Folk / Roots
458 products
An auster and dialed compilation of 1920's and 1930's ballads. All plaintive solo vocals accompanied by the banjo. No dance songs. Instead you get intense very American tunes about existential angst, murder, love, mystical happenings and so on. The mana. As far as we know, this is the first record to compile purely hard hitting banjo ballads from the golden 78 era. A treasure....
From Asmara, Eritrea(formerly Ethiopia) Tewolde Redda revolutionized the sounds of traditional Eritrean music by amplifying his kirar, playing his Eko electric guitar, and recording six singles in the first part of the 1970’s. Including the first Eritrean songs to use a horn section, traditional songs reworked into his new sound, and originals influenced by radio broadcasts from the United States military base in Asmara, Kagnew Station, these ten songs originally released on the Philips, Amha, and Yared labels show off his talents with stringed instruments, a talented back up band, and often the hand clapped beat shifting into double time near the song’s end. Tewolde’s thick, deep voice sings songs of love over somber and joyous tunes. Comes in a “tip-on” sleeve with extensive liner notes, lyrical translations, and unpublished photos. A co-release with Mitmitta Musika of Addis Abeba, Ethiopia. Second pressing coming around March, 2022.
AMAZING blues field recordings made by Bengt Olsson in the late 1970s! Stunning songs, 80% of which are completely unreleased until now. Blues like you've never heard them. Rocking, contemplative, deep and wide. Comes in an old school "tip on" cover.
Showcasing contemporary Algerian sounds led by the gasba, a traditional reeded flute, 'My Heart is Dust Before Him' is a collaboration between Hive Mind and Oran's Édition Ahlem imprint. In the Berber language, "gaspa" means "reed", and references the wind instrument that's central to some of the region's most gripping Bedouin folk and ceremonial music. On this 10-track anthology, Hive Mind plucks tracks from Édition Ahlem's recent catalogue; the label emerged in Oran from a record store and puts out cassettes since the early '90s. These selections are a little more contemporary and examine how the gasba forms have mutated and evolved in the last couple of decades, reacting to production changes while retaining the unique sound of the flute itself. There's plenty to explore here, from the dimly lit distortions of Cheikh Tahar Oueld Marhoum's 'Naachak Fiha Ou Magoulhach' and Cheba Negouane's rai-adjacent 'Ychafouni Maghbounat' to Cheikh El Waal's woozy organ-led 'El Galb Maamar' and Mohamed Ain Larbaa's unexpectedly funky 'Sratli Khatra Kheleft L3ahed'.
Another spellbinding compilation exploring the depths of overlooked Greek folk music from the curatorial genius Christopher King. Highlighting the virtually unknown work of the heartbreakingly haunted hypnotic clarinetist Kitsos Harisiadis. From 1929 through 1931, Harisiadis recorded instrumentals that have endured in the Epirotic repertoire well into the twenty-first century. Kitsos plays all fourteen pieces as if he were a Greek-Shaolin monk conversing with a grasshopper at his feet. Through King’s painstakingly thorough research and immersive story-telling, the listener is able to fully absorb the otherworldly aura that radiates throughout the release. Painstakingly remastered directly from ungodly rare original 78 rpm discs and coupled with artwork by R. Crumb and design by Grammy Award-winner Susan Archie, the entire package is delightful in every sense.
They paved the way for artists like Ali Farka Touré, Tinariwen, Mdou Moctar or Bombino. Although the group is still active today, they only recorded 2 LPs and a handful of singles. All these recordings took place in 1971 at the Boussiphone studios in Casablanca.
It long time for Cartola to release his first album, self-titled, which hit stores in 1974, through the Marcus Pereira label. Just as it is impossible to talk about samba without mentioning his name, it is unthinkable to discuss the national discography without citing his albums. As one of the founders of Estação Primeira de Mangueira, the composer, singer, and musician left a lasting mark on the history of national music and continues to be a significant reference. It is his first album that Polysom is bringing back to stores, on 180-gram vinyl, as part of the “Classics on Vinyl” collection.
PRE-ORDERSep 18, 2026 (EST) LP - Black SS083lp 6669454152402 $13.00 3 TOTAL 3 Teranga, the final album in the Wau Wau Collectif trilogy, the dreamy cross-cultural collaboration across cultures, finds the band finally coming together. Taking its name from the Wolof word “teranga” is used to express a welcomeness, a hospitality to others, and something loosely as a shared meeting - an apt title for the album that is an expression of a meeting. The project began in the village of Toubab Dialaw in 2018, where two musicians Arouna Kane and Karl-Jonas Winquist first conceived of the idea. Over the subsequent years, the project evolved, with the two producers trading files back and forth over WhatsApp, incorporating their network of friends and colleagues into what would become a the Wau Wau Collectif, culminating in their first album “Yaral Sa Doom” (2021) and "Mariage” (2022). Their latest album, Teranga, is the third entry and final entry in this trilogy, finalized and mixed during the the band's first live tour - a five week sprawling journey across Europe with "three swedes, three Senegalaise, and a french driver, a lovely mess of languages”, Karl-Jonas explains. At the heart at the heart of Wau Wau Collective is a strong musical foundation, borne not just by the wide cultural swath from which the collective draws inspiration but from the deftly talented musicians - composed and performed with a staggering 26 different songwriters and musicians, playing an impressive array of instrumentation, from balfon, ngoni, calabasse, violin, cello, saxophone, and omnicord. The resulting sound is complicated to place, but sonically has certainly found its place in Teranga. At times, dreamy and meditative, but imbued with an organic soul, a wholly unique sound that is both anachronistic and future facing. “Oh, Africa” could be at home on a classic reissue, with an almost Turkish guitar riff, where 100 ans (their first live studio recording) reminiscent of early 2000s Amadou et Mariam. With roots in avant garde (Karl-Jonas has cited Barney Wilen's Moshi as an inspiration) while Wau Wau draws inspirations from these experiments, though diverging in their dedication to the collaborative spirit - a project enabled by cellphones, WhatsApp, and mp3s zipping around the internet - slightly ironic considering how acoustic and grounded and human it feels. As we close the chapter on the trilogy, Karl-Jonas insists that this may well be just the beginning: “we have barely started in some ways” he says, with plans shaping in the next year for getting the whole band together, and more tours on the horizon, more hope, more humanity, and more coming together.
Cut in three days in 1975, Doug Firebaugh’s Performance One captures a young songwriter alone in a Roanoke, Virginia motel room, chasing Nashville dreams through cosmic Americana haze. Self‑written and performed, with only a single pedal steel guest, it first appeared on a small grey‑market label. This Numero Group 50th‑anniversary remaster preserves its faded, wandering beauty.
Caught between the Canyon and the Caribbean, Cathy Hamer's pair of extremely private LP's got lost in the Me Decade's hippy hangover. Tracked in '79 and '80 at Roanoke, Virginia's custom bluegrass powerhouse Threshold Recordings, these 11 originals breeze through all colors—folk, country, yacht, etc—of the cosmic American rainbow. Remastered LP comes housed in a tip-on
Reverend Baron’s singular troubadour soul may best understand the capacity music has to span the distance between points on a map and pages in a calendar. Daniel, the acoustic instrumental follow-up to 2022’s Karma Chief label debut, From Anywhere…, expands the world beyond LA’s concrete canyons and overpasses to the bustling, churning sea of life that is Mexico City, to the sparse, rolling landscape of Red Cloud, Nebraska. In each locale, the constant companion was a nylon-stringed acoustic guitar — with a well-traveled history of its own. “It was my father’s guitar,” recalls Danny Garcia, the man behind the Reverend. “I found out a few years ago that it was my grandfather’s as well.” Ever-present since his childhood, the Mexican acoustic has taken on increased meaning for Garcia with each passing year. Hours upon hours spent playing, traveling, and breathing meaning into its fretboard have made it both a tool and talisman. “There’s the obvious bloodline and family and link…that link through history,” confides Garcia. “It’s kinda the only family heirloom I have.” Over the last while, all this playing (or “noodling” as Danny puts it) had Reverend Baron chasing a sound — one which belies the guitar’s origins. It’s a sound he would hear from time to time, and when it came to record Daniel, it would be his true magnetic north (or south as it were). Spinning through Daniel, and you will hear echoes of Antonio Bribiesca and Luiz Bonfa's guitar tones. Dig deeper and you’ll see the bones of Townes Van Zandt and Nick Drake guitar textures as well. While not claiming their virtuosity in his playing, the soul and vulnerability that have become calling cards for the first two Reverend Baron albums complement these influences. There is a warmth in Daniel that takes center stage in these acoustic meditations. From brief, fluid moments like “El Monte” and “How Glad” to the high-lonesome “Muchacho,” the songs drift like cumulus clouds over a deep blue skyway. Their graceful float is in stark contrast to the album’s origins. The studio Garcia was using for his intended second release on Karma Chief was a victim of the LA wildfires in January of 2025. “[The fires] halted work on my record,” says Garcia. “So I ended up leaving and went to Mexico City for a few months, and so worked quite a bit [on Daniel] there.” With his striped-down set up -- featuring his guitar, a few microphones, and a laptop -- the time in Mexico City set the tone for the project. “I just came into this space because it seemed like I could just do it…it seemed like it was time, and I didn’t have to force anything.” After leaving CDMX, Reverend Baron spent a few weeks in Red Cloud. While all the traveling and miles energize Garcia, this small midwestern village’s peaceful and unassuming nature was the ideal spot to focus and create. “LA is home and has its own cultural juice, which I love…Nebraska is very quiet. No one disturbs you, and I can just work and concentrate for weeks [there].” Daniel’s 11 tracks criss-cross the laylines of border music and folk, but categorizing them along a fault line or genre tag misses the point. These acoustic numbers move with a deliberate ease, never overstaying their welcome. The songs respond to time and distance with equal parts reflection and transparency; both mirror and window to the soul. Daniel is Reverend Baron’s conversation with his bloodline, influences, and the stops along the way. By the album’s closer, “Velasco,” Daniel’s conversation becomes your invitation to search for a path along that great sonic continuum housed within a song.
Mei Semones’ sweetly evocative blend of jazz, bossa nova and math-y indie rock is not only a way for her to find solace in her favorite genres, but is an intuitive means of catharsis. “Blending everything that I like together and trying to make something new – that's what feels most natural to me,” says the 23-year-old Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter and guitarist. “It’s what feels most true to who I am as an artist.” ‘Tsukino’, Mei’s debut, self-released EP, is being released physically for the first time ever on Bayonet Records! The EP will be released by itself on CD & Tape formats, and will be included in a vinyl pressing on the B-side of Semones’ landmark EP, ‘Kebutomushi’! Plinking guitar tones and asymmetrical time signatures exemplify Semones’ forays into angular indie rock more now than ever before. Originally from Ann Arbor, Michigan, Semones began playing music at a young age, starting out on piano at age four before moving to electric guitar at age eleven. After playing jazz guitar in high school, she went on to study guitar performance with a jazz focus at Berklee College of Music. College is where she met her current bandmates, including string players Noah Leong and Claudius Agrippa, whose respective viola and violin add softness and multidimensionality to Mei’s intricate guitar work. After releasing a slew of singles and an EP in 2022, coinciding with her move to New York City, Mei and her band have since gone on to collaborate with post-bossa balladeer John Roseboro and embark on their first-ever tour with the melodic rock outfit Raavi. Semones chronicles infatuation, devotion, and vulnerability in her songs, complete with sweeping strings, virtuosic guitar-playing and heartfelt lyrics sung in both English and Japanese, that have all become part of her sonic trademark: ornately catchy, genre-fusing compositions serving as the backdrop to tender lyrics touching on the universalities of human emotion.
With a mix of modern and traditional instruments these fourteen songs go through the progression of an Ethiopian Amhara wedding sung in Amharic. With the trio of singers, Lemma G. Hiwot, Zenebech Tesfaye, and Selamawit G. Selassie, alternating turns at the microphone, and sharing call and response duties, a relentless frenzy of hand clapping incites dancing and smiles. The consumption of tedj (honeywine) and the swirling love of a wedding was captured in the studio with euphoric energy to take away to play over and over again when the festivities are over. With hand screened covers and an insert of wedding photos accompanying the liner notes, this is the next best thing to an invitation to the real thing. Originally released on Philips Ethiopia in 1973. A co release with Mitmitta Musika of Addis Abeba, Ethiopia.
Kitto Records presents Gree, the debut album from Belfast artist ffolliott. Written and recorded over 5 years in a home studio, Gree came together slowly, through a near-daily writing process. ffolliott set out to make an album at the start of 2020, working through batches of songs each week until something began to take shape. “Life was to-ing and fro-ing around me at that time and the big long staircase of making an album felt like a comforting bottomless pit I could crawl into and escape.” Early on, the sessions were open-ended, producing what he describes as “wacky, bad ffolliott music”. The turning point came with the track 'cappy', which set the tone for the rest of the record. From there, the album began to draw from a very specific set of memories from his life – pulling in fragments of childhood, family dynamics, and moments spanning from the 90s through to the present day, shaped through a DIY approach to songwriting and sample-led production. The record moves between these timelines without settling into a single narrative. Some songs sit firmly in childhood memory, others jump forward to later years, and some hold more than one thread at once. Across it all, there’s a focus on what happens behind closed doors – the things that are heard through walls, left unsaid, or overheard. Running through the album is a reflection on witnessing someone deteriorate over time, and how experiences of addiction and excess within a family environment are first absorbed as a child, then re-examined later in life. “I generally found that the more I leaned into anything I didn’t like about my music, the more I would end up writing songs that meant a lot to me.” The warm and textured sound of Gree was shaped by both the equipment and the process used to make it. Vocals and guitars were recorded through a single microphone, drums were built from samples taken from ffolliott'S own vinyl collection and sequenced on an MPC, and much of the sound comes from ageing analogue gear – tape delays and instruments collected over time. The result is a record full of life and texture: hiss, crackle and instability left in place rather than cleaned up. The world of Gree is further developed through the extensive artwork archive of the artist's late father - a prolific self-taught artist and microbiologist whose work has never been shared publicly before. The front cover features an etching from The Dream Machine, a series of 32 black-and-white works created in the midsts of 1980s Northern Ireland, while the back cover brings together unfinished doodles, sketches and drawings recovered from his notebooks and diaries, some dating back to his childhood. “A big part of the ffolliott project has always been to get my dad’s artwork seen alongside my music. I’d always admired it – it felt like something that shouldn’t just live in the house.” Throughout the album, these personal elements sit alongside smaller details – including childhood cassette recordings of Jamie and his sister staging their own improvised radio shows, recorded on a boombox in the 90s. ffolliott takes its name from the artist's middle name, passed down through one side of his family and traditionally given to the first-born son. It remains deliberately uncapitalised, retaining a spelling rooted in older family history.
Singer-songwriter Willis Alan Ramsey was 20 years old when he became the third signing to Leon Russell and Denny Cordell's Shelter Records – after Russell himself and the legendary J.J. Cale. The result was Ramsey's 1972 eponymous debut, a masterpiece of laid-back Texas country-rock, blues-inflected folk and outlaw ballads. As a child, Ramsey was an obsessive radio listener – from Elvis and the Beatles to Delta blues, country and even classical music. By middle school, he had formed his first garage band and started writing songs. After a brief stint at the University of Texas, he took to the burgeoning coffeehouse circuit where he toured alongside folks like Townes Van Zandt, Jerry Jeff Walker and Keith Sykes. It was during these shows that Ramsey developed much of the material for his LP, a diverse yet coherent mix that revealed his varied influences. Recorded in Memphis, Nashville and at Russell's home studio in the Hollywood Hills, the album features some of the era's greatest session musicians: Eddie Hinton on guitar, Red Rhodes on pedal steel and the rhythm section of Leland Sklar and Jim Keltner. A true songwriter's songwriter album, its tunes have been covered by Waylon Jennings ("Satin Sheets"), Jimmy Buffett ("The Ballad of Spider John") and, most famously, Captain & Tennille ("Muskrat Love"), but no cover can beat the originals from the wise-beyond-his-years Ramsey. Though Willis Alan Ramsey has continued to perform regularly and write new songs, a second album is yet to be released. For years, whenever someone asked about it, Ramsey was known to answer "What's wrong with the first one?" The answer is, of course, absolutely nothing. In fact, it's perfect. This first-time vinyl reissue reproduces the original lyric sheet. Includes new interview with Ramsey and liner notes by author Richie Unterberger.
Spearheaded by songwriter Dylan Young, ‘Massive Shoe’ is Way Dynamic’s third foray into alt-folk pop coloured by his own creative fingerprint. In the past year, Way Dynamic have released their sophomore LP ‘Duck’ to excellent reviews, toured with Waxahatchee and MJ Lenderman & The Wind, and are now already returning with another full length release ‘Massive Shoe’, resuming Young’s exploration into minimalist folk-pop, baroque pop and art rock. Yellow Green Red in their album review for ‘Duck’ aptly describe Way Dynamic as; “Brian Wilson’s lust for pop perfection brought back to earth by Randy Newman’s silliness and Christopher Cross’s knack for an original melody that already feels familiar”. Adding a touch of Neil Young balladry, Massive Shoe continues this formula, as they lyrically dive into topics such as navigating relationships, struggling to communicate, mistakes and humanity, while maintaining a sense of ambiguity that washes over you rather than slaps you in the face. Although Way Dynamic can draw parallels to many of the artists above, the album never falls into songwriting tropes of that era, instead Young manages to bob and weave in the face of any typical motif, keeping the album engaging and lighthearted, and maintaining a sense of adventure in his music. ‘People Settle Down’ sets us off with a groove and backing vocal hooks, before we shift into more tender songs such as ‘Miffed It’ which floats above a guitar melody that may be the earworm of the year. Before you can settle into the tender songs, the album shifts again with absurd pop song ‘My Visit (To Hell)’, lyrically chronicling Dylan’s journey through hell over a bouncy beat and progression. The album title ‘Massive Shoe’, alludes to one always having bigger shoes to fill. Despite Way Dynamic’s brilliant past releases, and the “massive shoe” left to fill after each album, Young consistently manages to outdo himself as he patiently builds a distinctive and impressive discography.
Spearheaded by songwriter Dylan Young, ‘Massive Shoe’ is Way Dynamic’s third foray into alt-folk pop coloured by his own creative fingerprint. In the past year, Way Dynamic have released their sophomore LP ‘Duck’ to excellent reviews, toured with Waxahatchee and MJ Lenderman & The Wind, and are now already returning with another full length release ‘Massive Shoe’, resuming Young’s exploration into minimalist folk-pop, baroque pop and art rock. Yellow Green Red in their album review for ‘Duck’ aptly describe Way Dynamic as; “Brian Wilson’s lust for pop perfection brought back to earth by Randy Newman’s silliness and Christopher Cross’s knack for an original melody that already feels familiar”. Adding a touch of Neil Young balladry, Massive Shoe continues this formula, as they lyrically dive into topics such as navigating relationships, struggling to communicate, mistakes and humanity, while maintaining a sense of ambiguity that washes over you rather than slaps you in the face. Although Way Dynamic can draw parallels to many of the artists above, the album never falls into songwriting tropes of that era, instead Young manages to bob and weave in the face of any typical motif, keeping the album engaging and lighthearted, and maintaining a sense of adventure in his music. ‘People Settle Down’ sets us off with a groove and backing vocal hooks, before we shift into more tender songs such as ‘Miffed It’ which floats above a guitar melody that may be the earworm of the year. Before you can settle into the tender songs, the album shifts again with absurd pop song ‘My Visit (To Hell)’, lyrically chronicling Dylan’s journey through hell over a bouncy beat and progression. The album title ‘Massive Shoe’, alludes to one always having bigger shoes to fill. Despite Way Dynamic’s brilliant past releases, and the “massive shoe” left to fill after each album, Young consistently manages to outdo himself as he patiently builds a distinctive and impressive discography.
All songs performed, recorded, and produced by Sufjan Stevens, with invaluable contributions by: Aaron Dessner, Bryce Dessner, Vito Aiuto, Monique Aiuto, Bridgit DeCook, Sebastian Krueger, Nathan Lithgow, Marla Hansen, Clara Klaus, James McAlister, C.J. Camerieri, Ben Lanz, Rob Moose, Naho Tsutsui, Marla Hansen, Maria Bella Jeffers, Olivier Manchon, Richard Reed Parry, Gabriel Kahane, Sonya Hofer, Cat Martino, Rosie Thomas, Vesper Stamper, Alex Sopp, and Shara Nova.
Geoff Farina’s Southern Records tenure was not just about Karate. His late-90s guitar-and-vocal solo output included the bedroom-recorded Usonian Dream Sequence that echoed The Secret Stars’ intimate lo-fi sentiments, Reverse Eclipse that rode the more delicate fringes of Unsolved-era Karate, and the single Steely Dan, a paean to a contemporaneous guilty pleasure. FFF collects all three long-out-of-print releases here on vinyl for the first time, fastidiously packaged and punctuated with Farina’s written reflections on their making.
This album was compiled from original sources that have been lovingly restored and mastered. It represents a mere fraction of Connie's recorded repertoire.