salve that stays long after the last chord fades. It is a tour de force that exemplifies what it means for a singer-songwriter to let his soul lead the way through his arrangements.

Produced in Las Vegas by Thaddeus Corea, the LP sits comfortably within the alt country rock lineage while still feeling unmistakably his. With one of the most affecting voices heard this year, Austin keeps each song rooted in sincerity rather than spectacle. As Christmas approaches, Hearts on Sleeves feels like a gift worth unwrapping the moment it reaches the airwaves.

Hearts on Sleeves is now available on all major streaming platforms Find your preferred way to listen on the artist’s website. 
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Review by Amelia Vandergast

Folk Intimacy and Haunting Harmonies Defined The Lone Canary’s ‘Something Real’

Posted on 23 August 2025

If the timbre of a songbird could be strung across guitar strings, it would echo the way The Lone Canary’s latest single, Something Real, folds itself into the souls of folk listeners. Lifted from their forthcoming LP Dime Store Horses, the track dissolves the barriers between Americana storytelling and the profound nature of sonic connection, paying quiet homage to the landscapes that birthed it.

There are no clues in the composition that Something Real was written in the 21st century. Instead, it unfurls as a vignette of loneliness, tracing the isolation of being surrounded by hollow facades with nothing substantial to tether you to the present. Ephemeral moments drift by, leaving disassociation in their wake, yet within the mournful diaphanous tones, a warmth rises through the intimate harmonies. The catharsis is quiet, but no less potent, as Jesse Fox and Heather Camacho lock their voices into an unbreakable tether.

Rooted in Rockford, Illinois, the duo has spent over a decade cutting their teeth across stages with the likes of Over the Rhine, Lilly Hiatt, and Pieta Brown. With their third full-length release on the horizon, The Lone Canary have stripped their sound down to its barest truth, offering listeners something raw, resolute, and swimming with pensive grace.

Something Real is now available on all major streaming platforms – including Apple Music.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

The Earthy Ache of Autumn Echoed Through Joy Seroussi’s Alt-Folk Track October Winds

Posted on 17 July 2025

As we swelter under July’s molten skies, Joy Seroussi opened a backdoor into autumn with the wistful flicker of October Winds. The tender Americana-tinged alt-folk track is a love letter to leaf fall and all the messy, emotive humanity we cling to as the world cools around us. With harmonica tones that sweep through like a breeze laced with dry oak leaves and nostalgia, and with every pluck of the guitar strings acting like a heartbeat held in a quiet room, Seroussi masterfully lets the ache and comfort coexist.

For an artist who only turned his pen towards songwriting in his sixties, Seroussi composes with the instinct of someone who’s been quietly observing life’s nuances for decades. Based in Tel Aviv and Plomari, he draws from the lyrical sensitivity of Dylan, Leonard Cohen, and Nick Cave, while rooting his own sonic identity in the soil of self-reflection.

October Winds doesn’t lean on grandiose gestures; instead, it whispers its way into your memory. The composition breathes with intimacy, the kind that makes you want to wrap up in a wool jumper and let yourself feel whatever the breeze brings in. The melody, understated and delicate, cradles the lyrics as they chart emotional terrain that’s deeply personal but never impenetrable.

October Winds is now available on all major streaming platforms, including Spotify.


Review by Amelia Vandergast

Alexandre Perotto Tended to Crooked Chords and Hypnotic Candour in ‘Quiet in the Static’ – Indie Folk for the Unsure

Posted on 29 June 2025

There’s a rare sort of intimacy woven through Alexandre Perotto’s single, Quiet in the Static. The Brasília-based singer-songwriter brings lo-fi indie folk into sharp focus, dialling in on that sweet spot where confessional honesty and melodic rawness intertwine. Perotto’s approach—quick to record, unwilling to let feeling slip away—results in a piece that almost breaks the fourth wall. Each twang and slide of guitar feels vast yet close, creating an Americana-tinged atmosphere that hums with sincerity rather than showmanship.

Quiet in the Static is hypnotic in its simplicity. The production welcomes every imperfection, allowing Perotto’s humble vibrato and unguarded lyricism to take centre stage. It’s the sort of folk that doesn’t just sit quietly in the background; it seeps in, coaxing out your own melancholy and offering a soft reprieve. The vibrato echoes, gentle but potent, wrap around the listener with the ease of a private conversation shared in the small hours. There’s a natural sense of relief that comes from hearing someone willing to let the pain breathe without forcing resolution.

For anyone allergic to the formulaic and the over-polished, Perotto’s crooked chords and candid songwriting offer a welcome refuge. It’s a release that speaks to those who find comfort in imperfection, and who believe that music ought to be felt before it is polished.

Quiet in the Static is now available on all major streaming platforms, including Spotify. 

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Jim Chorley Let the Dust Settle on Self-Worth in ‘Time to Learn’

Posted on 4 June 2025

Taken from Jim Chorley’s seminal Acoustic Americana release Let the Truth Be Known, the standout single, Time to Learn, refuses to posture itself as it proves how introspective a stripped-back yet intuitively profound melody can be. Even the harmonica blows ache with longing as they cry over the steady rhythmic pulse of the quiescently affecting release. With the quivering vibrato in his roots-deep vocals, the singer-songwriter transforms Time to Learn from an auditory experience into a crushing session of realisation of how prevalent it is for people to tear themselves apart through introspection until all that is left are shards deemed too unlovable.

The Southampton-hailing songwriter is starting to make a legacy by extending unfiltered vignettes of emotional weathering; Time to Learn may just be his most emotively worn down release yet. Anchored by an unshowy snare and adorned with gently strummed acoustic guitar, soul-wrung vocals, and electric motifs that hover like faded memories, Time to Learn follows Chorley into the darkest folds of his self-narrative. From the pleading line “How can I love with a broken heart” to the scarred reflection of “How can I ever find myself, when my heart has burned to bone”, there’s no denial, no evasion. Just the raw confrontation of years spent avoiding the act of self-love, finally giving way to an emboldened epiphany in the closing confession, “I’ve never known how to love myself, but now’s my time to learn.”

Time to Learn is now available to stream on all major platforms, including SoundCloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Whiskey Hill Poured Americana Folk Vindication Through Panoramic Melancholy in ‘Cut You Down’

Posted on 2 June 2025

If there are eyes that glisten as though they’ve lived a thousand years, Patricia Murphy’s voice is the sonic equivalent. In Cut You Down, the standout single from Whiskey Hill’s debut LP Paloma, her vocal presence embodies the weight of experience. Alongside guitarist and backing vocalist Jonathan Tucker, Murphy visualises a sound that transcends epochs and style. The chanteuse of Americana Folk keeps her arrangements roots-deep and the air that she weaves through her sound weightless, resulting in a panoramic score that sweeps you up within its accordance.

Lyrically, Cut You Down delivers sheer vindication, which arrives through the sanctity within the moment you realise that someone you thought you couldn’t live without is someone who never deserved you, and it’s unlikely that they will ever replicate the beauty within that connection. This isn’t bitterness. It’s release. It’s wisdom echoing from the mouth of someone who no longer needs to look back.

Whiskey Hill, the Kansas City duo, channel the melancholy of joy and sorrow into compositions you feel in your bones. Their arrangements bleed the soil of the Midwest, their storytelling bends around grief, love, and lives still in motion. Through violin, mandolin, and guitar, they don’t imitate. They reveal. Their sound may sit beside folk icons, but Cut You Down affirms they are writing from their own carved-out corner.

Cut You Down is now available to stream on all major platforms, including Spotify. 

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Spencer Graham Soundtracked the Sanctity of Synergy in the Americana Folk Revelation, ‘Worth the Wait’

Posted on 13 May 2025

Worth the Wait by Spencer Graham preaches the gospel that patience is a virtue and the superficial pull of instant gratification is a vice, especially when it comes to love. As the folksy indie Americana arrangement carries its timeless timbres, Graham uses the urgency within his vocal lines to express that it isn’t only his sonic signature that has perpetual appeal. He viscerally attests that when true love finds you, it won’t lead to endless bliss; there’s a bittersweetness within the connection, one that resounds with just how much rests upon the resonance of the synergy.

The folk strings bring an upbeat energy to the production as the percussion keeps the rhythm grounded like the beat of a heart that knows contentment, not complacency. The dual harmonies between Graham and Megan McGarry provide a complete narrative, one that will leave you believing in love as a divine intervention. The twangy orchestral serenade is a complete revelation through the reverence of love and all the scars it leaves behind, even as love still breathes

Graham’s journey has never been one of rushing. The warmth in his sincerity is no accident; it is the product of faith, endurance, and an unshakeable foundation built by family, friends, and quiet conviction as he ventured from small-town open mics in Central Pennsylvania to the gig circuit in Charleston, clocking in songwriting hours while navigating naval service and college life,

Worth the Wait is now available to stream on all major platforms, including Spotify. 

Review by Amelia Vandergast.

Sun-Pinned Leaves Lit the Fuse Between Capital and Connection in the Serotonin-Stoked Americana Cut ‘Not For Love Nor Money’

Posted on 7 May 2025

Sun-Pinned Leaves poured decades of soul, grit, and sonic evolution into their latest single, ‘Not For Love Nor Money’, a cut that proves roots music doesn’t need to sit still to respect tradition.

Honkytonk is barely recognisable under their lens—still reverent, still raw—but here, it’s reframed by angular indie guitar lines and delay-soaked textures which unshackle it from the saloons of yesteryear and plug it into a pulse that insists on forward motion. It’s frenetic but never chaotic; tight enough to keep you grounded while the vocal harmonies soar high enough to crack open the clouds and let the euphoria flood in.

As the Americana aesthetic drifts you back in time, the soul of the single delivers the transcendence of pure euphoria; it’s the perfect formula, one which permits your rhythmic pulses to find freedom within the progressions as the lyrics tempt you into adopting a better perception of the world and compel you to find a more grounded place within it.

Christopher Brown and Neil Faulkner—now reconnected after forming their first band in 1975—aren’t just making up for lost time. Since 2019, they’ve delivered seven albums, with their eighth on the horizon. With recent songwriting accolades spanning Nashville to Australia and appearances at venues like Wildwing Café Atlanta and Dublin Castle Camden, their commitment cuts deeper than nostalgia.

‘Not For Love Nor Money’ is now available to stream on all major platforms, including Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Natalie Christie Tracks Tectonic Fault Lines of the Soul in the Americana Hymn ‘Between the Lines’

Posted on 1 May 2025

If a songbird could write an instrumental melody and key into its harmony, the organic euphony would resound with the same fervour as Natalie Christie’s standout release, Between the Lines, which tenderly tends to the roots of Americana with whispers of sweet, dreamy reverie.

Rather than solely traversing the tectonic plates of connection, Natalie Christie goes deeper, tracking them within the fabric of her own being to stand in front of her audience with her mandolin strings on her sleeves. Few songs truly give us an idea of an artist’s true identity in the span of 3 minutes, but with Between the Lines, you become a witness to mind, aura and soul.

Natalie Christie writes like someone with one foot in ancestral memory and the other in the shifting present. Rooted in her American settler, Celtic, and Scandinavian lineage, her folk songs move like slow-burn vignettes from the edges of wildlands and candlelit rooms. The soft harmonies and ethereal vocal layering in Between the Lines don’t just recall time lost—they suspend it.

The melancholia never weighs heavy; it brushes lightly against themes of love, memory, and longing, refusing to trade rawness for theatrics. In a track this exposed, there’s no veil to hide behind.

Between the Lines is now available to stream on all major platforms, including SoundCloud. 

Review by Amelia Vandergast