featuring the very best of americana, alt.country and roots music
July 7, 2026
Scott Foley, purveyor of dust
With our most recent new release date falling on the July 3rd holiday, our inbox has remained unusually empty this week. As we see it, this allows us time to draw your attention to a handful of things we've whiffed at during the first half of 2026. While we did include several of these in a ROUTES-cast or two, we feel we sorely underrepresented them, and would like to repair our mistake by doing so in this Episode. Please know that a couple of these dwell near the fringes of our kind of music, but we've always been very up-front about our commitment to filling in your musical ruts.
IF YOU ONLY LiSTEN to ONE RECORD THiS WEEK
... or maybe nine?
We'll highlight these in order of appearance, because that's what we do here.
- Talise, Bowling Green EP (Run On Records, Feb 5)
We first caught wind of this banjo-wielding Canadian when she was tagged to open for Willi Carlisle on a few dates. More recently, Talise showed up on a Western AF session singing "The Road" from this February EP. We're sure glad there's an interesting story about the dead something hanging from the mic stand. Talise's voice is both reliably trad and deeply original.
- Ovven, Gnawing At the Cord (Ovven, Feb 6)
Nashville's Owen Burton is one-third of the band Dallas Ugly (whose 2025 album See Me Now could easily have been in a whiffed Episode for that year). On a whim, Burton phoned Drop Of Sun Studios in Asheville with three songs that producer Alex Farrar agreed to produce. Ovven's debut is thick on guitar a'la MJ Lenderman, but boasts slacker-country lyrics that are more thoughtful: I read a lot of creative types keep it messy / Surely Jackson Pollock had some paint stains on his couch / Not to mention the stuff between his teeth / And the turpentine smell stuck in his sheets.
- Georgia Maq, "Tropical Lush Ice" / "10 Drunk Cigarettes" (Maq, Feb 13)
We are strong believers that you can frequently judge an artist by the company they keep on the road. Australia's Georgia Maq will join John Moreland for several dates beginning in August. The onetime front person for Camp Cope shared these singles in February, as well as a fine EP last September, God's Favourite. Maq's songs tread the adult pop side of the indie folk equation, a balance that tips rootsward in a live setting. With Ben Lee, she toured as The Two Most Annoying People You Love.
- Jackie West, Silent Century (Ruination, Feb 27)
The songs from Jackie West's sophomore LP are subtle and smart, steadily sinking their way into our awareness rather than insisting upon access. Perhaps that's why it took us so long to fall in line. Like Rosali, songs like "Overlooking Glass" and "These Are Not Sweet Girls" are delivered in cool, torchy confidence, with organic accompaniment that won't overreach. While West's project occasionally deals in more jagged arrangements, the record typically dwells in exquisitely ethereal moments. Please stay for the ten-minute largely spoken closer, "Offer".
- i26connector, i26 connector (Haw Creek, Mar 11)
We're all here for the current emo Southern rock moment. That's how this proggy Asheville act labels its sound, as likely to build on gravely electric guitar as evocative strings (and possibly gutteral vocals). The work of frontguy Caelan Burris will appeal to many who pray for us to feature something heavier, louder, maybe capable of summoning the neighbors. "Spirit Manger" sounds all Fust-like until just past the two-minute mark when the mosh pit opens for business.
- Casual Technicians, Well Once There Was a King (Historic New Jersey, May 15)
We're told this marks the third full-length album from the Oregon outfit, which makes us wonder if we're really spending our music discovery time wisely enough. The trio embrace a wild variety of sound across this twenty-four track sampler, though most of it can be shoehorned into a lo-fi indie-folk box. But save room for Magnetic Fields-like pop ("This Manic State"), old-weird string band ("Heathen Ways") and whatever's happening on "What Is My Deal".
- Huntress & the Holder Of Hands, Babylon (Swain, Jun 5)
We first encountered MorganEve Swain as one-half of Brown Bird with her late husband Dave Lamb, then as a more recent member of Devil Makes Three. Under the Huntress moniker, Swain's songs check a similar gothic box as some of David Eugene Edwards' stuff with Sixteen Horsepower. The music spirals and trudges behind strings and almost tribal percussion, with the singer and her accompanists rarely far from minor key reckoning. Babylon isn't easy listening, and it won't sound great blowing from your dusty truck windows, but it's impressive in its ambition and originality.
- Jack M Senff & Heartland Mission, Grace & Sorrow (Skeletal Lightning, Jun 26)
Like many others, Senff came to his pop-inflected folk via a youthful dabbling in noisy diy punk. His fifth collection with Heartland Mission was tracked in the loft space of a family cottage on Mullet Lake outside Cheboygan, Michigan. And it sounds just like that, very likably understated. Senff and his cohort deploy banjo, harmonica, and a wall full of other things with strings on this set refreshingly devoid of pretense: I'll meet you for a coffee in the afternoon / Can someone borrow me a dollar.
^ Mary In the Junkyard, Role Model Hermit (AMF, Jul 3)
This British trio sounds like the audio version of an old weird fable retold by Edward Gorey or Maurice Sendak. There are bits on their debut LP that recall Big Thief, while others might bring Bjork to mind, owing to the wonderfully unkiltered vocals of Clari Freeman-Taylor. "Blood" and "Thou Shalt Sprout" trip along on a deep groove of percussion, while "Mouse" is a genuinely odd fever dream, this side of gorgeous. You might worry about us if we told you it's what we've been listening to more than anything else this week ...
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