Here’s some the best Americana and roots-type music releases for February 6th, 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.
Melissa Carper & Theo Lawrence
Havin’ A Talk (Warner Records)
Melissa Carper and Theo Lawrence barely knew each other when they started singing songs together in the fall of 2023. In the last several years Carper and Lawrence have individually earned their spots as acclaimed recording artists on the Roots Music scene, seamlessly blending old-time Country, Jazz and Soul on their records. A country woman from Arkansas and a city man from Paris with two very different paths and voices, they were brought together by their love and devotion to traditional American music. Two remarkable and unique voices that have bewildered many who came to hear them in all kinds of rooms for about a decade, heard together for the first time, blending like glass in a timeless glint of blushing shadows.
John Craigie
I Swam Here (Zabriskie Point Records)
The new John Craigie album is a gentle and luminous soundtrack to start 2026, bringing warmth and quiet strength in the middle of an icy, polar winter. The Californian whose style he describes as “humorous storytelling, serious folk”—recorded most of the ten songs in New Orleans, with a few completed later in Astoria, Oregon, after he realized they did not yet fully match his original vision. The songs follow one another with both coherence and variety, blending Western ballads in the style of Marty Robbins, political statements, inspired by drives through the Midwest, and an interesting fusion of folk and jazz. I Swam Here is another step forward for Craigie. Rooted in place, shaped by collaboration, and guided by his steady hand as a songwriter and producer. It blends the spirit of New Orleans with the stillness of the Pacific Northwest, and shows the quiet confidence of an artist who is still exploring his limits. (edited from Americana Highways review)
Also new this week…
Big Richard – Pet (Signature Sounds Recordings)
Jay Buchanan – Weapons of Beauty (Sacred Tongue Recordings) +
Emanuela Hutter – Goose Bumps (Hi-Style Records)
Jackson Pines – Wheel (Sonder House Records)
Queen Esther – Blackbirding (EL Recordings) +
Muchacho Sanchez – When I Get This Way (Alacran Records) +
Coming out soon… Boy Golden, Keegan McInroe, The Waymores, Owen Temple, Laurie Lewis, The Infamous Stringdusters, The Band of Heathens, Clay Street Unit, Jeffrey Martin, Trey Hensley, Luke Winslow-King, Cat Clyde, Garrett T. Capps and more!
