Here’s some the best Americana and roots-type music releases for September 5th, 2025. 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.
Robbie Fulks
Now Then (Compass Records)
Far from being a follower of trends, Robbie Fulks is an unconventional artist who sets out to challenge and surprise his audience. He featured several Michael Jackson hits on his 2010 album Happy, and he’s even collaborated with British post-punk band The Mekons. His new release Now Then opens with a spoken word line – “It’s time to make a change” – and he proceeds to look at life with a mixture of reflection, humour and anger, as he himself describes it. Though still only 62, his perspective is to consider that the time behind is greater than what lies ahead. Now Then is the first album consisting of songs written by Fulks since his move to California. Finding the local musicians to be very receptive, he has enrolled some of the finest names: Duke Levine and Kevin Barry on guitar and lap steel, Wayne Horvitz on keys, Jenny Scheinman on fiddle and Pete Thomas on drums are all featured here. Meanwhile, Fulks himself is no slouch on guitar, banjo and requinto. (edited from AmericanaUK review)
Forrest VanTuyl
Old Trails (Fossil Records)
Great writers like Cormac McCarthy have built their careers on the myth of the American West, the stories and vernacular of the American cowboy. For songwriter Forrest VanTuyl, McCarthy was his introduction to the poetry of cowboy life. “I read him when I was in my mid twenties,” he says, “and I was like, ‘There we go. That’s what I’m going to do.’” True to his word, Forrest moved to Enterprise, Oregon and took work packing mules and working cattle in this remote outdoor destination. The songs on his new album are inspired by his time over the past ten years on horseback in little known corners of the Pacific Northwest. Forrest currently lives and works in Washington’s interior ranch country with his wife, fellow songwriter Margo Cilker, who co-wrote some of the songs on the album with him. The songs are about hard people that work with land and animals through hard terrain and hard weather. They’re about the emotional and philosophical depth that comes from a deep pride in work and land. (from press release)
Also new this week…
Becky Buller – Songs That Sing Me (Dark Shadow Recordings) +
Casual Drifter – Goin’ For Broke (Wild Game Records)
Hannah Delynn – Trust Fall (Lady Grand Records)
Tyller Gummersall – In The Middle EP (independent)
Wesley Hanna – Magnolia (independent)
Grant-Lee Phillips – In the Hour of Dust (Yep Roc Records)
Mike Reid & Joe Henry – Life and Time (Work Songs) +
Liam St. John – Man Of The North (Republic Records)
Walter Trout – Sign Of The Times (Provogue Records)
Coming out soon … Josh Ritter, Dallas Burrow, KP Hawthorn, Jeff Tweedy, Nicholas Jamerson, Otis Gibbs, Dylan Earl, The Onlies, Shawn Camp, The Third Mind, Ramona and the Holy Smokes, Maygen & The Birdwatcher, Alison Brown & Steve Martin, Clover County, Amanda Shires, Ruston Kelly, The Brothers Comatose, Brennen Leigh, Rhett Miller, Bernie Leadon, Todd Snider and more!
