Smithsonian Folkways will reissue Michael Hurley’s 1964 debut “First Songs” on vinyl on November 6th. Frederic Ramsey Jr. originally recorded it at home in New Jersey on the reel-to-reel machine he used for Lead Belly’s Last Sessions. Mike Monseur has remastered it, and it comes in the original black gatefold. Watch the video for his classic ‘The Werewolf Song’, which was animated by Hurley’s friend Drew Christie.

Mayo Thompson’s “Quiet Days in Cliché” is his first solo guitar album and his first solo record in fifty-six years. Out December 4th on Drag City, it was recorded on a smartphone. Mayo calls it just some strumming and notes to self. Drag City call them “acoustic improvisations that draw threads through space, looking for what more could happen.”

We caught up with Marisa Anderson at End Of The Road and chatted about her latest album, The Anthology of UnAmerican Folk Music; how she talked her way into accessing Harry Smith’s final record collection; and how, while recording the album, she chose to stay pretty close to the source material: “I wanted to learn from the material rather than impose myself on it.”

Digressions #4 – Living Slow EP is the latest in John Blek’s series of download-only releases available via Bandcamp. From the minstrel-folk-mottled opener to the piano-waltzing closer, it’s a sublime and moodily atmospheric offering.

Jake Blount’s “Single-Footing Horse” has him coming full circle, returning to the old-time mountain music played by Appalachian string bands that first nurtured him. It’s a joyous and technically brilliant batch of tunes, every bit as potent – and, in a way, just as experimental – as his earlier forays into afrofuturism.

The Owl Service’s “Tied to the Land” is their first album in a decade, a lineup change bringing Dorothy Chappell and Rebecca Lievers alongside bandleader Steven Collins for a joyous rendering of traditional songs, instrumentals and an adaptation of a Cornish folk tale. It’s a potent brew that supercharges the album’s 10-year-overnight success.

From his forthcoming studio album Oceanic, due out on October 16th, Declan O’Rourke has shared a thought-provoking new video for Earl Grey and Edwin, his third album single. About two kindred souls brought together by a love of music and art, it’s one of the most beautiful videos and songs I’ve seen/heard in a long time.

Charlie Parr’s “Rooming House” is a seven-song suite that follows John, who inherits a boarding house and rents rooms to those on the poverty line. Opening track “Duluth 1964” drops us into unthinkable trauma, and the title track’s quiet meal scene turns into a real gut-punch. Twenty albums into a celebrated career, Parr may have delivered his masterpiece.