8 Great Folk Albums from Spring 2026

Welcome 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 an excavation of Harry Smith’s archive of non-American folk recordings to dissonant instrumental meditations on Appalachia and innovative permutations of Arabic and Brazilian folk. Open your mind and enjoy the best folk albums of spring 2026.

Note: When you buy something through our affiliate links, Treble receives a commission. All albums we cover are chosen by our editors and contributors.

Marisa Anderson – The Anthology of UnAmerican Folk Music

Archivist Harry Smith famously catalogued American folk music through recordings released in the 1950s, capturing rare performances of blues, bluegrass, gospel and country sounds that came to influence countless musicians, not the least of its disciples being one Bob Dylan. Guitarist Marisa Anderson likewise took inspiration from Smith’s archive on her latest release, but instead of focusing on the music of North America, she drew inspiration from his archived recordings of songs from throughout the globe, specifically regions in conflict with the U.S. since the ’70s, from Afghanistan to Yemen. Naturally, it’s a diverse array of sounds, even when performed by Anderson alone, showcasing a curious tension in the tanbura performance of Eritrean piece “Rabāba,” delving into a kind of ambient psychedelia with “Whistle Song,” and harmonizing with violinist Gisele Rodriguez Fernández on “Sarvi Simin,” an interpretation of a song released on a 1977 U.S.S.R. compilation. It’s to Anderson’s credit that the collection feels as cohesive as it does, given how far reaching its inspirations are—and to think, these nine songs were selected from an archive of nearly 1,000.

Listen/Buy: Bandcamp | Rough Trade (vinyl)

Wendy Eisenberg – Wendy Eisenberg

Guitarist and songwriter Wendy Eisenberg has a body of work that spans from the shreddy indie rock of Editrix to the improvisational experimentation of the Bill Orcutt Guitar Quartet, along with a number of solo records that span from art-folk to more improvisational avant garde jazz sounds. A versatile artist, to say the least. Eisenberg’s self-titled solo record is another stylistic shift toward gentler and more graceful singer/songwriter fare, spacious and beautiful, but by no means sparse. In fact, Eisenberg is in good company: cellist Alice Gerlach, drummer Ryan Sawyer, Melvins bassist Trevor Dunn and multi-instrumentalist More Eaze all contribute to some beautifully intricate arrangements here, backing what Eisenberg says are “deeply personal songs.” That emotional honesty requires some closer attention, certainly, but in terms of the sonic spectrum on display here, there’s just so much to get lost in, from the pedal steel-laden balladry of “Another Lifetime Floats Away” to the twinkling chamber pop of “Vanity Paradox.” An absolutely stunning record.

Listen/Buy: Bandcamp | Rough Trade (vinyl)

Magic Tuber Stringband – Heavy Water

There’s a rawness to North Carolina trio Magic Tuber Stringband’s music that can feel at times like they’re channeling the awesome power of nature itself. That’s not accidental—their fiddle player Courtney Warner is an ecologist, and the group’s music is inspired in large part by both the natural environment in Appalachia and the damage that industrialization has done to its landscape. As such, the sonic landscape on Heavy Water is at once beautiful and treacherous, crafted entirely of acoustic instruments but frequently intense, even texturally and sonically harsh. Where a gently mournful track such as “Blooms in the Rapids” is beautifully elegiac, “Sound of a Million Stars” is chaotic and intense, three minutes of free-folk dissonance that stands in sharp contrast to the more graceful “Marker of a Drowning” just one track before it. Heavy Water isn’t always an easy listen, but in intertwining ideas of the natural world and how humans have contaminated it, there’s no other way it could be.

Listen/Buy: Bandcamp | Rough Trade (vinyl)

Radwan Ghazi Moumneh & Frédéric D. Oberland – Eternal Life No End

Canadian artist Radwan Ghazi Moumneh is best known as the artist behind Jerusalem in My Heart, a project that blends Arabic folk music with psychedelia and electronics, while French artist Frédéric Oberland has fronted Oiseaux-Tempête since the early 2010s, having built up an ample catalog of experimental and dark ambient recordings. Reuniting on the full-length collaboration Eternal Life No End, the two artist merge a wide range of styles, blending Arabic folk sounds made with stringed instruments such as buzuq and rababa with ominous electronics and spectral ambience, exploring a psychedelic realm where the traditional meets the contemporary. Eternal Life No End is alternately ominous and sedate, mystical and grounded all at once.

Listen/Buy: Bandcamp | Rough Trade (vinyl)

My New Band Believe – My New Band Believe

That black midi’s Cameron Picton returned this year with an outstanding new project isn’t in itself a surprise, but rather how he did it. Recorded in collaboration with a long list of musicians that includes members of caroline, Shovel Dance Collective and Black Country, New Road, My New Band Believe‘s self-titled debut offers an unexpected and accessible take on progressive folk that nods to ’70s-era luminaries like The Pentangle while feeling undeniably like an extension of the sound Picton crafted in his former band. But there’s a notable difference—it’s all made with acoustic instruments, which might seem wrong on first glance considering the maximalism on display. That it’s already a pretty widely acclaimed project isn’t so surprising given the personnel involved, but if you had asked me whether a record that sounded like this would be met with such a warm reception, I probably wouldn’t have been so quick to take that bet. This is one of those rare situations where I’m extremely glad to be wrong.

Listen/Buy: Bandcamp | Rough Trade (vinyl)

The Sleeves – The Sleeves

There’s a lot of space in the music of London duo The Sleeves. Jack Cooper and Tara Cunningham’s music is hypnotic, gentle, open and uncluttered. While their sonic makeup solely comprising guitar and vocals might on the surface sound like fairly standard singer/songwriter fare, the end result is anything but, their compositions hypnotic in their long silences and gently ringing notes. They never overburden any of these songs with heavy doses of effects or unnecessary additional elements, and the minimalistic approach is a stunning attraction all on its own. While it’s tempting to say this is the kind of record that requires rapt attention, it’s the kind of curiously unobtrusive album that nonetheless can’t help but command that attention. When so much sound is bombarding us for attention, The Sleeves instead offer something seductively sparse to draw us in.

Listen/Buy: Bandcamp

Luise Volkmann & Kiko Dinucci – Canto de olho

German saxophonist Luise Volkmann and Brazilian guitarist Kiko Dinucci first collaborated on 2024’s Enxame, a half-hour single-track album of improvisation. Two years later, they’ve returned with another new collaborative work that’s more song-based, including an interpretation of samba legend Ismael Silva’s “Antonico” and elements of traditional Yoruba songs. The stripped-down nature of the pieces, primarily saxophone and guitar with occasional vocals from Dinucci, feels intimate but not necessarily defined by limitations. On a frantic piece like “Com flores (Sonso abe)” or the sprawling, slowly unfolding course of the 11-minute opener, “Olhar de Canto del Olho (Ire Baba)”, any suggestion of limitations doesn’t even apply. There’s so much beauty and life in these songs, pairing gorgeous and graceful samba and folk with the improvisational spirit and unpredictability of jazz. Volkmann and Dinucci have such an undeniable chemistry that it’s no wonder they chose to continue to work together—and we can only hope they’ll continue to do so.

Listen/Buy: Bandcamp

whait – Icarus in Training

Wendy Eisenberg has been busy; in addition to the self-titled album I wrote about above, the guitarist and songwriter released a new full-length collaboration with More Eaze (featuring contributions from guitarist Jules Reidy) that feels cut from a similar cloth, rich in twinkling guitar textures and soothing ambience. But the duo never remain in one place very long, bolstering a rootsy pop composition like opener “Suffer Less” with drum machine beats or going fully acoustic into a more mystical folk trance with “Turning.” Given that both artists have released their own solo full-lengths in recent months, I can’t necessarily blame them for quietly issuing this collaborative release via Bandcamp without much fanfare, but its publicity or lack thereof has no bearing on its quality, which is consistently high—intriguing, surprising, and always with a new aesthetic variation to explore.

Listen/Buy: Bandcamp

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