Here’s some the best Americana and roots-type music releases for August 14th, 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.
Elizabeth Cook
Great Television (Agent Love Records)
Produced by Shooter Jennings and recorded with Cook’s live band, Great Television mines both her personal experiences and a cast of colorful characters to create an album that is both introspective and a reflection of society. While Cook takes her most expansive approach yet to storytelling on this record, cobbling together disparate tales from people of all walks of life with a novelist’s attention to detail, she’s not afraid to draw from her own life for inspiration. “Razorwire Wall,” another rock-infused track, tells the story of dropping a lover off at jail to serve a short stint for moonshining, a scenario that clearly borrows from the experiences of her own father, who served time for running moonshine. Cook proves once again that few songwriters can match her ability to find grace, humor, and humanity in the people history often overlooks. It’s an album filled with unforgettable characters and richly detailed stories, but it’s also her most emotionally resonant work in years, a reminder that she’s one of Nashville’s most distinctive and underrated voices. (edited from Glide Magazine review)
Lindsay Lou
Bluegrass Women (Work of Bart Records)
Bluegrass Women is an album of Bluegrass classics that were penned by women over the course of the genre’s history. The project honors women in a predominantly male fronted genre while featuring bands made up entirely of some of the best women and pickers in the scene today. Led by Lou, the album features the likes of Molly Tuttle, Sierra Hull, Aoife O’Donovan and Sarah Jarosz (of I’m With Her), Laurie Lewis, and many more. “Some of these songs I sang for many years before realizing they were penned by a wife/mother/female artist,” says Lou. “As a woman, it’s easy to feel like an outsider, or like you don’t belong, in a genre where there is a noticeable lack of representation of women among the forebears. To know that women’s voices made it into the traditional songs feels like a quiet win, and I want to draw more attention to it.”
Also new this week..
Bronwyn – Rattlin’ Bones (independent)
Kate MacLeod’s Mind the Gap – Home-Brewed (independent)
Peter Parcek – Most of the Time (Lightnin Records)
Maggie Rose – Half Moon (One Riot Records)
Monte Warden and The Wagoneers – Doghouse Flowers (EP) (Break A Leg Records)
Coming out soon… Ray Wylie Hubbard, Mountain Grass Unit, Kimmie Bitter, Keb’ Mo’, Eli Paperboy Reed, Two Runner, Pokey LaFarge, The Jayhawks, Billy Strings, Ruthie Foster, The Kennedys, Dallas Burrow, Admiral Radio, Buddy Miller, Ian Noe, Riley Downing, AJ Lee & Blue Summit, Son Volt, Phil Madeira, Pure Grain, Shinyribs, Mr. Sun, Rhiannon Giddens, Margo Cilker, Jake Xerxes Fussell, Willi Carlisle, Josh Rouse, Mary Gauthier and more!
