Alela Diane – Dusty Roses

On her new album, ‘Who’s Keeping Time?’ which was written in the quiet daytime hours of her 1892 Victorian attic, Alela Diane carries the unhurried clarity that arrived when domestic life finally softened around her. Reconnecting with Portland’s creative community, trading guitar lessons with Peter Lalish, sharing tea with Anna Tivel, she found herself easing back into music with a renewed sense of intuition and belonging. That spirit of stillness and rediscovery runs through ‘Dusty Roses,’ just as the accompanying video leans into the family relations that have shaped Alela’s life and progression towards the creation of this wonderful latest record. You can read the Fruit Tree Records full length review here: https://fruit-tree-records.com/2026/05/21/alela-diane-whos-keeping-time/ The album is available to purchase here: https://amzn.to/49NjIc0

Teddy Thompson – Come Back

For Teddy Thompson, songwriting is a kind of magic, the truth in a line either resonates or it does not, and on his new album he writes with a candour that leaves little doubt about its source. These songs have a conviction, as if pulled straight from lived experience, heartbreak sketched in real time as he tries to stay afloat in shifting emotional tides. Opener ‘Come Back’ sets the scene with stark immediacy: a folk‑rock plea from a man reckoning with absence, its lonely verses breaking open into a burst of conflicted longing that captures love’s contradictions with disarming clarity. You can read the Fruit Tree Records full length review of the album here: https://fruit-tree-records.com/2026/05/14/teddy-thompson-never-be-the-same/ You can buy the album here: https://amzn.to/4wOAMIy

Aja Monet – Working Class Musicians

There are a multitude of overlapping tones and templates enveloping the music of Aja Monet, who has just released a wonderful new album called ‘The Color Of Rain.’ She has the pizazz of a street poet lyrically navigating a sound that flies between avant-garde jazz to bluesy soul without ever truly settling in one place, Aja’s style is free in the most literal musical sense of the word. She emerged from New York’s Lower East Side spoken‑word scene as a prodigious talent, later becoming a Grammy‑nominated poet and a genre‑defying artist capable of incorporating improvisation, and political imagination. Now, with years of global performance, acclaimed writing, and community‑rooted activism feeding her muse we encounter ‘Working Class Musician,’ another testament to her commitment to resistance, collective memory, and the lived realities that inform her art. You can buy the album here: https://amzn.to/4dYQlWF

Kelley Stoltz – Not Gone

Kelley Stoltz has long carved his own lane in American underground pop, a DIY lifer whose refusal to play the industry game only adds to the mans appeal. His nineteenth album, ‘If You Don’t Know Me, Buy Now,’ leans into that maverick streak, hook‑laden and witty in a way that is unmistakably Kelley’s. ‘Not Gone’ channels the muscular pulse of his Echo & the Bunnymen years, its pounding drive a reminder of how deftly he reshapes his influences into something singular. This is Stoltz at full voltage: sharp‑edged, melodic, and proof that his creative spark remains alive and kicking. You can read the full Fruit Tree Records review at: https://fruit-tree-records.com/2026/05/15/kelley-stoltz-if-you-dont-know-me-buy-now/ The album will be purchasable, when it gets a full release, from this link: https://amzn.to/4nMYAsd

Jasmine Myra – Likeness And Shadow

Jasmine Myra’s music on new album ‘Where Light Settles’ is built on duality; precision and fluidity, complexity and immediacy, pain and growth. It is her third album and finds the artist fully stepping into her own orbit, expanding her ensemble language into something more cinematic and deeply attuned to life’s bruises and revelations. ‘Likeness and Shadow’ captures that balance beautifully: a piece that blooms from propulsive bass into sun‑dappled movement, its sax and piano lines gliding like light through trees. It is Myra displaying assuredness, translating emotional weather into sound with grace, clarity, and a radiant sense of hope. You can read the full Fruit Tree Records album review here: https://fruit-tree-records.com/2026/05/19/jasmine-myra-where-light-settles/ You can buy the album via this link: https://amzn.to/4dJzHsK

The Waterboys – Don’t Even Have To Say His Name

This is a brilliant new stand alone single from The Waterboys, released on Chrysalis Records, finding Mike Scott in fiercely political form. Written as a direct response to the current U.S. climate, Scott calls it a stand against bullying and a contribution to the wider struggle for decency and democracy. Produced by Puck Fingers and Famous James, the track pairs Scott’s targeted vocal assault with piano, organ, bass, and drums, building a sharp, urgent critique without needing to name its all too obvious target. Arriving ahead of the archival ‘Atlantic Rain’ set and a major arena tour, it is the sound of The Waterboys still burning in 2026. Find the new track here: https://amzn.to/4a5MvZm