Here’s some the best Americana and roots-type music releases for May 1st, 2026. Click the artist or album links to find out more. The artist’s names link to their websites and the CD title links go to either Amazon, iTunes, Bandcamp or the artist’s site for ordering or downloading. A + sign means although not a featured release, it’s a notable album that’s still worth checking out. Also, this page will be updated as I find out about other new releases so check back again.
Kacey Musgraves
Middle of Nowhere (Lost Highway Records)
I knew she was one of the good ones. In the dozen-ish years since her first album, her ability to write about country music topics both de rigueur (drinking and divorce) and heretofore verboten (grass and gay rights) with a type of deft charm that lends her digs a degree of subtlety without dulling her barbs is unmatched. Has this cost her country radio airplay? Almost definitely. But it also gives her a realness that can’t be bought. Her latest album, Middle of Nowhere, touches on some of those same themes, but it finds its center on the issue of unexpected, extended alone-ness, occurring during a part of life when she was least expecting it. Middle of Nowhere is titled after a sign in Musgraves’ hometown – “Golden, TX: Somewhere in the Middle of Nowhere” – a dry, dusty image that, in the ambling title track, Musgraves finds not at all unappealing. Musgraves, who co-produced the record, has optioned to swing back toward more traditional country instrumentation with a career-spanning collection of long-trusted collaborators – if you like pedal steel, you’re gonna dig this from Track 1. (edited from Americana Highways review)
Also new this week…
Coyote Midnight – Coyote Midnight (
Florence Dore – Hold the Spark (Propeller Sound Recordings)
Taj Mahal & Phantom Blues Band – Time (Resonatin’ Records)
Emily Nenni – Movin’ Shoes (New West Records)
Coming out soon… Whitehorse, India Ramey, Josiah and the Bonnevilles, Ryan Bingham, Bill Kirchen, Joshua Ray Walker, The Deslondes, Sweet Megg, Caleb Caudle, John R. Miller, Charlie Marie, Old Crow Medicine Show, Rodney Crowell, Tift Merritt and more!
The Milk Carton Kids
Yarn
Dirk Powell
Benjamin Tod
Paul Cauthen
Charley Crockett
Luke Winslow-King
Leah Blevins
Cat Clyde
Johnny Blue Skies & the Dark Clouds (Sturgill Simpson)
William Clark Green
Trey Hensley






