Here’s some the best Americana and roots-type music releases for November 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.
Various Artists
Where the Soul Never Dies: Celebrating 80 Years of The Stanley Brothers (Compass Records)
More than eighty years ago in the hills of southwestern Virginia, Carter and Ralph Stanley (The Stanley Brothers) began forging a sound that has endured among fans and shaped generations of roots musicians. What they created is a cornerstone of bluegrass and old-time music, so elemental that it’s hard to imagine the genre without them. Producers Alison Brown and Garry West assembled an eclectic cast from bluegrass and Americana, pairing bluegrass’s next generation with roots voices who grew up on these songs, allowing new listeners to discover the Stanleys through the music itself at a moment when bluegrass is experiencing a genuine resurgence. Artists include Billy Strings, Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson, Sierra Ferrell, Jamey Johnson, Rhiannon Giddens, Steve Martin with Ed Helms and more.
Grayson Capps
The Weight of the World (Royal Potato Family/RPF Records)
This is Capps’ first full-length album of original material in nine years. He returns to form with nine songs encompassing the barefoot, country boy philosophizing and earthy musical minimalism that have come to define his singular voice on the American roots music landscape. “Songwriting is my way of navigating the world. It makes me feel free and fulfilled. So when I make a record, it’s at my own pace and my own terms,” says Capps. “I feel like I’m returning to the frenetic pace of my earlier work. I’m singing better than ever, and creatively finding the emotion and texture in the music that feels resonate and alive.”
Willi Carlisle
The Universal Bubba (Signature Sounds)
The Universal Bubba marks a half dozen releases for folksinger Willi Carlisle and with the added accelerant of first time producer Tyler Childers. In an all-time DIY effort, Childers and his band convened to a makeshift home studio nestled in New Orleans for two weeks to cut 17 tracks that capture the off-kilter characters living in his songs. “I think this one goes to outer space,” says Carlisle. “I think this is the widest range of influences that I’ve ever had. It touches on funk, it touches on Americana, Cajun, oldtime, and experimental music.” Carlisle embraced the freedom to wander across genres both familiar and new, testing out instrumentation and toying with the surreality of traditions being turned on their head. “I want to make a universal folk music. Songs for all kinds of weirdos,” says Carlisle. “With the idea that there is nobody that doesn’t have folk songs and everyone deserves folk songs. I want to write songs that prove the old weird America didn’t go anywhere, that we are living and dying for it everyday. I believe there’s noble work to do in that context.” (from press release)
Also new this week…
Jack Blocker – Big Jefe (Elbow Grease Records) +
Eliot Bronson – Arrive (New Pain Records) +
Janky Bungag – Hangin’ Out & Hangin’ On (Royal Mountain Records)
Johnny Delaware – On God’s Time (Normaltown Records)
Various Artists – Heart of Gold: The Songs of Neil Young, Vol. 2 – Out of the Blue (Killphonic Records)
Various Artists – The Long Memory: 20 Years of Free Dirt Records (Free Dirt Records)
Coming out soon… Jake Bugg, Sam Burton, Murphy Campbell, Jim Kweskin, Waylon Jennings, Adeem The Artist and more!
