Art Menius Radio

26/08/2026

https://www.orlandoweekly.com/music/this-little-underground/doug-spears-returns-in-fine-homespun-musical-form-with-first-new-album-in-15-years/

That arcadian space is where the music of Doug Spears is. And the brand-new album by the Central Florida folkie, his first in over 15 years, is a return there. The 15-song Blacktop Road isn’t a reinvention, it’s a reminder of both Spears and the world he represents. Even as roots music is enjoyi...

19/08/2026

“This Village is not just the longest Ranky Tanky album yet, at 16 tracks, but it also features the most original material written by the band….

“But the real statement is in the music itself. This is by far the band’s most musically expansive album. It opens with a mournful string arrangement that leads into the title track. ‘Rejoice’ is pure gospel joy. ‘Be Alright’ brings reggae rhythms into the mix. And ‘Lie Down,’ featuring some seriously filthy guitar from Clay Ross, is a flat-out rock song.

“The lyrical content is equally compelling. On the title track and lead single, vocalist Quiana Parler and singer-trumpeter Charlton Singleton, who wrote the song, deliver a heartfelt meditation on family, community and the strength that comes from neighbors lifting one another up. It’s a fitting mission statement for a band that has long celebrated the shared traditions and enduring spirit of Gullah culture.” – Vincent Harris, Charleston City Paper

Charleston’s Ranky Tanky has little left to prove, particularly after winning a pair of Grammy Awards and spending nearly a decade introducing Gullah music to audiences around the world.

19/08/2026

Home-Brewed, the new album by Kate MacLeod's Mind the Gap, debuted on the NACC Top 30 Folk Chart all the way up at #13 for the week ending August 18. KBOO, WORT, and WRCT reported Home-Brewed, which topped the NACC Top 5 Folk Adds Chart last week. The album also took #3 on the AirPlay Direct Top 50 albums last week. In its thirteenth non-consecutive week on the chart, Blessing on the Wing by Newberry & Verch remained at #28 on the NACC Top 30 Folk Chart. KBOO and WOMR reported the album.

Scott Cook’s Troubadourly Yours captured #1 untied on the NACC Top 5 Folk Adds Chart for the week ending August 18th. KCSB, M3 Radio ( #1), WGDR ( #1), WODU, and WOMR reported the adds. American Circus, the urgent new EP from the duo Collide finished tied for #3 on the NACC Top 5 Folk Adds Chart. The add reports came from WODU and WOMR.

The Music Meeting Directory (MMD) charts measure initial interest by reporters to all NACC Charts, including Top 200, not just Folk. Being all formats ranked together, an appearance by a folk recording marks an accomplishment. Troubadourly Yours tied for #14 on the MMD Top Downloads chart for the week ending August 18, while American Circus claimed #12 on the MMD Top Streams chart.

19/08/2026

Performed at Ganaraska Studio in Baltimore OntarioFilmed by Tim O...

16/08/2026

05/08/2026

https://bluegrasstoday.com/amazon-warehouse-from-mark-rubin/

Mark Rubin, the "Jew of Oklahoma" and co-fouder of Bad Livers, is back with a new bluegrass single which he offers as 21st century social commentary.

04/08/2026

Becky Johnson found my old weekly shooting schedule for Fire on the Mountain, the Nashville Network show that brought me into roots music.

26/07/2026

Andy Thorly wrote Sunday on Maximum Volume Music: “Mayday! begins with “Hard Times”, on which it is difficult to watch the bastards smile as they tear the constitution down. Yet this is not music that accepts defeat. There is hope here, embodied by the declaration that “we are born to rise again”. That refusal to surrender runs through everything that follows….

“Mayday! is not simply a brilliant record. It is an album about solidarity, dignity and the apparently radical notion that human beings should care about one another. It understands the darkness of the present moment without allowing that darkness to extinguish its hope.

“In a world seemingly determined to make cynics of us all, George Mann and Si Kahn have created something capable of restoring your faith in humanity.”

Check on the full, lengthy, song by song review at

It blows my mind that people vote against their own best interests. Whether it is people in this country voluntarily putting their X in the box for grifters like Nigel Farage, or decent people across the Atlantic deciding that Donald Trump was somehow the answer, there is something profoundly depres...