8 Great Folk Albums from Winter 2026
elcome back to For the Sake of the Song, our periodic survey of the best new releases in folk. This seasonal roundup continues my quest to cover as wide a spectrum as possible under the banner of folk, which includes everything from gothic ballads, versatile desert blues, and even acoustic interpretations of Autechre pieces. Open your mind and enjoy the best folk albums of winter 2026.
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Huw Marc Bennett – Heol Las
“Carol Haf,” the leadoff track on Huw Marc Bennett’s Heol Las, doesn’t reveal itself immediately. Its first minute comprises just Bennett’s own solo guitar playing, as he plucks a traditional Welsh melody on acoustic guitar—simple, stark, yet enchanting. Just past the one-minute mark, the landscape fills with verdant life, a psychedelic pop groove filling in its blank space and turning a gentle revisitation of an archaic piece of music into something that feels altogether new. Such is the common thread on Heol Las, a richly imaginative set of interpretations of folk melodies from Wales’ Morgannwg/Glamorgan that are given gorgeously rich new arrangements. “Y Fedwen” is as close to a pop song as you’ll find here, with Angela Christofilou providing vocals to a dazzling psych-pop swirl, while “Yr Abaty” is hypnotic in its juxtaposition of whirring organs and spiraling guitar melodies, and closer “Gwenith Gwyn 1837” strips everything back in favor of a haunting organ drone. Bennett’s exploration of the sounds of South Wales’ past is a project rooted in tradition, but the end result is anything but.
Listen/Buy: Bandcamp
Bill Callahan – My Days of 58
Bill Callahan has a singular voice, a warm and strangely comforting baritone that lends a certain gravitas to each line he sings, whether he’s dreaming about Lou Reed, calling a woman “little mama,” or declaring “I use my computer to pass the time/search for whatever crosses my mind.” Throughout what he calls his “living room record,” Callahan feels more casual and at ease, casually musing about taking his chili spoon on his honeymoon and basking in the scenery of Wisconsin against a mostly breezy and airy series of arrangements—which often build up to something bigger, with horns or backing singers, as on leadoff track “Why Do Men Sing.” With Callahan, even straightforward is never straightforward, and these earthy, approachable songs are subtly steeped in psychedelia, each leg of the journey growing a little more disorienting. It wouldn’t be Callahan without a dose of the surreal.
Listen/Buy: Bandcamp | Rough Trade (vinyl)
Canes of Karabakh – Canes of Karabakh
Polish trio Canes of Karabakh make non-traditional music centered around an instrument that dates back over a millennium: the duduk. Reeds for the traditional Armenian instrument have doubled in price, making it more difficult for native musicians to afford them and thus endangering tradition. Making very clear that it’s not their own heritage, the trio draw attention to the instrument itself without borrowing from traditional music, instead centering the beauty of the duduk amid atmospheric, sometimes noisy soundscapes, their minimalist sonic approach quietly chaotic, turbulently meditative. It’s a small yet conscientious act of showing appreciation for a piece of Armenian culture, and a beautiful way of doing so at that.
Listen/Buy: Bandcamp
Ora Cogan – Hard Hearted Woman
When I interviewed Ora Cogan last month, she spent nearly as much time speaking about the music she loved as she did her new album Hard Hearted Woman. Townes Van Zandt, Dolly Parton, Norma Tanega, Greek folk music, the Vancouver noise scene—it all colors the sound of her first release for Sacred Bones, which captures the depth and diversity of her uniquely gothic psych-folk. There’s an eerily supernatural element to songs like “Bury Me,” which is steeped in darkwave and gothic rock, while the acid twang of “The Smoke” is enrobed in dense clouds and haunting waltz “Outgrowing” feels like a Mazzy Star seance. Cogan’s unique background in different styles and scenes gives her music an enchanting versatility, and mystery that’s well worth unlocking.
Listen/Buy: Bandcamp | Rough Trade (vinyl)
Imarhan – Essam
Algerian Tuareg quintet Imarhan have been refining their hypnotic desert blues grooves over the past decade, exploring new space within their unique approach to tishoumaren each time they emerge with a new album, and Essam comprises some of their most versatile and eclectic music to date. At their best, the band can carve out a haunting minimalist dirge like the primarily acoustic album opener “Ahitmanin” or capture an incendiary energy via a barnburning electric number such as “Tin Arayth.” But in working with Emile Papandreou of French electronic group UTO, who co-produced the album along with longtime engineer Maxime Kosinetz, Imarhan introduce dancefloor pulses and a synth-laden atmosphere to their already rich sonic world, remaining true to their sound while allowing it the flexibility to grow and expand over time.
Listen/Buy: Bandcamp | Rough Trade (vinyl)
Shane Parish – Autechre Guitar
It is, admittedly, an audacious concept. On his latest album, guitarist Shane Parish interprets the music of experimental electronic pioneers Autechre through solo acoustic guitar performances, the very idea of which can seem antithetical to the kind of music that Autechre makes. But fascinatingly, it not only works, he seems to unlock the musicality and melodicism at the heart of the UK duo’s glitchy, sometimes chaotic constructions. Early highlights in their catalog, like “Bike,” “Eutow” and “Clipper,” are stripped down to something much starker and gentler, yet their rhythmic sensibility remains intact. If you listen to them with the originals, back to back, they’re even remarkably faithful, however different the approach. It isn’t entirely necessary to be familiar with Autechre’s catalog to enjoy Autechre Guitar, though it helps; it’s a beautiful set of acoustic performances on its own, though I might not have been so fascinated by it had I not already spent so much time listening to records like Tri repetae. But if it in turn inspires someone to go back to those records as well or listen to them for the first time, even better.
Listen/Buy: Bandcamp | Turntable Lab (vinyl)
Greg Weeks – If the Sun Dies
Philadelphia singer/songwriter Greg Weeks is perhaps best known for his work with the psychedelic folk-rock group Espers, whose 2006 release II is nothing less than an eerie masterpiece in the vein of both Pentangle and Black Sabbath. But his first solo album in 18 years is a spectacular return, rife with lush landscapes and similarly hazy psych melodies as those of his acclaimed band. Yet this album’s songs have a looser feel about them, more rooted in contemporary-ish folk-rock with more acid-rock riffs and lackadaisical strums than baroque, intricate plucks. Still, the overall effect is no less mesmerizing, Weeks’ songs both haunted and haunting, capturing the apocalyptic dread that If the Sun Dies‘ title suggests through more immediate means and just enough lightness to help make the ominous atmosphere just a little more approachable.
Listen/Buy: Bandcamp | Rough Trade (vinyl)
Dagmar Zuniga – in filth your mystery is kingdom/Far smile peasant in yellow music
The first sound on Dagmar Zuniga’s in filth your mystery is kingdom/Far smile peasant in yellow music is tape hiss, a bath of static both warm and corrosive, leaving moments like “Garden” feeling lived-in to the point that the finish has worn off. The effect is not unlike Grouper’s distorted ghost folk paired with the mystical melodicism of Elverum’s earlier recordings as The Microphones (which is fitting—Zuniga toured with Elverum last year). This re-release from AD93 brings the Nicaraguan-American singer/songwriter’s acid-laced occult folk to a potentially wider audience, which is welcome news to those like myself who prefer to hear this kind of album on a turntable. But a worn-out, unmarked tape found in an antique suitcase might be an even more apt format.
Listen/Buy: Bandcamp | Rough Trade (vinyl)
Time Has Told Me
Heron Oblivion – Heron Oblivion
It always astonishes me when an album slips under my radar that I absolutely should not have missed. Back in 2016, Sub Pop released the one and to date only album by Heron Oblivion, a band fronted by Espers’ Meg Baird and featuring Ethan Miller and Noel Von Harmonoson of Comets on Fire. Yet despite this intersection of several of my interests, I managed to not actually hear it upon its release. That’s on me, though I did make up for a few years later, and as a public service to our readers, I’m reminding you not to miss it either, even if it was released 10 years ago. The swirl of blazing psych-rock with mystical folk is a combination that works remarkably, an almost too-perfect hybrid of sounds that would suggest some collaborations are just fated to happen. Even if it only happened the one time.
Listen/Buy: Bandcamp
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